I love everything about this Olive Oil Chicken Thighs Mediterranean Style recipe! Mediterranean anything is an automatic must-try for me. The spices, lemon, olive oil, and chicken thighs are all tops in my book. My husband, not so much. He’s iffy on chicken thighs, so I don’t cook them often. But every once in a while I have a craving I need to indulge. That’s exactly what happened this week. But don’t worry, I make sure he has something else to eat. I’m a sweetie like that!
These Olive Oil Chicken Thighs are rubbed with a Mediterranean spice mixture, then marinated in a mixture of Extra Virgin Olive Oil and lemon, then seared to golden perfection on both sides, and finally finished by baking in the oven and then drizzled with more olive oil, lemon, and fresh garlic.
The Ingredients
A good chunk of this recipe’s ingredients are spices, and I had them all on hand. They’re all basics that I cook with regularly around here.
That left the fresh ingredients for my shopping list. None of those were unusual, though, and I didn’t have any trouble finding them. Lemon, parsley, and garlic are the kind of things you can find at any grocery.
This recipe is written for 8 servings, but you can scale it up or down on the blog page. I did just that since I’m cooking for 2. Well, 1 since my husband doesn’t really dig chicken thighs with bone and skin. Anyway, I set it to 4 servings so I wouldn’t end up eating chicken thighs for lunch for a week.
The Process
A simple marinade, searing on the stove, and roasting in the oven are the basic steps for this recipe. Here’s how my time broke down for these olive oil chicken thighs:
- 7 minutes to prepare the marinade
- 30 minutes to cook
- 37 minutes total (not including time to marinate)
The Marinade
When it comes to marinating meat and poultry, I’m in the the-longer-the-better club. This recipe says to marinate for 20 minutes to 8 hours. Guess which one I picked? Actually, I’m sure I went over 8 hours since I made the marinade in the early evening and cooked the chicken later the next afternoon.
But the marinade itself was as easy as mixing up and applying a spice rub and topping it with a mixture of lemon juice and olive oil. I chose a small container with a sealed lid that would fit all the chicken and leave very little extra room. That ensured the marinade would hit both sides of the chicken.
Finishing the Chicken
The next day, I got out my 10-inch cast-iron skillet and got to cooking. After preheating it with some olive oil (electric setting 5), I seared the chicken on both sides then put the pan into the oven to finish it up.
My meat thermometer came in handy because my chicken was done after 13 minutes in the oven. The recipe says 20-25 minutes, so I was very glad I had the thermometer.
I made the finishing sauce while the chicken cooked. It was the simplest part of the recipe, but don’t skip it! Just 3 ingredients (olive oil, lemon juice, and garlic) add so much flavor to the finished chicken.
