These Skillet Lemon Garlic Chicken Thighs are an easy-to-make, flavorful addition to the dinner table! I love to serve them with simple sides like my roasted green beans to really let the garlic-lemon-herb flavors shine.
I think I’ve mentioned a few times that I often get into a rut with boneless skinless chicken thighs. They’re just so easy, and I end up using them for everything from stir fries to our favorite Grilled Chicken Caesar Salad. But recently my sister-in-law made a fantastic dinner with bone in/skin on chicken thighs.
She season hers with salt and pepper, and then roasts them into crispy perfection. It’s one of those cases where the sum equals more than the parts because they are next-level good!
And so from there I’ve been inspired to start roasting chicken thighs again with the skin on. Which of course is the round about way to how we’re here today talking about these lemon chicken thighs.
Simple ingredients often come together to make the best meals
They’re also very simple with just a few ingredients. Yet again the sum equals more than the parts. When it all gets roasted together the end result is so incredibly flavorful that I like to pair these with simple sides.
My Easiest Garlic Roast Green Beans and the Best Mashed Potatoes will round these chicken thighs out into a meal worthy of any company dinner. I’ve also served these with roast broccoli and roasted butternut squash as well.
The roasted butternut is a nice sweet counterpart to the zesty lemon sauce with these chicken thighs. So I guess it would stand to reason that mashed sweet potatoes would work well, although I haven’t tried it yet. And for something fresher, try my Caramelized Fig Spinach Salad.
Let’s make this recipe step by step
Step 1
Start by prepping the seasoning ingredients you’ll need for the chicken thighs. Mince the garlic, and remove the thyme leaves from the stems before finely chopping them.
Step 2
After the ingredients are prepped you start by sautéing the chicken skin side down to crisp things up. There’s also an oven version listed in the recipe below.
Step 3
Then we’ll add the sauce ingredients, and the chicken is placed back into the pan with the skin side up to finish roasting.
Step 4
While the chicken finishes in the oven, you can prep your choice of sides, then serve them all together!
Side Dish Recipe Inspiration
- Roasted Spaghetti Squash
- How to make the Best Mashed Potatoes
- Simple Mashed Sweet Potatoes
- Garlic Roast Green Beans
- Oven Roasted Broccoli
Variation Tip: I used fresh thyme here, but rosemary and sage are also so very delicious with this lemon garlic combination.
Budget Tip: For fresh herbs in the winter months, I like to get the small package labeled ‘poultry mix’. In our grocery stores here, it’s a mixture of rosemary, thyme and sage. You can use a mix of all 3 here, or just one herb and use the rest in other recipes. That way I get a lot of variety with just one package of herbs.
And finally, I hope you enjoy this as much as we have! If you do make it, I hope you’ll leave me a comment/rating below. And I always love hearing from you here, and over on Instagram where you can tag me at #getinspiredeveryday with your photos.
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Skillet Lemon Garlic Chicken Thighs
- Total Time: 45 minutes
- Yield: 4 servings 1x
- Diet: Gluten Free
Description
Picture crispy skin and pan juices so zesty you’ll keep coming back for more of these chicken thighs!
Ingredients
1 Teaspoon olive oil
4 bone-in skin-on chicken thighs
Sea salt and black pepper
1 Tablespoon minced fresh thyme, or sage/rosemary, see notes
2 cloves garlic, minced, see notes
1/4 cup freshly squeezed lemon juice
4 thin lemon slices, optional as garnish
1/4 cup chicken stock
Instructions
Preheat the oven to 450ºF.
Place a 9-10″ cast iron skillet over medium high heat. When the pan is hot but not smoking, add the olive oil to the pan.
Then place the chicken thighs in skin side down. (You may want to use some sort of shield for grease splatter.) Cook over medium heat until the skin is crispy, about 10-15 minutes. Turn the chicken and sear about 5 minutes before removing it from the pan.
Add the thyme and garlic to the pan and sauté until fragrant, about 30 seconds. Then add the lemon juice and chicken stock. Using a metal spatula, (or appropriate tool for your skillet) scrape across the bottom of the pan to pull up the browned bits into the sauce.
Place the chicken thighs back into the pan, and lay the 4 lemon slice evenly around the pan if using.
Roast the chicken thighs in the oven until a thermometer reads 165ºF, about 15 minutes. The timing will vary depending on your chicken thighs.
Serve immediately with your choice of sides.
Notes
For the fresh herbs you can substitute 1 teaspoon dried herbs instead. My favorites are Italian seasoning or Herbs de Provence. Also for the fresh garlic, you can sub in 1/2 teaspoon garlic granules.
If you don’t want to make a mess on the stove top, you can place the chicken thighs skin side down in the cast iron skillet and roast them in the oven for 20 minutes. Then remove the skillet from the oven to add the ingredients for the sauce and roast again with the skin side up until done. I’ve made it this way before with less mess, but the skin doesn’t render quite as crispy as using the stove top.
- Prep Time: 10
- Cook Time: 35
- Category: Dinner
- Method: Oven Roasting
- Cuisine: American