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Take you ever ordered chicken at a dainty restaurant and wondered why it tastes so much ameliorate than that which you make at home? Same. The tender, juicy meat that practically melts off the bone! The glassy copper skin that audibly crackles when yous take a bite! How?

I chatted with Nick Perkins, chef-owner of the restaurants Hart's, Cervo's and The Fly in New York, to answer this question. Although all of his restaurants have craven on the carte in i form or another, The Fly eating place in item brands itself as: "A craven bar with wine, cocktails and beer," meaning that they serve a lot of craven, and really darn well. In fact, based on the several times I've dined at The Fly, I tin can confidently say information technology's some of the best poultry I've had in my life.

During our interview, nosotros focused on how to cook os-in, skin-on chicken thighs at dwelling house. Although they're not as large and unwieldy as whole chickens, chicken thighs have the potential to become merely as juicy and tender.

The About Important Thing You lot Should Practise When Buying Chicken

You might have noticed that chicken packaging has lots of unlike labels on it. Do the labels matter? Which ones should you lot pay attention to? Perkins says that a craven's nutrition has an bear on on its flavor: "Yous are what you eat, and I think that's truthful of animals. A varied died ends up making a tasty craven," he explained. An case of the touch of diet? Some of the chicken served at his restaurants come from a farm where the chickens eat lots of marigolds, which actually turns their backs a really beautiful, special orange color. In the grocery shop, the best thing yous can practise is look for the organic and free-range labels, which mean that, mostly, the chicken has some room to fodder for office of its nutrition.

How to Brand Perfect Chicken Thighs

Although careful to indicate out that at that place are many different ways to cook chicken thighs, Perkins walked me through the mode his restaurants might melt them (tailoring the technique a chip so it's suitable for home cooks). The undercover? Searing chicken thighs and and then braising them, depression and wearisome.

Y'all'll see the technique detailed below, only first, note that you can and should make them ahead of fourth dimension, if possible. Perkins recalled that his Italian grandmother e'er impressed upon him that roasted, marinated dishes get amend the second twenty-four hour period: "She would make these amazing roasted marinated vegetable lunches. We'd be like, 'grandma, this came out great.' And she'd be similar, 'oh yeah, the peppers came out well, simply they'll be better tomorrow.' I think that's true of braising," he said. In his restaurants, Perkins tries to braise the chicken thighs, let them sit down overnight in the refrigerator and warm them upward the next twenty-four hours with a trivial bit of that braising liquid over really low rut.

  1. Season the chicken. Flavour the craven thighs with body of water salt all over. Rub the flesh sides of the craven thighs (you know, the sides that don't have peel) with a spice rub. Keep things unproblematic! Hart's uses one with ingredients like fennel seeds, coriander, garlic and lemon zest, while The Fly leans on paprika, garlic and lemon zest. Drizzle olive oil over the spice rub.
  2. Marinate for 1 to ii days. Place the craven thighs skin-side up on a plate and allow them to sit, uncovered in the fridge for 1 to two days. This is a step that restaurants make time for, and it makes all the difference in terms of added flavor.
  3. Dark-brown the skin on the stove over medium estrus. Heat a large skillet over high oestrus, add some olive oil and identify the thighs in the skillet pare side downwardly — they can be touching, but need plenty room to move around. Reduce the heat to medium. Many recipes telephone call for loftier-heat cooking the whole time, but medium heat really makes for crispier pare and gorgeous, unburnt pan-drippings (more on those afterward). Now let the craven thighs melt without futzing with them, shaking the pan every at present and and so. When the chicken thighs release from the pan and are able to movement around, you tin can gently grasp their sides with a pair of tongs to cheque for golden brown color.
  4. Transfer the chicken to a plate, peel side up. At this point, the craven volition be yet raw, so information technology's okay to use the plate y'all used for marinating. It's best to transfer the craven to a plate, non a wire rack or paper towels, because you want to save all the juices that come out of the chicken. That's the adept stuff.
  5. Cook other vegetables in the same pan. Melt vegetables and aromatics like onion, garlic and herbs in the aforementioned pan you cooked the chicken in – yes, in the rendered craven fat with all of those golden-chocolate-brown pan drippings. Add together three parts stock and one part wine to the pan and bring that to a simmer. Transfer the mixture to your Dutch oven and add your craven thighs, peel side up — plus any juices that accumulated on the plate. The liquid should go 2/iii of the fashion up the thighs.
  6. Braise the chicken until it'due south tender. Comprehend the braiser, transfer it to an oven preheated to 275 or 300 degrees F and braise the chicken for virtually 1 and a one-half hours. By this time, the chicken volition definitely be cooked through, so the indicator y'all're looking for is tenderness. If the craven thighs wait rubbery and seized up similar trivial pucks, they'll probably be cooked through but non tender nevertheless. Go along cooking. You want them to be practically falling off the os.
  7. Serve the chicken and all its juices. At this signal, a beautiful light sauce will have formed from all the natural chicken juices and the aromatics you lot cooked effectually the chicken. Spoon it onto the plate with the chicken for tons of flavor.