This easy toaster oven recipe will turn out a pan of beautifully crispy chicken thighs with very little effort and only three ingredients. Perfect for a solo meal or as part of a date night dinner.
Tools For this Recipe
- Toaster oven
- 1/4 Sheet Pan
- Digital thermometer
Why Add Oil To My Chicken?
One thing I want to address in this recipe is my use of bacon grease, butter, or tallow in this recipe to lube up my chicken. It is true that chicken skin has some fat, but it is under the skin, and so will mostly all run down into the pan.
I find that oiling up the chicken skin results in a much more even and crispy finished product. Try it for yourself and see if you agree.
Date Night Dinner Suggestion
If you are planning on cooking this for someone, coming up with ideas on what to put with it can be tough. Assuming that you have limited cooking resources, below are some easy side dish ideas. I’d choose one starch and one veggie to round out this chicken recipe:
- Mashed potatoes (always a classic)
- Home made rice pilaf
- A premade salad with a flavorful dressing (awesome dinner hack)
- Pan seared green beans
- Steamed broccoli
- Sauteed Brussel sprouts
Toaster Oven Baked Chicken Thighs with Crispy Skin
Ingredients
- 4 Bone-in chicken thighs
- Salt or seasoning salt
- 1 tbsp Bacon grease or other oil
Instructions
- Preheat your toaster oven to 450℉
- Place your chicken thighs on your sheet pan and coat with your bacon grease or other oil.
- Liberally sprinkle both sides with salt or seasoning salt.
- Make sure they are as spread out as possible in the pan and skin side up.
- Place on the middle rack of your toaster oven and cook for 15 minutes.
- After the first 15 minutes, turn the chicken over, and cook for another 15
- Your chicken should be about 165℉ internally at this point, so flip them back to skin side up, and turn your oven to broil.
- Broil your chicken until the skin is the desired level of crispiness. Depending on your oven, you may need to turn the pan or rearrange the pieces during this stop to get even browning.
- When the skin is just the way you want it, take it out and serve!