This easy Bone-in Chicken Thigh Recipe requires 30 minutes, one pan, and 5 pantry ingredients if you don't count good old salt & pepper. And don't miss 15+ authentic and easy-to-follow Pakistani and Indian Chicken recipes!
2tbspolive oil or neutral oilsuch as grapeseed oil
1tbspcumin seeds
1 ½tspkosher saltor 1 ¼ tsp fine sea salt or table salt
1tspcrushed red chili flakesplus more to taste
¾tspfreshly ground black pepper
2tbspketchup
Instructions
Optional (but optimal) marination: Place the chicken in a medium bowl and toss with everything but the ketchup. Cover the bowl and let it marinate at room temperature for up to 2 hours; or in the refrigerator up to 12 hours. If skipping the marinade, start with the next step.
Heat a large, wide pan or Dutch oven with lid over medium heat. Add the marinated chicken and its juices (if you didn’t marinate, add all of the ingredients except the ketchup to the pan). Mix well to combine, then and spread out the chicken pieces into a single layer.
Reduce the heat to low or low-medium to maintain a gentle simmer.
Cover the pan and cook, tossing halfway through, until the chicken is fully cooked, about 25 minutes.
Increase the heat to high. Bring the remaining liquid in the pan to a boil and cook until most of it has evaporated (~5-6 minutes). Stir in the ketchup. Sauté, stirring only as necessary to allow the chicken to lightly sear (~2 min). Once the moisture has completely evaporated, turn off the heat. Serve immediately.
Video
Notes
Note 1 – You can use any cut of skinless, bone-in chicken such as thighs, drumsticks or cut up whole chicken pieces (the breast pieces will still remain tender!).
I’ve used thighs in the pictures and split leg quarters (drumsticks and thighs) in the video.
If you can, try to use small chicken thighs (typically 2-3 oz each). Smaller cuts of chicken cook faster and soak up more flavor.
See post for notes on skin-on vs skinless chicken.