Crispy Skin Chicken in 30 minutes!

As promised in one of my previous posts, on instagram and also on Facebook, I'm finally getting to blogging our crispy skin chicken dish (not deep fried).  First off, you must used chicken with the skin on (I'll post an easy to print recipe at the bottom of this post as well). You can choose chicken leg, chicken thigh, drumsticks, wings etc.. but whatever you buy must have the skin in order to achieve the crispy chicken skin. The next item you will need is a large ovenproof pot that can be used on the stove top as well as the oven. A le creuset or a dutch oven will do the trick nicely.

First, take the chicken thighs, chicken legs, or chicken wings and pat them dry with paper towels. If you want more meat, then chicken thighs or quarter chickens (i.e. drum stick and the thigh) would be best. Add a sprinkle of salt, pepper and olive oil to the meat. You can also add more seasoning if you wish such as basil, oregano, or thyme. In this recipe, we kept it simple with just salt and pepper.

Preheat the oven to bake at 475F.

Next, place the dutch oven (the one that I have is a 5.3L le creuset) onto the stove top. Add a little cooking oil to the bottom the pot. Do not turn on the burner yet.

Arrange the chicken with the skin side down into the cold dutch oven. There can only be one layer of chicken otherwise you will risk having non-crispy and/or undercooked chicken.

Turn the stove burner to medium -low (halfway between med and low). Allow the chicken to cook uncovered for 15 minutes (skin side down). You will hear sizzling and popping and that is okay! This occurs because the fat in the chicken is rendering and will result in a nice crispy skin.

After 15 minutes, flip the chicken pieces so that the skin side is up. Feel free to place some sliced lemons underneath the chicken (the non crispy side) for a lemon flavoured chicken. Then place the entire dutch oven into the oven and bake for another 15 minutes. At this point, turn the oven temperature down to 375F.

After baking for 15 minutes at 375F serve immediately. This chicken should be juicy on the inside and have a crispy skin.

Quick Crispy Skin Chicken

Ingredients & Materials

• chicken thigh, chicken leg or chicken wings with the skin on
• 1tsp of salt
• 1 tsp of pepper
• 1 tbsp of olive oil
• optional: lemon slices or lemon zest
• large dutch oven

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 475F.
2. Pat dry chicken.
3. Lightly coat chicken with salt and pepper.
4. Lightly drizzle some olive oil on top of chicken.
5. In a cold Dutch Oven (or oven safe stovetop pot) add some cooking oil.
6. Arrange chicken pieces in a single layer with skin side down.
7. Place the Dutch Oven on the stovetop burner set at medium-low and cook for 15 minutes (do not touch chicken during this time).
8. Flip individual chicken pieces so that the cooked skin side is now facing up.
9. Place the entire Dutch Oven into the oven and reduce oven temperature to 375F.
10. Bake for another 15 minutes.
11. Serve immediately from oven.