Sticky Honey Lemon Chicken Thighs

These sticky honey, lemon chicken thighs are delicious and sticky sweet. You can serve them as is once you remove them from the pan you can deglaze all the sticky burnt bits to create a bit of sauce. Thighs are inexpensive and can take the longer cooking time to make them almost like a boneless chicken wing in flavour and texture.

You will need:

• 6 boneless skinless chicken thighs- cleaned and pounded flat
• 1/2 lemon zested 
• 2-3 tbsp olive oil 
• 1 lemon juiced
• 2 cloves garlic -crushed
• 1/4 cup honey
• few sprigs of fresh thyme leaves
• 2 tbsp butter
• 1/2 cup water
• salt/pepper

Step 1: clean the boneless thighs of any fat and place between 2 sheets of wax paper. Pound flat to allow chicken to cook evenly.

Step 2: zest 1/2 lemon over the thighs. Sprinkle with salt and pepper.

Step 3: slice lemon and place crushed garlic in small container (I used the measuring cup) with honey. 

Step 4: remove some fresh thyme and sprinkle on chicken.

Step 5: in a hot pan place a few tbsp of olive oil and butter. Cook on the first side until the water evaporates and the meat starts to brown. This may take 5 minutes. It will loosed when it is ready to turn. If it's stuck to the pan it's telling you it's not ready to flip yet. Be patient.

Step 6: flip and continue to cook until chicken gets brown on the other side. I prefer to do this not in a non-stick pan. A regular pan will allow the sticky bits (fond) to remain on the bottom of the pan. You want this because it will form a nice sauce in the end.

Step 7: once the chicken is browned on both sides. Add the lemon juice, honey and garlic. Cook on low heat until the moisture is almost completely evaporated and the the sauce gets caramel and sticky. This may take another 20 minutes. Flip from time to time and if it evaporates too quickly you can add some water. When you cook this chicken for approx 45 minutes the meat gets very fall apart tender and has the feel of a honey garlic chicken wing. Sticky and well cooked. My husband doesn't even like chicken thighs and he thought these were exceptional because there were no wobbly, fatty bits. 

top with some more lemon zest and a squeeze of lemon.

OR

deglaze the pan with some water or lemon juice and scrape off all the burnt or sticky bits to get a nice sauce/gravy. 

Either way they are great!