Why You Should Start Pouring Boiling Water On Your Chicken Thighs
People have many opinions about what cut of chicken is the best, which ones they’d prefer to avoid, and the ones in the middle – but for my money, there’s nothing better than a chicken thigh.
They’re the perfect size, the meat is tender and juicy, and I mean, there’s a reason they’re so popular.
That said, you might still be missing out on the perfect chicken if you’re not employing this hack.
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It comes courtesy of chef Cole Wagoner, whose chicken thighs are known by reputation – and are always golden, juicy, and with crispy skin that’s absolutely dreamy.
His biggest secret? Boiling water.
He talked with LifeHacker about this technique, and described a little about how it came to be in the first place.
“I have a friend who is a food scientist, and we’ve worked together on some recipes over the years, and this is one of the coolest things she taught me! It’s used a lot in Asian techniques as well, and that’s where she learned about it.”
If you’re curious, here’s the technical explanation of why pouring boiling water on your chicken works like a dream.
“The skin starts to immediately shrink, pull back, and get much thinner and translucent due to the subcutaneous fat rendering under the skin and between the meat. This renders down everything that we work to render out during a perfect cook – like getting enough time skin-side down to brown while the fat renders.”
The water does need to be boiling, and as for seasoning, Cole brines his overnight with 1-2% kosher salt by weight. It sits uncovered in the fridge, which helps it start to dry out.
You can season the outside as you like.
Wagoner gave a step-by-step instruction of how he cooks his, too.
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“I pan sear at about 400F, flipping as needed until internal temp is 165-175 but most of the time they’re skin side down. I’m also a big fan of doing this prior to a sous vide cook, as it really helps skin get crispy post-sous vide.”
The boiling water goes on after the brine, but before you do anything else to the chicken.
Go forth and cook, friends, and be sure to come back and share your results!
I think chicken thighs are in my family’s near future dinner plans now, too.
