5 Ways to Make Chicken Thighs Less Boring Under 30 Minutes

Today I'm going to show you 5 ways to transform a pack of boring chicken thighs into a memorable meal in less than 30 minutes. All these recipes are craveable, use some form of creative time saving, and they're all well tested. So if you want to try them, there's a good chance that it's going to work out. Up first is a weeknight variation of a Thai chicken noodle soup called Khao Soi. To make it I'll start with 4 chicken thighs. For this recipe and all the others in this video I'm using boneless skinless because they're very easy to use and I almost always have a package in my fridge. Now before I make this soup I'm going to hit the thighs with a little bit of salt on either side. This is going to make them taste better but more importantly it's also going to help them hold onto their moisture during cooking so the simmered meat is going to be juicy instead of dry. Once salted I'll let these sit for a quick second while I make the quick and dirty Khao Soi curry paste. For that I'll combine 10 grams curry powder, 10 grams turmeric, 5 grams paprika, 3 grams of coriander, 5 grams of salt, then 30 grams each of garlic and ginger paste, then 15 grams of lemongrass paste. Don't judge me bro. I'm really into these tubed aromatics at the moment despite the fact that when you squeeze them out they look like… well you know what they look like. At this point in my life these pastes are great for making weeknight meals more flavorful. I like them because they stay fresh for a long time in the fridge and they taste enough like the real thing to be convincing. If you don't want to use these or you can't get them just grate fresh garlic and ginger on your microplane and fine mince the lemongrass. After the pastes are in I'm going to grate the zest of one lime to bring the aroma and flavor of citrus without the excessive acidity. Then I'll stir everything to combine until I've got a super aromatic fresh curry paste. Now let's turn it into a rich coconut chicken broth. Into a medium high heat heavy bottom pot I'll add in a big spoonful of coconut oil or whatever oil you like honestly. Then I'll drop in the paste and fry it for about 2-3 minutes stirring it constantly to open up its flavor and cook off the raw edge of those aromatics. One thing I'll mention here is that the tubed aromatics are only good in cooked dishes. I really wouldn't recommend using them in a raw context where the flavor of the garlic or ginger is on full display. The citric acid and glucose inside the paste that preserve it tend to stand out and it really isn't the best flavor. At this point things are smelling really good and they're fried off so next I'm going to add in 500 grams of chicken stock along with 3 cans of coconut milk. This is the full fat variety by the way. Then I'll add in 30 grams of fish sauce, 20 grams of brown sugar, and then 15-25 grams of sambal chili sauce depending on how hot you like it. Once everything is in the pool I'll bring the broth up to a simmer to help dissolve the paste. Then I'll add in all 4 of my lightly salted thickened… thickened dyes. Then I'll start a 10 minute timer and cook these over medium heat. 10 minutes later I'll add in 175 grams of egg noodles and stir those in. Yes these are the same egg noodles that your grandma used to make chicken soup with. I like them for this because they're actually pretty close in composition and flavor to the fresh Chinese style egg noodles used in traditional Thai Khao Soi. Both noodles have a soft chewiness, they stand up texturally in hot broth, and they have a familiar sulfury egg flavor that screams chicken soup. At the store these are called egg dumpling noodles and they're available literally everywhere in the US whereas the Chinese noodles will require a special trip to the international grocery store. Once the noodles are in I'll pop on a lid and simmer this over medium heat for 8-10 more minutes. 8 minutes later when I pop off this top the egg noodles are cooked through and just past al dente. From here I'm going to snatch the cooked thighs out of the broth and move them over to a plate. After about an 18-20 minute cook time you can see that the thighs have an almost braised texture and they're cooked enough to be easily shredded. From here I'm going to shred the thighs down a little bit then I'm going to run my knife through once or twice to break it down into spoon sized pieces. From here I'll slide the cooked chicken meat back into the pot then I'll jump in and start to get that combined. Oh man that looks so rich and creamy. I love it. But the combination of the noodle starch and a little bit too much reduction has left the broth feeling a little bit thick so at this point you'll likely want to add in a big splash of chicken stock so that the texture is more soupy. To serve I'll drop my broth and stuff into the bowl then I'll top with some