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Crispy Rosemary Sriracha Chicken Thighs (Low Carb and Gluten-Free)

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Do rosemary and Sriracha sound like a funny combination to you? I confess, it wouldn’t have been something I would automatically put together myself, except that I did it by accident one day. Yes, by accident. That makes it sound a little like those old Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup commercials. Hey, you got your rosemary in my Sriracha! Hey, you got Sriracha on my rosemary! Okay, so it wasn’t exactly like that. It was more like I ran out of regular hot sauce for a recipe so I grabbed the Sriracha. And I happened to be helping my son with his homework at the same time as getting dinner ready. So before I knew it, I had added several tablespoons of Sriracha to the marinade when I only meant to add a teaspoon or two. I took a chance and just went with it. And it turned out to be amazing.

Chicken thighs have always been one of my favourite meals. I’ve always preferred dark meat over light, and it doesn’t hurt that they tend to be inexpensive as well. But there’s always a danger that thighs will turn out too rubbery, especially if cooking bone-in, skin-on thighs. I’ve cooked a fair bit of chicken thighs in my day and in my humble opinion, the best way to cook them is grilling or broiling. Or at least, baking them and then turning on the broiler at the end to crisp up that skin. It makes a huge difference to the overall outcome. And unlike breasts, thighs are pretty hard to overcook. My husband and I have experimented with a couple of recipes, and we’ve found that five to ten extra minutes in the oven, plus a few minutes under the broiler, makes them far less greasy and rubbery.

The Results: With the amount of Sriracha in these, you’d think these would be pretty spicy. But they’re not really. I’d say that these barely even register on the heat meter. My kids all love them, and like many small children, they are averse to anything even mildly hot. But somehow, that Sriracha gives the thighs incredible flavour. The whole marinade together – the yogurt, the lemon, the garlic, the rosemary and the Sriracha – seem to add up just right. I always make a double batch when I cook these thighs, because they are just as good re-heated the next day. Just make sure you reheat in the oven, and not in the microwave. The microwave is no friend to chicken thighs!

Crispy Rosemary Sriracha Chicken Thighs

1/4 cup plain yogurt
2 tbsp olive oil
2 tbsp fresh lemon juice
2 tbsp chopped fresh rosemary
2 tbsp Sriracha
2 cloves garlic
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp pepper
4 to 5 large bone-in, skin-on chicken thighs

In a medium bowl, whisk together yogurt, olive oil, lemon juice, rosemary, Sriracha, garlic, salt and pepper. Place chicken thighs in a large ziploc bag and pour marinade over. Turn bag over several times to coat chicken. Place in refrigerator and let marinate for at least one hour.

Preheat oven to 375F. Arrange chicken thighs in a single layer in a baking dish or broiler pan. Spread any marinade remaining in the bag over the thighs. Bake 35 to 40 minutes, or until chicken is cooked through. Then broil on high for 4 minutes, until skin is crispy and golden brown.

Serves 4. Each serving has 4.5 g of carbs.

Nutritional Disclaimer

Please note that I am not a medical or nutritional professional. I am simply recounting and sharing my own experiences on this blog. Nothing I express here should be taken as medical advice and you should consult with your doctor before starting any diet or exercise program. I provide nutritional information for my recipes simply as a courtesy to my readers. It is calculated using MacGourmet software and I remove erythritol from the final carb count and net carb count, as it does not affect my own blood glucose levels. I do my best to be as accurate as possible but you should independently calculate nutritional information on your own before relying on them. I expressly disclaim any and all liability of any kind with respect to any act or omission wholly or in part in reliance on anything contained in this website.

Reader Interactions

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Comments

  2. Mmm, this is right up my alley Carolyn! Love sriracha and I'm a fan of dark meat too, so much more flavorful and they're a bargain to snatch up. Horray for accidental discoveries in the kitchen!

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  3. Sriracha is an amazing sauce. I love the stuff, and I'm not a big hot sauce person. I also prefer the thigh to the breast (but would include slow cooking with favorite methods even though it means missing out on that gloriously crispy skin). This looks delicious. If the kids enjoyed it, I'll bet Dudette will too. Many thanks for sharing your discovery.

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  4. Rosemary and sriracha sound like a perfect combination to me! This looks amazing – I love spicy, crispy thighs, but rosemary should make these really special. What a wonderful recipe!

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  5. Hahah "Hey, you got Sriracha on my rosemary!" I love it. And yes I would've never come up with that combination myself either. What a happy accident! Looks delicious

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  8. Sriracha is such a great ingredient! My boyfriend introduced me to it and I've been using it in meals ever since. He would absolutely love this recipe, must try! Yumm!

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  10. Wow, I would never have put these two together, but yum to do they look amazing! I love spicy things though so maybe I would add a bit more . Looks great though! Have a great weekend Carolyn!

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  15. Made this last night and it was great–easy to make and very flavorful, not at all too spicy for us.The rosemary came out strongly but did not overpower. I did substitute sambal oelek (which is what I had on hand) for the sriracha, but I think the two are pretty much equivalent. This recipe was also very economical–I bought chicken thighs in a 'value pack' and what I used for this recipe cost less than $2.

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  18. Haha, the Reese's commercial reference cracked me up. I too am partial to dark meat — I'll take chicken thighs over chicken breast any day. This recipe looks scrumptious, and now I'm craving chicken.

