It’s a miracle that I managed to eat dinner every night last week. Our trip to Boston impeded Sunday meal planning and grocery shopping. And the Thursday deadline for draft two of my paper meant thinking about dinner was last on my to-do list. So, by Tuesday, our usually stuffed apartment-sized fridge was bare, carrying only condiments. My options were whisking together ketchup and raspberry preserves into…soup(?), or taking a 15 minute brain break and jogging to the market to pick up the ingredients for a mindless meal.
When I’ve spent Sunday traveling…or picking through a salvage yard for craft inspiration…or organizing the two months worth of mail piling over a foot high…or really anything besides planning, baked chicken is my go-to quick improvised dinner choice. Just pop it in a hot oven, go back to your busy life, and check back about 40 minutes later. Soaking the chicken in lemon juice for a few minutes, then packing it with some zest, salt, and pepper is my choice preparation method. For only a few minutes in the kitchen, you wind up with a comforting dish with lots of flavor.
Last Wednesday, I pulled myself out of my super-comfortable ergonomic chair in the midst of tirelessly typing away staring at my computer screen, and dragged myself to the butcher. Here’s the dilemma: I wanted to make a dish worthy of photographing with our fancy new camera, but had only a three-minute walk from my doorstep to the produce bins to dream up the recipe. Without any forethought, I had soon procured chicken thighs and was halfway to my lemon pepper chicken routine. In an inexplicable turn of events, I threw ginger in the cart and headed home to revamp my trusty dish. We love ginger: ginger beer, ginger chew candies, gingersnaps, gingerbread men. So I expected we’d fall head over heels for this gingery face-lift. To be honest, the spice of the ginger didn’t shine through as much as I’d anticipated. The chicken was juicy and delicious with only a tiny hint of ginger, and was closely related to its older sibling, lemon pepper chicken. Either way, this recipe (with or without the ginger) maximizes savory flavor while minimizing culinary effort. That’s a giant win in my book.
Lemon ginger chicken thighs
Serves 4
- 4 bone-in skin-on chicken thighs
- Juice of 2 lemons
- Zest of two lemons
- Kosher salt and freshly ground pepper, to taste
- About an inch of fresh ginger, peeled and finely grated
- Preheat the oven to 425ºF.
- Marinate the chicken skin side up in the lemon juice for about 10 minutes (no longer or your chicken will get soggy).
- Mash together the zest, salt, pepper, and ginger in a small bowl.
- Transfer the chicken to a parchment-lined baking pan, skin side up.
- Divide the zest and ginger mixture among the four thighs, patting it onto the skin side only.
- Roast the chicken for 35-45 minutes, until a meat thermometer stuck in the thickest part reads 165ºF.
That chicken looks great – so simple but I bet so delicious! The Brussels and Israeli Couscous look as good – I love both of those!
Thanks! These two sides are regulars in my kitchen. The couscous is from Trader Joes and is the best I’ve found!
My favorite Israeli Couscous! The baked chicken is making my mouth water! Yum!!
Mine too – I’m getting hungry now!
If I only had someone to cook it for me! It looks and sounds wonderful!
So easy Mama – I believe in you:)
i love how simple this is!! definitely going to give this a try!
So easy! And if you don’t have ginger on hand – just do lemon zest, salt, and pepper!
i bought all the ingredients today! i’m making this TONIGHT!!!! SO excited
Ooo! Let me know if you like it! If you really want the ginger flavor to come through, try adding even more that I did.
i love ginger, so i bought a huge bag! i’m actually making it now because the oven makes the whole house hot and it’s already so warm out and I just can’t wait!!!!
Oh, I’m using drumsticks! Same cooking time, right?
Do you have a meat thermometer? It might need to be cooked a little longer. If you don’t have a meat thermometer to check the temp, just cut into one after 45 minutes to make sure it isn’t pink.
it came out really good! i used the same cooking time, did 40 mins. very very very good!!! next time, I’m using chicken thighs because i love eating the yummy crispy skin off the chicken lol. i think the oven temp may of been a bit too hot because my ginger sorta got too dark…is the ginger suppose to be crusted over when it’s done baking?
thanks so much again for such an easy but super delicious recipe!
I’m so glad you liked it! Thanks for sharing your cooking time experience too. My ginger got dark too, but I tend to like the skin really really crispy.
me too! the skin is the best part of the chicken!
I’m tring this out now, but with boneless breasts. Any suggestions?
Can’t wait to try it!
Thanks
Hello! I’d just cook until a meat thermometer reads 165 degrees F (the cooking length may differ than from the legs). Let me know how it turns out with the boneless breasts! (Do your boneless breasts have skin on?)
It turned out great! It was skinless, so I gave it a little spray of coconut oil about halfway through cooking. Moist inside and packed with flavor. My 3&5 year old boys even gobbled it up! I served it with a sesame bok choy salad and herbed basmati rice and carrots. Thanks for the recipe!