By Eric Kim
- Total Time
- 45 minutes
- Rating
- 5(2,328)
- Notes
- Read community notes
Roasting chicken thighs in a hot oven is a hands-off way to achieve two of life’s greatest pleasures: crispy skin and golden schmaltz. And you want that chicken fat because it will crisp hand-torn bread into croutons. This meal is made even more lovely thanks to a bold but balanced fish-sauce butter that you whip up on the stovetop while the rest of the meal takes care of itself in the oven. Be sure to start with cold butter; the gradual melting of the fat helps thicken the sauce without breaking it.
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Ingredients
Yield:4 servings
- 4bone-in, skin-on chicken thighs (about 2 pounds)
- Kosher salt (such as Diamond Crystal) and black pepper
- 2tablespoons olive oil
- ¾pound bread, crusts removed, bread torn into bite-size pieces (about 4 cups; see Tip)
- 1tablespoon dark brown sugar
- 1tablespoon fish sauce
- 1tablespoon lemon juice
- 3tablespoons cold unsalted butter, kept whole
- Cilantro leaves with tender stems, for serving
Ingredient Substitution Guide
Nutritional analysis per serving (4 servings)
728 calories; 45 grams fat; 14 grams saturated fat; 1 gram trans fat; 19 grams monounsaturated fat; 8 grams polyunsaturated fat; 45 grams carbohydrates; 4 grams dietary fiber; 8 grams sugars; 36 grams protein; 917 milligrams sodium
Note: The information shown is Edamam’s estimate based on available ingredients and preparation. It should not be considered a substitute for a professional nutritionist’s advice.
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Step
1
Heat oven to 450 degrees. Pat the chicken dry with paper towels and season lightly with salt and pepper. (The fish-sauce butter is plenty salty, so don’t overdo the salt here.) Arrange the chicken skin-side up on a sheet pan and drizzle the oil over the chicken skin, coating it evenly. Roast until the chicken is light gold and the sheet pan is pooling with hot, rendered chicken fat, about 25 minutes.
Step
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Take the sheet pan out of the oven, scatter the bread around the chicken and toss gently to coat in the chicken fat. Place the pan back in the oven and roast until the chicken is golden, crispy and sizzling (you’ll hear it), about 15 minutes.
Step
3
While the chicken roasts, combine the brown sugar, fish sauce and lemon juice in a small saucepan and bring to a simmer over medium heat. Cook, occasionally swirling the pan or stirring the sauce with a wooden spoon, until bubbling vigorously and the mixture has reduced by about half, 2 to 3 minutes. This part is fun: Turn off the heat and add the butter, constantly swirling the pan or stirring with a wooden spoon, until all of the butter has melted and incorporated into the fish sauce mixture.
Step
4
To serve, scatter the cilantro all over the chicken and bread and spoon some of the fish-sauce butter over each chicken thigh, reserving some to add to each plate for dipping the chicken and croutons while eating (which is divine).
Tip
- Many breads will work here, especially stale loaves that you’re trying to use up. Crusty sourdough lends pleasurable tang for instance, while chewy tender milk bread tastes comfortingly sweet.
Ratings
5
out of 5
2,328
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Cooking Notes
abbie
A hit with 2 adults and 2 kids. A couple observations: 1) even though it seems like it won’t be enough sauce, it’s very intense and you don’t need more than the recipe calls for (ie don’t double it like I did). 2) keep an eye on the bread so it doesn’t burn (ie don’t let your bread burn like I did)
Sarah P
This recipe is absolutely fantastic. My husband and I muttered “oh my god” multiple times while eating this. We made it with gluten free bread and it worked perfectly. I wouldn’t change a single thing - make it exactly as written. Salty sour sweet umami Oh my god! Served with roasted Brussel sprouts with apricot preserves and bacon. Best home cooked meal we’ve made it months.
Anthony M.
This is absolutely delicious and I encourage everyone to make it. However:1. I’m a total schmaltz crouton goblin, and even I found this to be too much bread. Try cutting the recommended amount of bread in half. 2. Consider adding 1 tbsp of soy to the sauce. There’s so little of it, in the end, that a more intense salinity is a great thing. 3. Sauté piles and piles of spinach (or bok choi, or chard) to nestle underneath the chicken.
Debbie
Fantastic recipe! Pre-Covid me would have passed it by: "Fish sauce? Pure sodium. They expect me to eat SUGAR? And croutons? Carbs cooked in fat." I would have amended it to read "Sous vide skinless, boneless chicken breasts and drizzle with lemon juice," thereby missing out on one of the best chicken dishes I have ever cooked. I really like my new, post-Covid cooking. Last night I made fish with full-fat coconut milk (another from NY Times), it was divine!
DW99
Pls don't use foil--we hv a trash (pollution) crisis in addition to the climate crisis. We're hated globally for our excesses, so this is a nat.-sec. issue, too.Pls:* Use tea towels to wring greens/press tofu.* When chillg pie crust, wrap it in waxed paper, & wrap that in a tea towel.* Cover restg bread dough w a tea towel.* Store food in reusable containers, or in the fridge in their cookg pot/servg bowl (covered w a plate or lid).Our ancestors cooked well w-o disposables; we can, too.
bobbie
I lined the pan with aluminum foil. Saved scrubbing after dinner. It was delicious!
