3-Ingredient Lemon Chicken Recipe

If I had to choose just one protein to cook and eat for the rest of my life, I would pick chicken thighs. There are multiple reasons why, but one of the biggest is this very recipe. Inspired by Clare de Boer’s melting lemon chicken, it’s become a solid go-to when I don’t want to put too much effort into cooking but still want a really delicious meal.

It’s crispy, saucy, versatile, and foolproof, thanks to one key technique for incredibly crispy, bubbly chicken skin.

The Secret to Super Crispy Skin

For really crispy chicken skin, you have to salt the skin in advance, then pat it dry with paper towels right before roasting. The salt pulls out some moisture from the skin, and the paper towels remove all that moisture from the surface, prepping it to bubble and crisp up into a beautiful, well-seasoned, golden-brown finish that I know we all crave.

The salting step doesn’t take long. For this recipe, I call for seasoning the skin at least 15 minutes in advance—ideally while the oven is preheating and you’re prepping the other ingredients—but you could also do this up to an hour beforehand.

How To Make My 3-Ingredient Lemon Chicken

When eating the lemon rind, as in this recipe, I recommend washing the lemons really well with warm water before to remove any wax that might be coating them. If you have a mandoline, use it to slice the lemons so they’re very thin and even.

To make about four servings, you’ll need:

• 6 medium bone-in, skin-on chicken thighs (about 1 1/2 pounds)
• 1 1/2 teaspoons kosher salt
• 1 large lemon, thinly sliced (around 1/8 inch) and deseeded
• 4 cloves garlic, peeled and crushed
• 3 tablespoons olive oil, divided

Season the chicken liberally with salt on both sides. Set aside at room temperature while you prep everything else (at least 15 minutes). Preheat the oven to 450ºF and move a rack to the middle of the oven.

Add the sliced lemon, garlic, and 2 tablespoons of olive oil to a 9×13-inch baking dish or rimmed baking sheet and toss to combine. Firmly press paper towels to the skin side of the salted thighs to remove any liquid on the surface, then transfer to the baking dish and pull any skin from underneath the chicken to the sides so that it can get crispy. Drizzle the chicken with the remaining olive oil and use your fingers to make sure the oil coats all the skin evenly.

Bake in the preheated oven until the chicken thighs are cooked through, the skin is golden brown and crispy and the lemons are softened, about 45 minutes. If the chicken is cooked but the skin isn’t crispy yet, broil until the skin is your desired color.

Remove from the oven and let sit for about 5 minutes before serving, spooning plenty of the softened lemons, garlic, and sauce onto the plate with each chicken thigh.

Play With It

Cooking is my job, so I tend to view recipes more like blueprints than strict instructions. I’ll usually make any given recipe exactly as written the first time, but after that, it’s fair game to play around with and adjust to my own taste or what’s currently languishing in my pantry or fridge.

Here are some simple ways to play around with this recipe:

• Use boneless chicken: You can use boneless, skin-on chicken thighs for this recipe; the cooking time will be approximately the same. I would not recommend using skinless cuts here, as the crispy texture of the skin is a key component
• Add herbs to the mix: A few sprigs of thyme or rosemary would be particularly well-suited here
• Vary the citrus: Add in thin slices of a deseeded orange or Meyer lemon
• Add alliums: Thinly sliced onion, scallions, or even leeks would play nicely with the flavors here
• Spice it up: Add chili flakes to the lemon mixture or season the chicken thighs with a pinch of smoked paprika, cayenne, or your favorite seasoning
• Sweeten it: Mix a drizzle of honey or a pinch of sugar into the lemons before roasting to cut some of the bitter and sour notes of the lemon skin