Just Plain Chicken

(Fiddlestix H. McWhiskers) #1

Please excuse my status as a neophyte, but I’m trying to find out how to bake plain chicken thighs and drumsticks in the oven, and I’m having a difficult time finding the info. When I search for “How to bake plain chicken thighs and drumsticks,” the results are recipes that include sauces, cheeses, breadings seasonings &c… I’ve never done this before and I don’t want anything on the chicken. Can anyone tell me how to bake just plain chicken thighs and drumsticks? Please?

(Rick Parker) #2

I would put them in a casserole dish and bake for 40 to 45 minutes at 375. Check them by sticking a toothpick or something sharp into the largest joint and see if the juice runs clear. If so, they’re done. If not, cook for another 10 to 15 minutes. That’s assuming you’re cooking them bone-in.

(Bob M) #3

If you have a thermometer, it makes it easy. You can set a temperature and wait for it to go off:

Edit: This is not one that I use. I was just looking for something.

#4

I just put them into the oven for 2 hours. At around 200 Celsius. I turn them now and them. Well that doesn’t make them crispy so they get about 20 minutes in the air fryer too. It always pair them up with some way more substantial pork, it needs the same amount of time except the air fryer, it doesn’t need that.
I have a mini oven, no idea how much that matters.
If the color is right, it’s finished, I almost always use that rule for any food as it works for me.

Meat cooking is easy, I toss it into a pan or oven pan with some salt and give it time, basically. I usually eat pork and it gets perfect without complication. I do put some tandoori masala on my otherwise pretty tasteless chicken thighs (maybe the beef priced ones are tasty but they don’t worth it to me).

(Fiddlestix H. McWhiskers) #5

I’m going to try just eating pork butts and chicken for a while. I really enjoy ground beef, but I’ve only been making meatballs with it and haven’t been able to get them to be consistently yummy. I’ve been able to get pork butts for between $1.50/lb and $2.25/lb, and I just picked up a 10lb bag of chicken leg quarters for $7.73. I’m trying to see how cheap I can make the carnivore diet in order to show a contrast from Dr. Baker’s example of sitting in front of 1 or 2 ribeye steaks at a time for a $30-$60 meal.

(Pete A) #6

Put the chix in a casserole dish. Salt and pepper maybe butter. 400 degrees 35 minutes

#7

It’s late for me to calculate but they seem nice prices! I can spend about $5-$6 a day on my food, carnivore food is my ally to easily fit into it and preferably go lower.
As I eat plenty of protein for satiation and have lots of fat to lose, I (theoretically) can do fat fast days to have super cheap days. Fat can be very cheap, protein is the expensive one.

(Fiddlestix H. McWhiskers) #8

400 degrees, 45 min with 2 pats of butter on each and they’re perfect! Thanks, folks.
Side note: I just learned that rendered chicken fat is called schmaltz.

What a great marketing slogan for someone who wanted to sell it:
“Hey, dat ain’t schmutz… dat’s shmaltz!”

(Bean) #9

I did this up as a method for 10# bags of legs and thighs… and yep bonus schmaltz included.

(Pete A) #10

You can drink that schmaltz!

(Fiddlestix H. McWhiskers) #11

Yes, I imbibed this evening. :wink:

(Fiddlestix H. McWhiskers) #12

Bravo! Now that is what I call a useful carnivore lesson.

#13

I usually grill, but when I bake them I do them in my Ninja oven at 350 for 25mins, pull them out and let them sit for 5-10min, and they’re perfect, juicy and what you’d want. Many people overcook the life out of their chicken, it’s a tragedy. I used to work in restaurants and learned real quick not to overcook people’s chicken.

*Bone in adds a little time if it’s a larger piece!

If you grab a pen thermometer or something, you basically want it to hit 150-155, pull it and let it sit, just like you would a steak, it’ll continue to cook for a few more minutes. If you try to hit that 165 number people talk about, congrats, you now have overcooked dry chicken.

(Bean) #14

Let me know if you have questions!

