Baked Milk Chicken Thighs
If you’ve never had baked milk chicken thighs before, you’re in for a real treat. It’s an easy recipe for juicy chicken thighs. You’ll be obsessed. The rich, creamy sauce and tender juicy chicken is outstanding.
Baked Chicken Thighs in Milk
It’s nice and cold outside. The kind of cold that we Southern Californian’s don’t often get, around 45°F at night. For us, that’s enough chill to have everyone put on our “heavy” winter sweaters and cozy up to a cup of hot tea or coffee. Even this time of year, memories of Summer & Fall heat and drought haunt the back of our minds, so you’ll understand why we’re celebrating when we’re pulling out our warm clothes.
When it get’s to this cold temperature, it’s time for us to get busy with oven cooking because that’s what we’re craving. In fact, we’ve been wanting to experiment with so many oven recipes but because of the heat, we’ve been avoiding the oven for so long.
Video: Juicy milk chicken thighs recipe:
Instead of fearing the oven heating up the house, we get to relish in it. We’ve been indulging in anything that give us warm comfort and what you see here is one perfect example of why we love cold weather cooking.
Tender and Juicy Chicken Recipe
Behold, these tender chicken thighs roasted in milk will rock your world. We’ve been seeing so much inspiration from Jamie Oliver’s milk chicken that we couldn’t help it but to make it right away. Because we were pressed for time (starving!) and cause we only had chicken thighs in the house, we resorted to a shorter version of his recipe. Along with some of our personal spices, this version of chicken milk is outstanding.
For the love of chicken thighs, warm oven comfort food and the spirit of the season, we’re so happy to fill our bellies with a recipe that will be a go-to for the “brrrrrr” cold season.
Enjoy the recipe!
-diane and todd
Write up was orginally published in 2015 and was updated in 2020.
Milk Roasted Chicken Thighs Recipe
Ingredients
For the chicken thighs:
- 3 pounds (1.4 kg) chicken thighs (about 6 thighs), bone-in and skin-on.
- 1 teaspoon (5 ml) ground cumin
- 1 teaspoon (5 ml) paprika
- kosher salt , to taste
- fresh ground black pepper , to taste
- 2 Tablespoons (30 ml) butter , divided
- 3 cloves (3 cloves) garlic , minced
- 1 (1) bay leaf
- 1 cup (240 ml) milk
- 3/4 cup (180 ml) chicken broth
- 1 teaspoon (8 ml) dried thyme leaves (or fresh thyme)
- zest of 1 lemon
For the gravy (optional):
- 2 Tablespoons (30 ml) butter
- 2 Tablespoons (30 ml) all-purpose flour
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 400°F.
- Pat dry chicken thighs. Season both sides of chicken thighs with ground cumin, paprika, salt and pepper.
- In a large oven proof skillet, melt 1 tablespoon of butter on medium-high heat. Place chicken skin-side down and sear each side of the chicken until crispy brown, about 2-3 minutes per side. Remove chicken from pan and set aside. Using paper towels, drain the excess remaining fat from the skillet.
- In the same skillet over medium heat, melt the remaining 1 tablespoon of butter, add garlic and cook until fragrant, about 1 minute. Add bay leaf, milk, chicken broth, thyme, and lemon zest. Bring liquid to a low simmer.
- Place chicken back into the skillet and transfer to oven. Roast the chicken for about 25-30 minutes or until fully cooked. Internal temperature of chicken should be about 175°F.
- After chicken is cooked, serve with the milk sauce. But if you want to make a delicious and thicker gravy out of it then remove the chicken from the pan. Heat up the pan of milk sauce again to a low simmer. Whisk in butter and flour until all flour clumps are removed. Sauce will get thicker as it cooks.
- Once gravy is thick and creamy, remove from heat and serve immediately.
This made a delicious Sunday night dinner, loved by my entire family of 5. I did have to use 2 skillets because I used over 4 pounds of thighs.
I am in the middle of a kitchen renovation, so – no oven, no stove, etc. What do you think about trying this in a crockpot? Crazy?
I am missing real cooking…
Hi Amanda, this chicken recipe could probably work in a crockpot. But we’d probably use skin-less chicken so it doesn’t get too greasy. Searing them on a hot pan helps release so much of the fat. If you try it, let us know how it works out!
Thanks again for the great recipe!
Delicious, thanks
I’m in the process of cooking this now, it’s in the oven I can’t wait to try it!!
Do you have an suggestions for a good side? Would the gravy be good over rice or noodles?
This looks amazing! Can I do this with boneless thighs & if so, do I need to adjust the cooking time?
Hi D- yes if you’re cooking skinless, the chicken might cook quicker. Check the cooking time when it’s less and if the chicken isn’t cooked through, continue cooking till completely cooked. Chicken thighs can often vary in sizes as well.
can you use 1 percent milk????
Should work fine.
Can u use any kind of milk? Or does it not work well with any other?
We don’t know about non-dairy milks, since we haven’t tried them. We’ve used everything from 1%-whole milk and it all worked great.
Can this recipe be used with white meat?
Yes definitely you can! But you might have to adjust cooking times depending on the size of the chicken breasts you are cooking.
I made this tonight and it was amazing! Perfect for a drizzly night.
Yay! And yes, it’s so perfect to eat when it’s cold outside. thanks for sharing.
I shared the post with one of my recipe-sharing groups, I know they’ll love it too! The recipe is simple enough to do on a busy schedule.
Made it last night, deelicious! Loved those flavors, the thyme and cumin are smashing together with the chicken. I found I didn’t need any extra fat in the pan to make gravy so didn’t add those extra two tablespoons butter, as much as I love butter. The milk had curdled during baking and the fat separated from the other liquids, but it’s all good fats and tasted so good!
Thanks Naomi for your suggestion! And you’re right, the extra butter is a little decadent. We’ll made that additional note in the recipe.
Yummy, I can’t wait to try this dish. Yeah something new.
Winner, winner chicken dinner! It is a hit in this house xoxox
Awesome! thanks for letting us know.
Nive weeknight dinner and a life saver for me today. Thank you!
yay! Glad we could be of dinner-help. ๐