You Should Always Buy Boneless Chicken Thighs
Everyone who eats chicken loves a boneless, skinless thigh. Juicy, tender and well suited to everything from instant grills to slow sautés, they are perfect for almost any recipe. But all this is already common knowledge, which means that boneless hips are not the economical solution that they were even a few years ago.
This is why I’m a big fan of bone and skin chicken thighs, which are slightly less comfortable but much more affordable. They are fatty and fatty, like a great chicken wing , but meaty and filling enough to be eaten on their own. Bone thighs are also the perfect starting point for chopping meat on their own – a skill that many don’t even think of developing. With a little effort, choosing boneless instead of boneless, you get double the chicken for half the money.
I can’t stress enough how easy it is to remove bone from a chicken thigh. There is exactly one bone. To remove it, circle its edges with the tip of a knife and pull it out. That’s all.
If you like, you can also remove the skin (it flakes off immediately) and reserve it for other uses like Schmalz, or, as the chef suggests in this YouTube video, for grilling chicken skin skewers with sea salt. (Yes, please .) In just a few minutes, you’ll have a bunch of boneless thigh meat and all the skin and bones you need to make a fantastic broth .
You might prefer to avoid any amount of amateur carnage, which is an acceptable preference. Bone thighs are still in vogue, especially for all the cozy stews you are planning for the coming winter. Place them, skin side down, in a cold skillet , turn on medium heat, and cook unattended for 15-20 minutes until crisp and dark brown. Then, even if the recipe says otherwise, remove the peel and reserve it before continuing with the rest of the recipe.
Aside from the obvious golden brown crisp quality, this technique has several advantages. Peeling the skin early limits the amount of chicken fat in the finished dish and allows you to keep the slippery skin on the hot piece of meat. But more importantly, pre-crisp skin makes the richest and deepest supply you will ever have, without the extra effort. That’s enough for me, especially in soup season.