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  19. Simple, flavorful and delicious!!! How wonderful this must be…I'm going to keep this in mind for a weeknight dinner…we always have chicken on hand and I need some new options 🙂 Hope you're enjoying your weekend~

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  22. Made this recipe tonight for dinner. Wonderful aroma while it baked and was delicious. Always look forward to trying your recipes.

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  23. I love the Sriracha in these thighs. Pile on the heat, please! I'm a white meat in salads gal, but a thigh nd drumstick girl when it's served hot. Dying to try it – it looks scrumptious!

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  24. I love using sriracha in marinades, although I've kept the recipes sort of asian inspired. Using it with different spices is a great idea!

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  27. I forgot who linked this post on Facebook but as soon as I saw it I knew it was going to be dinner, esp not having to buy any new ingredients. We did one sub…. for my child to eat it the yogurt has to be soy & we only had vanilla, not making a 47-minute round trip for plain. I don't think it made that much difference. It was nice to make something new & have it come out right and as intended on the 1st try.

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  28. I love rosemary, so it doesn't sound funny to me at all 😉 but the siracha. Oh nooow you've got my attention. These chicken thighs sound like just the thing to kick it up in my kitchen!

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  32. Crispy chicken thighs with a kick from sriracha sounds like an excellent dinner to me! Yogurt is a wonderful tenderizer and marinade, too – I make a similar tandoori-type chicken. Great recipe.

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  33. I have always wondered about kids and spicy food, why they never seem to get along 🙂 I love spicy foods ever since I could remember. And I love chicken as well. This looks really good!

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  34. These chicken thighs look awesome! I feel compelled to feature you in my Friday Food Fetish roundup and on Pinterest. Let me know if you have any objections and keep the amazing food coming…

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  37. I'll have to try this! I have some boneless skinless chicken thighs in the freezer waiting to be defrosted. I love sriracha in anything and have definitely never combined it with rosemary. Can't wait!

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  43. I made this for Valentine's Dinner for my husband who loves Sriracha! It was simply amazing and really!! My husband asked me if I could make it at least once a month for dinner!

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  45. This was hugely popular! It's a bit spicy from the sriracha so I served it with plain rice. I also used boneless and skinless thighs because the hubs doesn't do either. A delicious recipe that I've raved about on Pinterest and FB. Thanks!

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  46. I made these this week and they were AMAZING. I'm going to try it with boneless, skinless chicken breast this weekend because my sister is weird and doesn't eat dark meat or meat on the bone. Thanks for a great recipe!

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  49. Just wanted to say that this recipe has given my husband and I an entirely new formula for marinade. Tonight we subbed miso for the sriracha (and eliminated the salt). It came out so good! I *never* would’ve thought about combining yogurt and miso before seeing your recipe.

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  50. This was delicious! Found your recipe on Pinterest and tried it this evening. I’m allergic to milk, so I substituted Sour Supreme instead of yogurt. My husband loves chicken thighs and Sriracha…so I knew we had a winner!

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      • I just tried these, although the DH brought home skinless, boneless thighs, which got me off on the wrong foot (although still one up on those women whose men refuse to go to the grocery store, lol!). The chicken is LUSCIOUS, but next time I make it I’ll leave the rosemary out — I think this just confirmed for me that I don’t like rosemary! As for an accompaniment, I had a yen for a whole mess (as we say in the South) of sauteed onions and peppers on the side. And the combination was fantastic! The sweetness of the peppers and onions was a beautiful foil for the rich, savory chicken.

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  53. Carolyn, forgive me if this has already been asked, but is this recipe really meant to serve 4? How could one chicken thigh be enough for one person?

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    • Yes. What size were your chicken thighs? If you bought little ones, then that would be an issue, I suppose. But one large chicken thigh plus a big salad is a good serving for me. And I am an extremely active person with a high metabolism.

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  55. Wow. Best cold chicken ever. Ran out of Sriracha so half was Franks Hot sauce.

    This replaces buffalo chicken wings for me!

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      • Made this a second time, again a double batch but with 100% Franks hot sauce. Fabulous. Took the defatted drippings from both batches and added 4 cups of chicken stock, making an amazing filling broth. No extra seasoning needed!

        As good as this is as leftovers it’s pointless not to make double batches and the variation on bone broth is insanely good.

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  56. Can you use sour cream instead of yogurt to reduce the carbs further? I have a difficult time finding yogurt with a low enough carb count.

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  57. So, this sounded so good to someone like me who doesn’t even like chicken much (except wings and legs). So I had defrosted my fat chicken thighs from Sprouts and got ready. Once my chicken thawed, however, I discovered it was the fat chicken LEGS I defrosted. Oh, well. I mixed all my ingredients (I didn’t have Rosemary, so I substituted an organic Italian seasoning whose first ingredient was Rosemary). In the final broiling, I had to turn the legs to brown each side. But MAN was this yummy!!! Doing it tonight with actual THIGHS!!!

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  58. This inspired recipe was delicious! I made 12 at one time (baked for 40 min), and am having the leftovers for lunches this week. A lot of juices collected in the bottom of the pan. I simply poured them off and used as a ‘gravy.’ Although the marinade was fairly spicy, the baked chicken was not spicy at all. Cleanup was a breeze as I lined my pan with foil. This is going into our regular rotation. Thanks Caroline!

    Reply

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