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I can cook beef steak and chicken breasts pretty good, but boneless chicken thighs is where I have some issues.

First it is uneven in width, making it hard to properly cook the insides without overcooking the outside.

Second I do not know how to work the chicken skin. By the time the chicken is properly cooked, the skin is scorched - not crispy.

Third is that I do not know what kind of liquid goes well if I want to deglaze the pan. I am looking for a tangy, savory sweet gravy but I do not know what kind of ingredients will get me there (just basic deglaze knowledge).

I hope you guys can provide some guidance as to how to nail boneless chicken thighs and solve these problems I am having because YouTube and Google have not been my friends today.

EDIT: I have noticed some confusion about what is a chicken steak, so here: enter image description here

EDIT V2: Using what the comments have taught me, I have changed from "chicken steak" to "boneless chicken thighs". I will keep the picture to avoid further confusion.

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Bar Akiva
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  • Very good question! Steak is a primarily Western style meal, but Western countries usually don't sell chicken steaks at all, so if somebody has developed a nice way for doing them, I'd be glad to hear it. – rumtscho Feb 29 '16 at 11:40
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    What is a chicken steak? – GdD Feb 29 '16 at 11:56
  • @GdD It's top blade steak. It's pretty good, but it has a tricky line of gristle right down the middle. I've seen it threaded on skewers. http://esq.h-cdn.co/assets/15/06/nrm_1423263686-01-chicken-steak-0810-lg.jpg – Jolenealaska Feb 29 '16 at 12:22
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    Chicken steak is a beef cut. How does chicken skin play into that? – Jolenealaska Feb 29 '16 at 12:29
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    I think the OP is actually referring to a chicken fillet (which is indeed uneven), but then again: Unless they're still attached to the breast, they usually come without skin (and are then usually not sold as fillets). – Willem van Rumpt Feb 29 '16 at 12:57
  • @Jolenealaska, you are saying its a particular cut, not chicken fried steak? – GdD Feb 29 '16 at 13:27
  • @BarAkiva, could you please elaborate? Its fair to say there's confusion on what you mean. – GdD Feb 29 '16 at 13:29
  • @GdD I have provided a picture. It's got a popular name in Hebrew and I had real difficulty to find a name for it in English. Even English chicken cut info graphics did not provide something similar so maybe it is a regional cut? It was always too tasty to believe the rest of the world does not know this cut :) – Bar Akiva Feb 29 '16 at 14:06
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    Looks like thigh meat with the bone removed. – Catija Feb 29 '16 at 14:42
  • @Catija: I think it is. With a nice, tube like, thinner part in the middle where the bone used to be. – Willem van Rumpt Feb 29 '16 at 17:06
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    @Catija sold as "thigh fillets" in the UK. That's what it looks like to me. – Chris H Feb 29 '16 at 17:27
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    Yeah, in the US, they are simply called "boneless, skinless chicken thighs". We don't come up with fancy names for them, we call them what they are. – Catija Feb 29 '16 at 17:32
  • I do not know if there is a board game of what country uses less BS fancy names or terms, but if there ever was such a game I believe every country that still uses the Imperial System would automatically lose... – Bar Akiva Feb 29 '16 at 20:05

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This is my favorite cut: the boneless, skinless chicken thigh. I generally sear it in a pan that already has oil and spices in it, to seal the meat, and then reduce the heat to the higher end of Medium to cook it in an open pan. If hovering over it while it cooks isn't practical for you, try spicing and breading it before you fry it. The coating makes the meat more forgiving about when it is turned, etc., and helps to seal in the moisture.

Shalryn
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Regarding width: the chicken breast needs to be flattened. Here's a video of a home cook doing it to give you an idea. I don't use the hammer, I smack it with the bottom of a skillet. When I worked in a restaurant, the Chef had me flatten chicken with a smack from the side of a heavy cleaver.

Regarding the skin: I like to brown in a 50/50 olive oil and butter. Get it hot, then add the chicken skin down. Cook it, nudge it gently with tongs on occasion, when the chicken moves freely with a nudge, the skin is crisped, and you can turn it over.

Deglazing: I like a 50/50 mix of white wine and chicken broth. Shallots is are ideal, but I usually end up with onion.

Paulb
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