(KM) #15

Just made some tonight. Melt butter, add a little salt n pepper. Dip drums (or thighs) in this, then bake 35 min at 400 and broil 5 min at 500. Crispy crunchy skin, tender and juicy. I add a bit of Frank’s hot sauce to my butter for “buffalo legs” and make a dipping sauce with Franks plus plain yogurt.

#16

It was a few years ago and I have learned it on this forum :slight_smile:
Chicken is very fatty, thighs give me lots of schmalz, nice when I don’t have lard… Even my last pork shoulder produced like 15-20 grams… It was a very lean one (and that’s why I can’t track well, the fattiness is all over the place when it’s pork. or any animal, really, I eat very, very fatty rabbits. for a rabbit, that is).
But if I have lard, I like to fry my chicken liver in schmalz. Everything in its own fat! Yesterday I forgot so my liver has no added fat - if we don’t count the low-fat cream (it works and it was on an irresistible sale… it’s 10% fat so very, very low-fat for cream, only coffee cream dips a tad even lower!).

I may need some nice recipe for the pretty tasteless but tender chicken thigs. I think about some cream and spices. That even transforms chicken breast and I used to hate the thing so I never ate any. But it’s great soaked in tasty cream.

IDK how your folks’s oven works, my chicken is quite raw after a mere hour! Well not raw, per se but super pale and very very uncooked, the inside is probably raw and pink though, yuck! Even 2 hours isn’t enough. it’s nice and juicy and kinda cooked but the skin isn’t crispy and red and that’s the whole point (and that’s why I use the air fryer in the end. actually, I could cook it for much shorter and then more air fryer but the pork loin needs its 2+ hours so the thighs can join the ride without extra cost).

I do fry beef for a short time, that’s completely different. So it’s not like I cook the hell out of every meat, merely most of them :slight_smile: Once I actually have tried to eat fried liver after 15-20 minutes and it was super raw and disgusting. But it depends on the method, yesterday 23 minutes was enough, I might have mentioned it earlier. That was tender sliced chicken liver soaked in cream for many hours.

One day I may buy a meat thermometer, I get curious. But thankfully I never needed it, I just cook my meat thoroughly and it gets perfect (as perfect as it can get using the not always best ingredient. even my fav cuts varies a lot).

That sounds very very good… Maybe I should try this next time (on Sunday, I have a lot of thighs and little space in my tiny freezer)! Except my mini oven can only do 230C but that should be fine. Butter is quite awesome, good way to make the chicken tastier, I just never added fat as chicken is already too fatty… But butter beats schmalz taste wise and it releases the unneeded amount anyway if the skin becomes crisp…
Before the air fryer, I only could make crunchy chicken skin in a pan, using a very very long time, the skin separated from the meat. Despite my Mom and Grandma could do it somehow :frowning: Now I have air fryer so finally it can stay on.

(Bob M) #17

Yeah, if you look at the internal temperature guides for chicken, they tend to be too hot. For thighs, though, some people think the internal temperature should be about 180F-185F. This is a recommendation here, for instance:

I think the idea is that you get more collagen at that temp. I’ve never tested this, but I have increased the internal temperature I cook thighs to.

#18

I definitely will try a higher temperature for my chicken (and pork as they will be in the oven together)! Whatever the inner will do, I can’t measure that and honestly, it sounds way too much hassle for some meat (for me). The chicken won’t be really good anyway, it’s just easy to eat tender variety for me (except the crunchy skin, that’s great) and pork will be perfection if the slab is good enough. Or if there is a tastier thing, I don’t want to meet it as it’s dangerous…

(Rick Parker) #19

I usually buy bone-in breasts or thighs and debone myself and save the bones for stock. I cut the skin into little bite-size pieces for cracklings. Those are a wonderful keto appetizer. Then I save the schmaltz in a jar in the fridge and use it to cook the chicken (if there is more than I need to cook what I’ve deboned). Schmaltz is a wonderful and flavorful fat to cook with.

(You've tried everything else; why not try bacon?) #20

Pork shoulder, also called a picnic, is also cheap and very tasty.

Pre-heat the oven to 450° F/230° C, put the joint in fat side up, immediately reduce heat to 350° F/175° C, and cook for 20 min/lb. or 9 min/kg.