Quote:
Originally Posted by Nancy LC
... What's the reason for removing the skin? It's my favorite part.
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Yikes!! Sorry I didn't see your question before this, Nancy
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Okay so .. why skinless thighs? Well, it's not due to fat-phobia or political correctness!
I typically buy large "family size" trays of skin-on thighs, then remove the skin and globs of fat to make shmaltz (chicken fat for frying) and crispy fried chicken skin snacks. Here's my old thread about ..
The Joys of Chicken Fat.
This lime-chili recipe was based on one I'd made earlier, which is featured on our host site, lowcarb.ca ...
LEMON-GARLIC-HERB CHICKEN. With that one, I'd originally tried it with the skin on and was disappointed with the result. It ended up soupy, with hard "chewy" skin as ImOnMyWay mentioned.
What I wanted was chicken with a sticky gooey sauce that I could marinate then bake in the same pan; which I could eat with my fingers and would be good cold or reheated. I wanted to put the cold pan straight from the refrigerator into the oven.
Enter Karen Barnaby
. Karen suggested I take the skin off the thighs (which were the source of "soupiness"), then use a smaller baking pan so the thighs were relatively crowded. I tried this and .... perfection. Chicken thigh pieces that I could eat with my fingers with a gooey sauce. And were perfectly yummy to eat as cold leftovers.
So then I created THIS recipe with lime, chilis and garam masala for a more Asian flavour. Mmmmmmm. Loved it. Karen loved it too .. and in fact this recipe was included in her
Low-Carb Gourmet book, but was renamed "Doreen's Thighs'' (p. 174)
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Note that my recipe above calls for a 9"x9" baking pan for 8 thighs. If you choose to make this with skin-on thighs, I suggest using a larger pan so the pieces aren't crowded. It might be better to marinate the pieces in a large bowl or ziploc bag, then put in a larger baking pan (eg. 9" x 13") for cooking. Maybe line the pan with foil and use non-stick spray to keep it from sticking and make less mess for clean-up
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Note that the cooking time of 45 to 50 minutes includes putting the cold pan straight from the fridge into a cold oven. If you choose to preheat the oven first, and put the marinated chicken into a room-temperature pan, of course you'll want reduce cooking time.
I haven't made this in a long time, but now I want to make it again soon! Just pulled a pack of chicken thighs out of the freezer into the fridge to thaw overnight, and yes!! .. I have all ingredients on hand
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