Chicken Thighs, Mario-Style

Chicken breasts are wonderful and delicious recipes abound, but, I have a confession. My true love is dark meat. Now that boneless, skinless chicken thighs are readily available, I am one happy chickie. But how to prepare these little boneless, skinless gems of chicken thigh?

I pulled out all of my favorite cookbooks one after another and couldn't find any boneless chicken thigh recipes until I came to Italian Grill by Mario Batali. Thank you, Mario!

The recipe includes a combination of bread crumbs, parsley, garlic, anchovies and olive oil mixed together to coat the chicken thighs. The ingredients sounded wonderful. The big problem was that the mixture just wouldn't not stick to the chicken thighs. The skinless meat was just too slick to hold on to the coating. My solution? Whatever wouldn't stick to the outside, I stuffed on the inside!

Mario's recipe suggests grilling them on an outdoor grill but it was just too cold here so I used my cast iron grill pan instead.

They were delicious! Serve with your favorite side dishes and you will be a happy chickie yourself.

I'm sharing this recipe at Foodie Friday at Designs by Gollum. Thank you, Michael for continuing to host this event. You can find so many wonderful recipes posted by great cooks there so be sure to stop in for a visit.

Mario's Grilled Chicken Thighs
Recipe Adapted from Italian Grill by Mario Batali
Printable Recipe

Serves 4

8 boneless, skinless chicken thighs

1-1/2 cups fresh bread crumbs
1/2 cup extra-virgin olive oil
2 teaspoons anchovy paste*
1/3 cup fresh Italian parsley, chopped
6 cloves of garlic, minced

Combine the bread crumbs, olive oil, anchovy paste, parsley and garlic in a food processor and process until nicely chopped and well-combined.

Preheat a cast iron grill pan over medium heat on the stove.

On a work surface, unfold the chicken thighs and place about 3 tablespoons of the bread crumb mixture on each thigh. Roll them up tightly and secure with kitchen string. Any remaining bread crumb mixture can be patted onto the outside of the chicken.

Brush the grill pan with 1 tablespoon of olive oil and arrange the thighs 'presentation side' down first on the pan. Cover the grill pan loosely with a lid and cook for about 15 minutes before turning. Turn and cook the other side for an additional 15-20 minutes until fully cooked.

Cut off kitchen string, serve and enjoy!

*The original recipe calls for anchovy filets.