crispy fried wonton strips. Thai Khao Soi has the same noodles that are inside the soup deep fried on top but since this is a weeknight we're obviously not doing that. The great news is these wonton strips taste almost exactly the same and they require no work. If you've never bought them before they're in the crouton section next to the salad dressing in a western grocery store. Next I'll hit this with a little shaved raw red onion, a little fresh cilantro, and then some chopped pickled mustard greens. Yeah I know these are not going to be gettable at a regular grocery store but they bring some essential crunchy sourness to cut through all the richness of the soup so I really like to have them. If you're not going to get them though a good western sub would be a little bit of sauerkraut. And there we go that's Khao Soi that takes some shortcuts to get to the end zone but it really doesn't make any compromise on flavor. Mmm that golden rich broth is so luxurious it's silky it just kind of spreads over your whole mouth. It's got these soft little eggy noodles in there that have a bit of a sulfury edge that's distinctive and delicious and then you got crunchiness in every single bite. The fried wontons are like the hero of this dish I just didn't expect them to hit exactly like the fried noodles in the restaurant but they stay crispy for a long time and they are tasty. You guys I've had great Khao Soi in my life in both the US and in Chiang Mai Thailand the home of this dish and honestly this one hangs with the best of them. It's really great it's super easy and I think you should make it soon. Up next is a fast orange chicken and broccoli that hits like takeout but doesn't make you feel super thirsty and disgustingly full. To get started I need to mix up the sticky orange sauce that we'll use to glaze up the thighs. For that I'll combine 125 grams of chicken stock, 50 grams of soy sauce, 10 grams of sesame oil, 75 grams of mirin, 50 grams of sugar, 15 grams each of ginger and garlic paste. Again I got these from the tubes because I'm a piece of ---- but of course you could grate fresh. Finally I'll grab my microplane and rip the zest off of one large orange then run my knife through it to break it down. Orange zest goes into the bowl then I'll squeeze the juice of three orange halves or about 75 to 85 grams worth then 25 grams of rice vinegar and 10 grams of cornstarch go in. From here I'll stir to combine then move on to cut some stuff. I'll start with a large floret of broccoli then I'll use my laser sharp lagerstrom 8 inch chef's knife to cut the blocky end bit off. Then I'll make surgical nips here and there to cut the florets off the main stem into about 3 inch pieces. Next I'll pitch the core then cut those large florets in half. I want every piece to have a couple of flat sides and I want them all to be a perfect 1.5 inches square. Next I'll take one pound of boneless skinless and cut them into roughly 1 inch pieces. For that I'll just slice in half long wise, turn 90 degrees, and chop 2 or 3 times the other way. Same as the broccoli though I want to put some care into getting these nice and uniform so they cook evenly. Ok now the chicken goes into a bowl then just like I did for the curry I'm going to hit it with a little bit of salt to season it and help it with moisture retention during cooking. Once tossed I'll let it stand for a few minutes while I cook up the broccoli. To do that I'll grab my wok and drop it down over high heat. Then hit it with a generous squiggle of high smoke point oil then in goes my broccoli along with a small pinch of salt and then I'm going to give those a spirited stir fry over very high heat. Man wok fried broccoli is one of life's greatest pleasures. The high heat and constant movement do something special to it that creates a texture that no other cooking method can come close to. After about 2 minutes this broccoli is cooked perfectly. It's a little softened but it's also crunchy and full of life. From here I'll move it over to a bowl to hang out for a second while I cook the chicken and the orange sauce. Back into a hot wok goes a little bit more oil for frying then all of my salted cut up chicken and then I'll stir fry that for about 4-5 minutes while keeping it moving pretty much constantly. If you guys don't own a wok you can definitely make this recipe in a large nonstick pan or a dutch oven would even work in a pinch. But honestly if you like cooking and have about 40 bucks you should just get a wok. They're a real hoot to cook with and they cook stuff real good. After 5 minutes these thighs are sizzled up and taking on some nice color. So next I'll add in 75 grams of sliced scallions and stir fry those with the chicken but not for long. I just want to open up the scallions oniony flavor and soften them a little bit so they're not raw in the final dish. 60 seconds later they're wilted and smelling