Annie
Incredible payoff for very little prep. Great crisp on the chicken skin, while the meat stayed very tender. The crispy bread is incredible. I served it with smashed potatoes and green beans with the fish sauce butter drizzled over them. Dinner-party worthy.
elizabeth in astoria
This sauce is also really really good over popcorn.
Mark
Extremely good. I made it on a quarter sheet pan but next time will use a slightly bigger pan to get more bread on there. Also, and this might be specific to my oven, but I cooked the chicken skin side down for half of the first 25 minutes, so get it crispier. Other than that I didn't change a thing and it was incredible.
SRF1960
I like my croutons with the fat evenly distributed, so I poured the fat out of the sheet pan into a bowl with the bread and added a little olive oil for good measure before I put the croutons back on the sheet to cook with the chicken. It was definitely worth it.
edmund
Definitely keep an eye on the chicken and bread. I heard no sizzling, and the bread turned dark brown and the chicken was cooked well before the 15 minutes.
Prakash Nadkarni
Why remove the bread crusts? They're the most flavorful part; and at the end of Step 2, the bread pieces, judging by the photo, are lightly browned anyway. (The coating of chicken-fat+juices should prevent charring of the crust.)
Bob B
I put a head of broccoli florets in with the bread pieces. Super!
Sam
As delicious as chicken fat croutons sound, if you have your hands on some baby bok choy, roll around in pan juices and bake on the same tray for the 10 final minutes. Incredible and simple recipe!
Brent
This was so good! Judge the amount of bread you put in on the amount of chicken fat that has rendered. It’s important that each piece gets some on it. Incredibly easy to make and very delicious. You could almost double the sauce!
Sophia Lyons
Eric Kim does it again. My oven runs hot, should've started checking the croutons at 10 mins. Perfectly tasty with GF bread. Added a head of broccoli to the pan. I'll add a bit of red pepper flakes to the butter next time.
Matt
Everyone loved this dish. Probably the biggest hit is the chicken and bread. To me, the sauce was "OK" but nothing to rave about. It will be very easy to play around with different sauces, so this one will be in the family meal rotation for some experiments. Love the twist on a sheet pan dinner.
Judith
This looks great, but what could I substitute for the butter?
Nikki
Did a mash up of this sauce with Ali Slagle’s recipe for crispy chicken thighs. So delish.
Sam
The chicken and croutons are delicious on their own. A small drizzle of the butter (it's potent) and lots of cilantro makes this special.Use the full amount of bread. Theoretically speaking (we certainly didn't have leftovers....), I think leftover croutons would be fantastic for a salad.
Abby W.
This was really greasy and heavy. I don’t know why the sauce was so special (could’ve been user error), but it just tasted like I was eating a pound of butter.
Audrey
Dang, this was delicious and easy! Kids and adults loved. I had 6 huge chicken thighs and thus doubled the sauce, but I would not have needed to as the sauce is potent. I used locally made sourdough bread that made scrumptious croutons, but I did have a few croutons burn as I had the oven on convection. I just needed to rotate the pans and remove a bit sooner. Served with steamed green beans.
Annya
I used boneless skinless thighs because that’s what I had in for 10 and then added bread and in for 15. I added a bit less bread than the recipe called for because I knew this kind of chicken would render less fat. This was delicious. I am definitely beginning to see the Eric Kim die hard fans have a point. Time to cook more of his recipes!
Nina
That was amazing! Easy and self forward, sauce emulsified perfectly. I used freshly steamed jasmine rice instead of the bread, same method as the croutons which gave it a nice crispy finish :) Served with braised bok choy, perfect meal!
Annya
Beware: no leftovers
Winner Winner Chicken Dinner
Our entire family of two adults and three kids loved this meal! One more finicky child ate only chicken, but that’s the beauty of this recipe. I added halved bok choy when I added the bread to make it a one sheet meal with veg included. It will definitely be added to the weeknight rotation!
Midge
Followed the recipe except for adding a bit more olive oil to toss croutons. Made for a fabulous dinner with bitter lettuce salad.
Nancy D
Nothing special. I preheated the sheet pan and started the thighs skin down for 15 minutes. There was barely any chicken fat for the bread. I had to add some olive oil. The sauce was interesting but again, neither of us saw this as a 5 star recipe.
dai
I say make more sauce ;-) Great weeknight dinner too!
Evelyn Weiser
I hate to say it, but I thought this recipe was really awful. I love the NYT recipes and tried this one because of all the rave reviews. The smell of the fish sauce simmering was extremely unappetizing (we had to open all the windows and the front door) and the food itself, with bread soaking in chicken grease was just-well, an unpleasant experience. I love Thai food and am totally good with fish sauce, but here it just didn’t work.
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