A simple dish of crisp-skinned, tender chicken and browned, lightly crisped potatoes that are infused with chicken flavor. In fact, only three ingredients, plus salt and pepper—to end up with a delicious dinner, who doesn’t like that? Throw in a side salad, voila, dinner done!
OK, in the first go-around as beta-testers for America’s Test Kitchen, the recipe was a pared-down version of the one they actually published months later in Cook’s Illustrated. This updated rendering has 5 additional spices in the list of ingredients. As fans of bold tastes, we welcomed the extra seasonings. If you’d like to keep it simple, just omit the chili powder through cayenne.
Chicken thighs have plenty of flavorful juices and fat, but they don’t release them until the meat is almost done, which is far too late to be helpful in roasting your potatoes. To better utilize the fat from the chicken, trim the thighs well and roast the trim on its own on a rimmed baking sheet to render its fat.
Meanwhile, slash the flesh side of the thighs and cover them with a simple spice mix, taking care to get the mixture deep into the slashes. To ensure that the potatoes could absorb all the savory juices thrown off by the roasting chicken thighs, parboil the spuds with baking soda. Its alkalinity quickly breaks down the pectin in the exteriors.
After drying the potatoes briefly, stir them vigorously with the fat rendered from the chicken trim and some kosher salt. The salt roughs up the exteriors, creating plenty of entry points for the flavorful chicken juices to suffuse the spuds as they roast.
Starting the potatoes lower in the oven provides plenty of bottom heat to jump-start browning. After adding the chicken, move the sheet up in the oven where the plentiful top heat ensures that the chicken skin becomes crisp. Sliced scallion and a spritz of citrus provide fresh flavor that complements the richness of the potatoes and chicken.
NOTE: Chicken thighs are very forgiving, so don’t worry if yours are of different sizes.
Ingredients
- 3½ tsp. kosher salt, divided
- 1 Tbsp. chili powder
- 1 tsp. paprika
- ½ tsp. pepper
- ½ tsp. garlic powder
- ¼ tsp. cayenne pepper
- 3 lbs. bone-in chicken thighs
- 3 lbs Yukon gold potatoes, peeled and cut into 1-inch pieces
- ½ tsp. baking soda
- 1 scallion, sliced thin on bias
- lime wedges
Directions
- Adjust oven racks to upper-middle and lower-middle positions and heat oven to 450 degrees.
- Place 1 thigh skin side down on cutting board. Cut away any pockets of fat and any skin that extends beyond meat and reserve trim. Repeat with remaining thighs. Scatter trim over surface of rimmed baking sheet and roast on lower rack until trim is mostly crisped and rendered, about 10 minutes. Discard trim and leave fat in baking sheet.
- While trim is rendering, bring 8 cups water to boil in Dutch oven. Add potatoes and baking soda and return to boil. Boil for 2 minutes and drain well. Return potatoes to Dutch oven and place over low heat. Cook, shaking pot occasionally, until any surface moisture has evaporated, about 2 minutes. Remove from heat.
- Add 2 teaspoons salt and rendered chicken fat and stir with rubber spatula until potatoes are coated with starchy paste, about 30 seconds. Transfer potatoes to now-empty sheet pan and spread into even layer. Roast on lower rack until undersides of potatoes are brown and crisp, about 20 minutes.
- While potatoes are roasting, season chicken on both sides with remaining 1 ½ teaspoons salt and pepper. Let sit on cutting board until needed. Using thin metal spatula, flip potatoes. Push potatoes aside to clear one space for each thigh. Place thighs skin side up in cleared spaces.
- Roast on upper-middle rack until chicken is browned, crisp, and the largest thigh registers at least 185 degrees, about 40 minutes.
- Transfer thighs to platter to rest. Stir potatoes and spread over surface of baking sheet. Return to upper rack and roast until potatoes are mostly dry, about 5 minutes. Transfer to platter with chicken and serve.
Recipe by Andrea Geary for America’s Test Kitchen
Accounting for Taste 