wonderful. So next I'll add in my orange sauce and I like to pour that around the outside of the wok where it's hottest to get a little caramelization going on. From here I'll bring it up to a ripping boil and cook the sauce until the cornstarch thickens and the sauce reduces by about 25%. I'll call it good when the bubbles are getting large and the sugar is clearly catching some caramelization around the edges. From here the broccoli goes in then I'll stir and toss to get it coated. At this point the thighs are good to go and now the priority is just keeping the broccoli snappy and full of life while we get it sauced. From here I'll plate it up into a low bowl with some steamed rice and top it with some sesame seeds for garnish. And that's a weeknight orange chicken that's indulgent but on the lighter side and I think any skill level home cook could bust it out in 30 minutes or less. Now let's taste it. The first thing that you get is this really floral aromatic orange zest which kinda carries through the entire dish and that's really pretty and very delicious and very orangey. Then you get perfectly cooked chicken that's super juicy because we cooked it in the wok with high heat. It just has a lot of life to it. Overall it's orange chicken without the fried part which sounds lame but it's actually quite good and I think this would be an excellent weeknight dinner. Up next is in my opinion the best Mexican dish you can make on a weeknight. But before we get to that I need to thank Wild Grain for sponsoring this vid. As some of you know I used to be a professional bread baker so when Wild Grain reached out to do an ad with me I was very skeptical but I decided to give it a shot and honestly I've been pretty blown away. If you haven't heard of it Wild Grain is a subscription box that sends frozen baked goods to your house like sourdough bread, pastries, and fresh pasta. All their stuff is made without preservatives or other weird ingredients and it all bakes straight from frozen in under 25 minutes. Which is extremely handy. As you know from watching any of my bread making videos, making your own bread from scratch takes a lot of time and a lot of practice. This week Wild Grain sent me sourdough baguettes, sourdough rolls, a gluten free hearth bread for Lauren, chocolate croissants, rosemary focaccia, rigatoni, and a delicious cheese croissant fold over thing. And the breads are good you guys. They have solid crust, bouncy crumb, and good fermented flavor. For me these products are just better and much fresher than what you'd be buying at a regular grocery store. So if you want real bread without the work or just need something nice to pair with your chicken thighs check out Wild Grain. Use my link below to get 30 bucks off your first box plus free croissants in every order. I repeat free croissants. Next we're going to make chicken thigh al pastor tacos. First things first I'll need to preheat my oven's broiler to high. If you have an electric broiler that would work totally fine or you could adapt this recipe for the grill super easily if you don't have a broiler. Now to make the al pastor marinade into my blender I'm going to combine 50 grams of pineapple canned or fresh, 100 grams of orange juice fresh or out of the carton, 10 grams of chili powder, 2 grams of oregano, 5 grams cumin, 5 grams garlic powder, then 30 grams of achiote annatto paste. This is a Mexican or international grocery store item but it can be found at certain western groceries. Next I'll add in 25 grams of white distilled vinegar, 20 grams of sugar, and 20 grams of salt. From here I'm just going to spin everything up in the blender into a smooth paste. By the way if you can't find the achiote paste you can get it on Amazon which I'll link down below or you could sub in 2 chipotle chilies in adobo sauce. Next I'll take 2 pounds of chicken thighs and drop them into a bowl along with all of my marinade. Then I'll just toss those to combine and mention that if you wanted you could mix this marinade up a day ahead with the chicken and marinate in the fridge so that the meat is ready to cook when you get home from work. Once these thighs are all slathered up with al pastor I'm going to lay them out on a foil lined sheet tray 4 by 2. Then I'm going to lay out some pineapple that I cut into pieces that are more or less the same thickness as these thighs on either side. I'm using fresh but again canned pineapple would totally work if you want to keep it easy. Now the tray goes into the oven right under my broiler and I'm going to let it rip for about 5 to 8 minutes. 