Crispy Chicken Thighs With Charred Zucchini
Updated Oct. 12, 2023
- Total Time
- 1 hour
- Prep Time
- 10 minutes
- Cook Time
- 50 minutes
- Rating
- Notes
- Read community notes
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Ingredients
Yield:4 servings
- 4bone-in, skin-on chicken thighs (about 1½ pounds)
- Kosher salt
- 3medium zucchini, halved lengthwise
- ¼cup raw pumpkin seeds
- Tender cilantro sprigs, for garnish
- ½cup buttermilk
- ¼cup raw pumpkin seeds
- 1cup torn tender cilantro stems and leaves
- 1garlic clove
- 1jalapeño, stemmed (and seeded, if preferred)
- 3tablespoons lemon juice (from 1 lemon)
- 1teaspoon kosher salt (such as Diamond Crystal)
- Plain white rice
For the Sauce
To Serve
Preparation
- Step 1
Heat oven to 400 degrees. Use a paper towel to pat both sides of the thighs until dry. Generously season the chicken thighs all over with kosher salt. On a plate, season the cut sides of the zucchini with salt and let sit.
- Step 2
Place the thighs skin side down in a medium or large oven-safe skillet and turn the heat to medium. Cook, undisturbed, until the fat on the chicken skin has rendered, the thighs release easily from the pan, and the skin is a golden brown with splotches of dark brown, about 15 minutes. Flip the thighs over and cook until the other side is golden brown, about 5 minutes.
- Step 3
Transfer the chicken, skin side up, to a plate. Return the pan to medium heat. Pat the zucchini dry and place cut side down in the pan and press down firmly with a spatula. Cook until deeply charred in spots, about 3 minutes, then flip. Add ¼ cup water and scrape up any browned bits with a stiff spatula or wooden spoon. Place the thighs (and any juices) on top of the zucchini, skin side up. Scatter the pumpkin seeds around the pan and transfer skillet to the oven. Roast until thighs are cooked through, about 15 minutes.
- Step 4
While the chicken roasts, make the sauce: To a blender, add the buttermilk, pumpkin seeds, cilantro, garlic, jalapeño, lemon juice and salt; blend until smooth.
- Step 5
Scatter cilantro on top of the chicken and finish with a light drizzle of sauce. Serve with rice and the rest of the sauce on the side.
Private Notes
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Cooking Notes
Richard
Remove the seeds from the zucchini and salt it for 20 minutes before you cook it to pull out some of the water. That will help keep it from getting mushy while cooking.
spm
I love charred zucchini on the grill. In this recipe it turned out too mushy. Consider substituting a sturdier vegetable. Next time I may try Brussel Sprouts. Pumpkin seeds were a nice addition.
Es
Great dinner. I loved the different textures. This is what I did: First of all, a large zucchini (missed in the garden) cut in half and then the halves cut in half (6 pieces); salted for a half hour (did not remove seeds) and then grilled until charred all over; cooked the thighs and then deglazed the pan with a touch of dry sherry; put chicken on top of zucchini surrounded by pumpkin seeds, and then roasted. Sauce superfluous but good. Zucchini not mushy. Rice with corn with sauce as a side.
RDY
Tahini typically is a good substitute! You could do 1/4 cup tahini and 1/4 water.
ann
Is there a replacement for pumpkin seeds? Perhaps pine nuts or sunflower seeds?
Samantha Kilgore
Really good! We don’t love cilantro so we subbed 1/2 basil, 1/2 parsley and it was bright, fresh, with plenty of heat (I left the seeds in and used 2 jalapeños). Mixing the sauce in with the rice made the rice really creamy and good. Pumpkin seeds were a win. Zucchini was soft but really flavor; sweet and salty with the heat from the dressing.
Alex
I made this using eggplant and it worked just as well, and went well with this sauce. This sauce is awesome by the way, I plan to pour it on everything.
midwestern cooking (with spice)
Really tasty. Salting and wiping the condensation of the zucchini is an absolute must - that’s the only way you get that caramelization. Also a huge fan of what I’ll call the pipián verde dressing, so fresh and bright (I made it threefold for use in salads / with chips).
Barb
A cast iron skillet shines here. Not a big zucchini fan, so I sliced eggplant into about 3/8” rounds, swiped eacg side with some olive oil and stuck in oven in a baking shhet at 500 for 15 min then flipped for 5 more. Chicken was cooking at the same time. Served over brown rice. My sauce was thin but soooo good.
Anita
Made the sauce to go with roast chicken and green salad. Substituted tahini for pepitas—delicious!!
heymo
I think the recipe is supposed to call for pepitas instead of pumpkin seeds. Unfortunately I used whole seeds and the sauce was inedible until I ran it through a food mill. It ended up being delicious but thought I’d save someone from making same mistake as me and having the sauce have bits of the hull in it.
Misa
Loved this! Used a jalapeño pepper and 3 young zucchini from our veggie plot. No issues with the zucchini getting mushy, and we loved the green sauce! Will definitely make again.
Anna-Marie
1 hour before starting, I cut 1 med zucchini in half crosswise and then lengthwise and laid the pieces cut side down on some salt on a sheet pan. After one hour drained liquid from zucchinis, rinsed them to remove the salt and dried them very well. Only then moved on to char them in the hot skillet. Turned out amazing. Unctuous addition to the chicken, rice and sauce.
AndreaC
Gorgeous. Made as per the recipe. Don’t be tempted to skip the sauce, it makes it taste so good!
Peter Storandt
How do you add pumpkin seeds to the sauce if they're in the oven with the chicken and squash? :-)
KayDee
They're listed twice on the ingredient list - once for thighs and once for the dressing.
sunil
Cooking the thighs, skin side down, for 15 minutes is far too long. I would time it at 5-6 minutes before flipping and cooking for another 2-3.
sueflblue
I salted and dried the zucchini for 40 min. I made it per the recipe and it was mush. The chicken was great but the zucchini went in the trash.
Alex
I made this using eggplant and it worked just as well, and went well with this sauce. This sauce is awesome by the way, I plan to pour it on everything.
Helen Burton
Pan must be truly non-stick or it will be a disaster like mine - the only browning was the skin that stuck to the pan and came off the chicken. Zucchini was too large even when cut in half; it should be a small or at least a skinny zucchini. It would help to have the dimension of the zucchini that will work in this recipe. Every thing did cook in the oven though it took longer than 15 minutes. Delicious but a mess.
Yas
Really loved this as a simple sharing main dish at a dinner with friends. The zuccs did get pretty mushy, I should have pulled them out and plated it together later.
Ali F
Can someone tell me if you use pumpkin seeds or hulled pumpkin seeds/pepitas?
Cassandra
Children begging me to repeat this dish—that’s how yummy it was. Went wish broccoli in place of zucchini and they demolished it.
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