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This Crispy Baked Chicken Thighs with Lemon & Garlic recipe requires only a few ingredients for perfectly baked chicken thighs. Serve them with roasted asparagus, a green salad, or your favorite vegetable for an easy gluten-free and low-carb weeknight meal!

Crispy Baked Chicken Thighs with Lemon & Garlic

Name: Crispy Baked Chicken Thighs with Lemon & Garlic
Prep time: 10 min
Cook time: 40 min
Total time: 50 min
Yield: 5
Ingredients: 2 pounds bone-in, skin-on chicken thighs; 1 Tablespoon extra virgin olive oil; 2 cloves garlic (minced); 2 teaspoons freshly grated lemon zest; 2 teaspoons chopped fresh thyme; ½ teaspoon kosher salt; ½ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper; ½ teaspoon aluminum-free baking powder ((optional)); Lemon wedges or halves for serving

Hi Friends! I’m Sarah, and I’m excited to be sharing another recipe at Joy Filled Eats! I’m a mama of four-year-old twins and a one-year-old. When I’m not chasing them around, I write about food, faith, creativity, and motherhood at sarahjhauser.com. I love sharing wholesome recipes for everyday life that fit a variety of lifestyles. In addition to my blog, you can also find me on Instagram (@sarah.j.hauser) and Facebook (/sarahjhauser).

This recipe for Lemon-Garlic Baked Chicken Thighs makes an easy weeknight meal and only requires a few ingredients—many of which you may have on hand. But don’t relegate this dish to the weekends only. It’s definitely flavorful enough for weekend entertaining! I love serving it with a simple side salad, roasted asparagus, cauliflower rice, or whatever other veggies I have on hand.

Benefits of Bone-In Chicken

If you’ve baked boneless, skinless chicken breasts, you know that it can be minutes before the chicken goes from perfect to dry as the desert. While I still enjoy that cut of chicken, bone-in chicken is definitely more forgiving. The darker meat has incredible flavor and cooking bone-in, skin-on cuts keeps the meat from drying out.

How Long to Bake Chicken Thighs at 400?

I bake my bone-in chicken thighs at 400 degrees which takes 35-40 minutes. Sometimes I’ll pop the chicken thighs until the broiler for an additional couple minutes to crisp the skin further.

Ingredients for Crispy Baked Chicken Thighs

Bone-in, skin-on chicken thighs
Olive oil
Garlic
Lemon zest
Fresh thyme
Salt and pepper
Baking powder (optional)

Why Baking Powder?

This is a trick I learned from Cook’s Illustrated to make skin-on chicken extra crispy! Ideally, you pat the chicken dry and let a mix of baking powder and salt sit on the chicken overnight for extra crisp skin. But with three little kiddos running around my house, I never think that far in advance!

However, I tested the baking powder trick without letting it sit overnight. I simply added it to the mix of garlic, lemon zest, thyme, and salt. I made a second batch without the baking powder to see if I saw a difference, and even though I didn’t leave the baking powder on overnight like Cook’s Illustrated recommended, I definitely noticed a difference! Both batches were delicious, but the one with baking powder did have better crispier skin.

That being said, most store-bought baking powder includes ingredients like cornstarch. If you’re avoiding grains entirely, you can either make your own grain-free baking powder or skip it altogether. Just finish the chicken under the broiler for the last couple minutes for extra crispness.

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