These simple baked chicken thighs are becoming a staple in our house and are almost always met with the same reaction from the husband, "Is that Shake and Bake?" While I grew up on a steady diet of Shake and Bake and turned out just fine, I assure you that these little beauties have substantially better flavor and require no more effort than their boxed counterpart. Try them out and let me know what you think! And Katherine, I've included the freezer-friendly instructions for you!
6-8 boneless, skinless chicken thighs
1/2 cup olive oil
juice of 1 large lemon (or 3 tbs red wine vinegar)
2 sprigs fresh rosemary, leaves chopped
1- 1 1/2 cups panko bread crumbs
salt and pepper
In a large baking pan or a ziploc bag, combine olive oil, lemon juice, rosemary, 1/2 tsp salt, and 1/4 tsp pepper. Stir together and mix well. Add chicken thighs and let marinate 30 minutes at room temperature, or up to 2 hours in the fridge. Preheat oven to 375. Pour the breadcrumbs onto a plate and season with salt and pepper. Remove the chicken from the marinade and coat both sides in the breadcrumbs. **At this point, you can move the chicken to a cooling rack set over a baking sheet and move the whole thing to the freezer. Allow the chicken to freeze completely on the rack, about 3-4 hours. After that time, remove the chicken and place in a clean ziploc bag and stash in the freezer for dinner another night!**
Place chicken on a foil-lined baking sheet. Drizzle with olive oil. Bake for 25-30 minutes, until cooked through and gorgeously brown and crunchy.
**If baking from frozen, simply up the cooking time by about 10-15 minutes!**
Yes!!! Freezer meals! My favorite. Can't wait to try it out sometime soon- maybe next week, since this week is all vacation for the rest of the week.
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