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Easy Lemon Garlic Butter Chicken Thighs Recipe is bursting with rich lemon garlic butter flavor and crispy, crunchy chicken thighs in under 20 minutes.
Perfect in salads sandwiches or wraps, over pasta & rice, or on its own with vegetables.
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Table of contents
Chicken thighs are permanently on my family’s weekly meal rotation. They are super easy, inexpensive, really versatile – and are great in a low carb or keto diet like my husband follows (and I try to follow… but… food has to just be so darn tasty!)
This simple and easy lemon garlic butter chicken thighs recipe – a simple and super adaptable pan fried chicken thigh recipe- is packed with lemon garlic butter flavor for perfect easy chicken thighs that are crunchy, never-dry, and totally delicious!
Try these flavor packed lemon garlic chicken thighs in a wrap, sandwich, or salad with your leftovers – it makes an amazingly delicious meal the next day.
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What you’ll need for these Lemon Butter Chicken Thighs:
To make this recipe, we will need the following ingredients:
- Clarified butter – clarified butter, or ghee, makes for a perfect pan frying fat for chicken thighs – it has a higher smoke point than butter so it’s good for searing, with all that rich, milky flavor!
- Celtic sea salt – I like using a coarse, flaky sea salt when seasoning meats, and often opt for Celtic sea salt.
- Pepper – for best flavor, use fresh cracked black pepper.
- Chicken thighs – for this recipe, we’re using skin-on, bone-in chicken thighs – but you can use any kind of chicken thigh. The only thing that will change is your cook time – reduce cook time if your chicken thighs are boneless, and if they do not have skin-on. Always go by chicken’s internal temperature.
- Garlic – garlic gives a rich, pungent, earthy flavor to dishes that ups the addictive factor!
- Lemon zest – lemon zest has ultra-concentrated flavor and a bright yellow appearance for an extra zing! I use a microplane to zest lemons. Never zest the white pith, just the yellow.
- Oregano – fresh oregano has a mint, anise-like, pine, and fresh herbal flavor that is great with chicken and won’t overpower the meat.
- Dry white wine – dry white wine brings a lightly sweet flavor and helps to cut through the rich garlic butter sauce.
- Lemon – Lemon juice, as well as lemon slices, bring extra pop to chicken thighs as they cook.
How To Make Lemon Garlic Butter Chicken Thighs
Once we’ve gathered our ingredients, we will use the following method:
- Prep. In a large, heavy pan, melt butter until liquid and shiny on high. Pat chicken thighs dry with a paper towel. Generously season chicken thighs with salt and pepper.
- Sear. Add chicken to pan and cook 3-4 minutes until one side is golden brown and crunchy. Flip and repeat for other side. Reduce heat to medium. Add diced garlic to pan, stirring quickly to prevent burning. Sprinkle lemon zest over chicken thighs. When garlic is soft and fragrant (not burned), add oregano, lemon slices, and wine. Cook until sauce has thickened and chicken thighs have reached 165 degrees internally.
- Serve. Remove from pan and plate with grilled vegetables, topping with sauce. Also great to add to salads, wraps, tacos, or save for meal prep to reheat for lunch.
Lemon Chicken Thigh Recipe Tips
- Pat Chicken Thighs Dry Before Frying.
- Be sure to thoroughly pat chicken dry before frying on the stove – this will help your chicken crisp properly.
- If you hate flabby chicken thighs, this is the most important step to be sure you will have perfectly crunchy chicken thighs – do not pan fry chicken thighs soaked in water from packaging!
- Use Clarified Butter to Pan Fry Chicken Thighs.
- While you can use butter or olive oil if you prefer, I think the flavor from ghee/clarified butter is the absolute most delicious fat to pan fry chicken in!
- Clarified butter gives chicken thighs a rich, salty, and buttery flavor – plus it has a higher smoke point, so you have less to worry about as you pan fry your chicken thighs.
- Let Chicken Thighs Crisp Before Flipping.
- If you flip your chicken too much, you won’t develop a lovely golden brown crunchy texture everyone loves. Give your chicken time to crisp before flipping!
- You can check to see how the chicken is doing by lifting one side with a spatula. If the chicken looks well browned, go ahead and flip.
- Unroll Chicken Thighs.
- The #1 complaint against chicken thighs is their texture – they have more fat and an uneven shape, which can sometimes give chicken thighs a weird flabby texture.
- To prevent an uneven or soggy texture, I like to unroll my chicken thighs, so they cook flat.
- While unrolled chicken thighs look a little funny, they crisp beautifully and cook more evenly, and they have more surface area to soak up all the delicious garlic lemon flavor.
If you love this delicious keto pan fried chicken thighs recipe with tons of lemon garlic flavor, please be sure to check out some of my other favorite low carb chicken dinners!
These chicken thigh recipes are all super simple – just one pan – and take under 30 minutes with very little carbs, making them perfect low carb chicken thigh recipes you’ll want to make again and again.
FAQs for these Lemon Chicken Thighs
Leftovers can be stored in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to four days, or frozen for up to four months.
Chicken thighs can be either boneless or bone-in – they will simply cook longer if there are bones. If you would like to remove bones, unroll the chicken thigh and cut bone out using kitchen shears.
Either works! If using skin-on, keep skin down to crisp and brown well before flipping- keep chicken skin crunchy!
What to Serve With Lemon Garlic Chicken Thighs
Chicken thighs are permanent residents on my family’s weekly rotation because they are so delicious, easy, and versatile – and taste great alongside vegetables, rice, pasta, cous cous, salad, and more!
These easy and delicious low carb recipes are perfect to serve alongside lemon garlic butter chicken thighs like Perfect Sauteed Mushrooms, The Best Oven Roasted Garlic Parmesan Asparagus Recipe, and our 10 Minute Broccolini Recipe!
Easy Lemon Garlic Butter Chicken Thighs Recipe
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Easy Lemon Garlic Chicken Thighs
Ingredients
- 3 tbsp clarified butter
- t tsp celtic sea salt
- 1 tsp pepper
- 6 chicken thighs
- ¼ cup garlic, diced
- 1 tsp lemon zest
- 2 tsp dried oregano
- ½ cup dry white wine
- ½ lemon, sliced into rounds, hot or medium
Instructions
- In a large, heavy pan, melt butter until liquid and shiny on high.
- Pat chicken thighs dry with a paper towel.
- Generously season chicken thighs with salt and pepper.
- Add chicken to pan and cook 3-4 minutes until one side is golden brown and crunchy. Flip and repeat for other side. Reduce heat to medium.
- Add diced garlic to pan, stirring quickly to prevent burning.
- Sprinkle lemon zest over chicken thighs.
- When garlic is soft and fragrant (not burned), add oregano, lemon slices, and wine.
- Cook until sauce has thickened and chicken thighs have reached 165 degrees internally.
- Remove from pan and plate with grilled vegetables, topping with sauce. Also great to add to salads, wraps, tacos, or save for meal prep to reheat for lunch.
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
1/4 cup of garlic?!
Yes, garlic is the main flavor in these chicken thighs. If it’s too much garlic for you feel free to cut back on it and use only a tablespoon or two. Enjoy!