This sticky chicken thighs recipe is inspired by my trip to Earthbound Farm last month with Safeway. Located around the central coast of California, Earthbound Farm is an organic food producer, well known for their pre-washed packaged salad mixes. We visited their farms last month to see them harvest salad greens and broccoli. Because baby greens are so tender, I thought they were grown in greenhouses or a covered field. I was so wrong. Rather than greenhouses or covered fields, there were vast open fields of baby greens. To harvest these greens, you drive over them with a large harvester that cuts and collects the greens at the same time. Imagine a huge tractor driving over the greens row after row. The harvester can harvest a long row of baby greens in a matter of minutes! Our next stop on the harvest tour was at the broccoli fields. Again, I had no idea how broccoli was grown and harvested (I feel like such a city girl). The broccoli plants grew quite high— almost up to my waist. Harvesting the broccoli is similar to harvesting the baby greens. Farm workers drove large harvesters over the broccoli fields. These harvesters cut and collected the broccoli at the same time. There are also many farm workers stationed in the tractor. When you cut the broccoli, you cut the stalks and broccoli greens at the same time. The farm workers need to pick the broccoli greens from the stalks, bundle the broccoli, and pack them in boxes. These harvest tours remind me of how much effort it takes to grow the food we serve on our tables. It makes me appreciate all the hard work required in this process. Our final stop was at Earthbound Farm’s farm stand in Carmel. There, we got a chance to sample food from their new cafe (love their smoothies!) and make salads of our own. We broke into several groups and made salads with Earthbound Farm’s salad mixes, fresh herbs and vegetables from their farm stand, Foster Farms chicken, and La Tourangelle oils. I had so much fun picking herbs and making a giant salad with Sarah (Snixy Kitchen) and Irvin (Eat the Love). Before we ate a delicious meal prepared by Earthbound Farm’s Executive Chef Sarah LaCasse, we all participated in a pumpkin stacking contest. Our goal was to make the tallest free-standing stack of pumpkins. All I can say is that Sarah, Irvin, and I tried our best. Unfortunately, there are no photos because our pumpkin stack toppled over! Again, we tried. Gathering inspiration from my recent Safeway Trip to Earthbound Farm, I created Roasted Sticky Chicken Thighs recipe. This entire meal takes about 45 minutes to make, and it is absolutely delicious. My husband LOVED the chicken thighs! The honey sauce that I use to cook the chicken is sweet and mildly spicy, and they make the thighs finger lickin’ good.Yes, I ate these with my hands because I just couldn’t resist!
COOKING NOTES FOR THE STICKY CHICKEN THIGHS
I like using skin-on chicken thighs for this recipe because the thighs get a lot more flavor and won’t dry out as they’re roasting in the oven. You can also use skin-on chicken breasts if you want a less fatty meat. Boneless skinless chicken thighs will work as well, but they probably need less cooking time.
WHAT IF I DON’T HAVE A CAST IRON SKILLET?
If you don’t have a cast iron skillet (or one that you can stick into the oven for roasting), pan fry the chicken for a few minutes. Then, transfer the chicken thighs to a foil-lined baking dish (skin side down), and drizzle the honey sauce over the chicken. You’ll still need to flip the chicken halfway through the baking.
CLEANING YOUR CAST IRON SKILLET
Because of the high sugar content in the sauce, there is going to be a lot of burnt sauce on the bottom of your cast iron skillet. In an ideal world, I would rinse the skillet right after I take the chicken off the pan. The sticky honey sauce will come off a lot easier. However, that rarely happens because I’m usually preoccupied with eating rather than cleaning when dinner is ready. I don’t usually get to the dishes until an hour later. By then, the sauce will be caked into the pan. To clean the skillet, I run very hot water over it and use a bristled dish scrubber to clean off the sauce. The caked-in sauce will be stubborn in the beginning, but hot water will soften it, making it easier to clean from the pan. Disclaimer:This post is sponsored by Safeway. You can find all the ingredients for this recipe at your local Safeway.