7 minutes later I'm going to check on the progress and wow the thighs already have a ton of browning at this point but my broiler is pretty uneven so I'm going to rotate the tray and make sure that the whole thing is getting the same dose of pain from above. After another 5 to 7 minute blast when I pull this tray out of the oven I'm going to flip the thighs over so that the back side can get some browning. From here I'll throw it back in for another 5 to 7 minute blast and check back then. After about 15 to 18 minutes of broiling I'm going to pull out these thighs. The marinade is glazed up on the thighs, there's a nice char and the pineapple is roasty looking. Next I'll chop the chicken thigh and pineapple down into half inch chunks or even smaller. If you go to taquerias you're going to notice that their meat is usually chopped down quite a lot because big meat falls out of the taco and it requires too many chews. Once chopped I'll add an optional extra step of moving the meat over to a bowl then scraping the remaining al pastor marinade and all the chicken drip on top of that and then tossing things to combine. This will give everything just a little bit more of that marinade flavor but it's also going to make another dirty dish so it's up to you. To serve I'll pile onto a double layer of hot corn tortillas with some cilantro, onion and tomatillo salsa. Now let's wrap up this little MF and give it a taste. Mmm! Man! That chicken guys is indescribably savory. Like it kind of hits like chorizo and then it makes your mouth kind of like water a little bit. It's got that nice smokiness, it's got a little bit of heat and then you combine it with this roasty sweet very juicy pineapple and the whole thing is just the perfect blend of sweet and savory. For me chicken is a S tier vehicle for the al pastor flavor profile and if you haven't had it before you definitely have to try it. This recipe is fast, it's easy and it is super delicious. Up next I'm going to show you how to make a chicken souvlaki pita with tzatziki sauce. It's kind of a banger. To make it I'll start with two pounds of boneless skinless then cut them down into about one and a half to two inch chunks. That'll mean cutting each thigh into about six even pieces like this. Next I'll drop the chicken into a bowl for a quick marination. That'll be 125 grams of olive oil, 15 grams of salt, 30 grams of minced or pressed garlic, 5 grams of oregano, 5 grams of black pepper, 100 grams of Dijon mustard. Then I'll rip the zest off of two lemons and juice one of those lemons into the bowl. By the way these lemons are decently small so this isn't a ton of lemon juice. We don't want this to be too sour. From here I'm going to jump into the bowl and toss this chicken to get it evenly coated with the marinade. Now you could let this sit overnight in the fridge to get a little bit of additional flavor or you could use it right away. Since this is a weeknight focused video I'm going to go ahead and throw this chicken right onto some skewers and move it outside to the grill. By the way the skewers that I'm using here were soaked in cold water for about 15 minutes to try and stop them from burning too bad on the grill. It doesn't really work that good but it's better than not doing it. From here I'm going to move outside and grill this souvlaki over high heat for about 12 to 15 minutes rotating it every two minutes or so until it's cooked through and has caught some really nice grillage. If you're grill-less you could also broil these indoors in a similar way to what we just did with the al pastor. That result can be quite good and if it's all you got go for it. After 15 minutes of grilling these things look so good. Oh my gosh it's got everything you want. Browning, a little bit of char, it's dripping with chicken juice, there's flavorful marinade. You can just see the quality here. To prepare it for the pita I'm going to slide out that burnt stick then give the chicken a rough chop into pieces that are about the same size as we cut for the al pastor. To put it all together I'll drop this chopped chicken onto a toasty hot pita then hit it with three large dollops of tzatziki sauce. I made this sauce right before I grilled the meat. It's a combination of 150 grams of cucumber that I grated on my box grater and then squeezed all the water out of with a paper towel. Then 200 grams of greek yogurt, 75 grams of mayo, one clove of smushed garlic, 5 grams of salt, 5 grams of chopped fresh dill or 2 of dried, then 15 to 20 grams of lemon juice. If you guys decide to make this recipe I'll throw a more detailed version down in the description. Behind the tzatziki I'll drop on some chopped fresh tomatoes and cucumbers that I tossed with a little bit of parsley or if you want to save some time you could use store-bought pico de gallo. And then finally I'll top with some pepperoncinis to bring some heat and a little bit of crunch. This is exactly the type of thing that I want to eat after a long day at work. It's comforting and a little bit indulgent but it's still real food and it's not going to make me feel terrible when I eat it. I don't know how you could do better than that. It's just grilled chicken on a floppy piece