Boneless chicken thighs

[Panserbjorne]

Help me out here! Any good whole foods EASY ideas for what I can do with these tonight? I am not used to cooking a ton and am a beginner

[celia]

hmmm... I imagine you could do anything you do with breasts, if you cut them rigt. I've never bought these. Are they cheaper than breasts? How do they compare fat-wise?

[Panserbjorne]

Yeah, I don't know what to do with breasts either. The thighs are the dark meat, though. I prefer it for the kiddos and they were on sale this week (and when you are buying organic you take whatever's on sale! )

I am just not really used to cooking meat is the big issue, I don't know what flavors are good.

[mmgarda]

Super-easy

I have two suggestions, one is probably less kid-friendly.

Throw them in the crockpot! Add a little salt, 1/2 c. liquid (any kind except dairy) and some spices/herbs. You can do broth and a standard poultry herb (parsley, sage, rosemary, thyme, tarragon, garlic, onion). You can do soy sauce and a standard asian herb (ginger, garlic, five-spice, cilantro, lemon-grass, honey, teriyaki). Or, you can do tomatoes/tomato sauce and a standard SW flavor (chili powder, adobo, cumin, cayenne, peppers, onions, garlic). 3-4 hours on high or 6-8 on low should do it. Then serve with whatever sides make sense.

Here's the more adult-friendly, but AWESOME recipe:

Not Afraid to Entertain Chicken

Curry powder
1 jar mango chutney (any style, any level spice you like)
raisins
chopped green apple

Rub chicken pieces all over with curry powder. Bake, uncovered, at 350 for 30 min.

Remove from oven. Pour entire jar of chutney over chicken. Return to oven for 15 min.

Add apples and raisins. Bake additional 10 min.

Serve over rice. Great with black beans!

Note: if your kids like fruit and complex flavors, they'll probably like this chicken.

[orangefoot]

We sterch them out and marinade them in this mixture in a baking tin

1 tbsp Lea and Perrins Worcestershire sauce (i'm not sure what its called in the US)
2tbsp ketchup
2tbsp dark muscovado sugar
1tbsp soy sauce
3 cloves crushed garlic
1tbsp English mustard
1/2 tbsp wine vinegar
1 tbsp oil

Then put the tim in the oven and cook at 200C/400F/gas 6 for a bit under an hour, turning them and brushing the marinade over them if they start to look dry

Or you can grill them and heat the left over marinade to make a sauce. Eat with mashed potato (to mop up the sauce) or rice and lots of dark greens.

[Panserbjorne]

I'm so bummed-that sounds awesome! Unfortunately we can't do soy at all. great recipe though!

[CelticFish]

We love thighs in the crockpot with some BBQ/hoisin type sauce. Cook until tender, shred them up, and serve on crusty rolls. Yum!

[saratc]

Originally Posted by firefaery

I'm so bummed-that sounds awesome! Unfortunately we can't do soy at all. great recipe though!

I would just leave out the soy. From reading that recipe, it should be fine and sounds like a great combination of flavors. Just add some salt, or better yet, if you have fish sauce, add some of that.

[orangefoot]

It will be fine without the soy sauce just replace it with an extra tablespoon of Lea and Perrins or another flavoursome liquid like fish sauce.

Rachel

[Panserbjorne]

Can't do the LEa and Perrins either (gluten) maybe I'll try the fish sauce. Thanks!

[Wolfmeis]

Originally Posted by firefaery

Help me out here! Any good whole foods EASY ideas for what I can do with these tonight? I am not used to cooking a ton and am a beginner

I am another fan of chicken thighs. because they have such a higher fat content, you can really cook them in way that gives more intense flavor. The slow cooking ideas are great too, but this is what I did when I was PCing: I'd poach them and make my stock at the same time.

In a dutch oven, heat butter or evo then sweat onions, carrots, celery, garlic, whatever other tossaway veggies you have

add the chicken thighs and allow them to brown slightly on each side (maybe only two or three minutes per side)

then fill with water and seasonings to taste (this part is important depending on the recipe goal **) and bring to a boil.

once you have a boil, reduce to a simmer and leave it alone for at least twenty or thirty minutes.

remove from heat and using a slotted spoon, remove your chicken to another plate. pour the rest of the liquid though a mesh strainer into a pitcher or two. That's some bom dot com chicken stock, and now you have tender, flavor-infused, non-greasy chicken for shredding.

I use chicken done this way shredded in enchiladas or burritos, cubed in curries and pot pies, stuff like that where you need "chicken, cooked and cut."

**Since I do a lot of bulk cooking, I can justify spicing the heck out my stocks sometimes. If I know I am making white chicken enchiladas and 7 layer tortilla pie, I will use a lot of cumin, chile powder and extra garlic in the stock while it simmers

[courtenay_e]

Mmmmmmmm. Chicken and dumplings! First, saute carrots, celery, onions, and garlic (okay, like six or seven carrots, about for tender stalks of celery, a fist sized white onion, all in about 1" chunks...and I dunno, six or seven little thingies of garlic...I have completely gone blank on the word...not entire heads, the little units that make up the head? Anyway, press or mince those) in a coupla tablespoons pure olive oil with salt and pepper.

Then, put those in a bowl for a sec and on top of the brown from the veggies, brown salted and peppered thighs (w/tiny bit olive oil, but they're fatty meat, so not too much or you won't get the brown bits on the bottom of the pan. When they're completely browned all over, remove to bowl w/veggies.

Then, take, oh, about six to eight cups of broth and pour over brown bits in bottom of pan. Boil up the brown bits, and make gravey (my formula for roux is 2tbsp flour and 1tbsp oil per cup of broth, mix the flour and oil with whisk, pour into boiling broth (turn down to low heat) and whisk smooth. Add meat and veggies, cover, put into 350 oven for a few hours. About a half hour before you want to eat (or however long it takes to cook your dumplings...we use jiffy mix, the big blue box, recipe's on back), salt and pepper to taste, put the dumplings on top of the gravey, and finish cooking.

Oooooh, it's my favorite thing in the world to do with chicken thighs!

[summerlilies]

Try this - we make it all the time -- it tastes like fried chicken to me.

8-10 chicken thighs, skin removed
make a mixture of equal parts (1/3 c. of each) bread crumbs (I make my own from whole wheat bread in
my food processor), wheat germ, and parmesan or romano cheese. add 1 tsp salt and 1 tbsp celery
seed.
roll the chicken in the mixture, place on ungreased baking pan, and bake for 30 minutes at 350
degrees F or until chicken is well done and crispy.

[fek&fuzz]

I slice them and fry them until brown, then add onions peppers and mushrooms, then salsa. Heat up some tortillas, add cheese/beans/whatever your diet allows, top with more salsa or tomatos or lettuce and have fajitas.

Thanks's what I'm makeing tonight with my chicken thighs. I love them!