of toasty bread with a creamy sauce and a fresh juicy salsa. Oh and there's peppers on it so that makes it even better. This is the type of thing where if you can get yourself to put in the 30 minutes of work it's going to pay huge dividends. It's going to like nourish your soul. You're going to be making all kinds of sounds when you eat this thing that you didn't even think were possible. It's just good. Mmm. The last dish is just special. I'm calling it Chicken Aloo Vindaloo. To make it I had Alex cook off some basmati rice and the bag that I threw him wasn't closed. Oh. We'll get back to the rice. To start, I'll grab one pound of chicken thighs or about 6 thighs total. Then I'll cut each of them into 8 pieces that are about 1.5 inches give or take. Then I'll move all of that cut up chicken into a bowl and hit it with a strong pinch of salt. If you haven't noticed, this is a reoccurring theme. I almost always season meat before I hit it with a marinade or cook it in flavorful liquid. It's just a pro move that's gonna improve the meat, signif. Once the chicken's salted I'll grab 2 medium large Yukon Gold potatoes and slice them into 1-inch planks then I'm going to chop them down into a large dice that's about an inch wide. I would avoid russet potatoes for this dish by the way because they get really mealy and fall apart when they're cooked with the unique cooking process that we're going to be using for the vindaloo. The next bit of prep after potatoes and chicken is onions. I'm going to grab one very large one and grate it on the largest holes of my box grater. After grating I'm going to take a paper towel to soak up the excessive amount of onion water. That's going to prohibit browning which we need for this recipe. Okay once the onions are grated up it's time to cook this thing. Into a large heavy bottom pot I'm going to add a long squeezer of olive oil. Orgi would be good just make sure that you've got about a quarter cup of fat in the pot. Then my grated onions go in and I'll stir those up. No salt at this point because that draws out moisture which will inhibit caramelization. Now I'm just going to fry these over medium to medium high heat for five minutes until they're cooked down and nice and brown like this. Next in goes 20 grams each of tubed ginger and garlic. Then 50 grams of tomato paste. Then I'll stir to combine and fry this for about two minutes. By the way if the tomato paste starts getting a little bit dark and stuck to the bottom of the pot it's never a bad idea to add a little splash of water to deglaze. And about two minutes later the paste is rusty red the onions are caramelized and softened and the garlic and ginger are smelling great. Next I'll add in 10 grams garam masala with five grams of cumin. Then 10 grams of curry powder with 10 grams of paprika. And then as much chili flakes as you're comfortable with. I go with two grams because I like some pain but if you're sensitive go ahead and throttle that down. Just hope your dad doesn't find out. Okay once stirred up I'm gonna fry the spices for about 60 seconds to open up their flavor. Next I'll add in 750 grams of chicken stock. Then about five grams of salt and then I'll bring the whole thing up to a hard boil. Once simmering I'll add in my salted chicken thighs along with all of the diced yukon gold potatoes. Then I'll stir everything into the sauce and make sure it's all submerged. Then I'll cook until the potatoes are tender uncovered. To get this spiced broth turned into a proper vindaloo style gravy we need a lot of evaporation. About 15 to 18 minutes later the chicken has been cooked through the sauce has been reduced and the potatoes are looking good. But of course I'll need to give a potato a little smush to make sure that it's all the way tender. And yeah that's perfect it's soft but not mushy and still has enough structure to stand up to a little bit of bite. Thanks to the potato starch and maybe a little bit too much reduction this gravy is looking a little bit too thick at this point. So I'm gonna add a discretionary splash of water or chicken stock to loosen things back up. Like I want the sauce to be thick and intense and to grip the meat and potatoes but I don't want it to be super heavy and gloppy. To serve I'll pile on top of the floor basmati and then drizzle some greek yogurt that I thinned out with a little bit of water. Finally just a little bit of cilantro for greenness and you guys this is it. It just is it. It's so seriously flavorful it's so intense and it just solves the problem of hunger in a direct pleasurable way. Hey just a reminder my knife the Lagerstrom 8-inch chef's knife is still for sale. It's very sharp, it looks good, it feels comfortable in your hand and I think it's sold at a pretty reasonable price. So if you're in the market for a good knife this one is an option. I hope you buy it, I hope you love it. Link in description.