I’m always on the lookout for a tasty easy chicken recipe.  Particularly one made with chicken thighs. They are everyone’s favorite around here; what’s not to like? Juicy; flavorful and tender. The spice rub is awesome; I used both smoked paprika and some real Spanish paprika; a Christmas gift from my goddaughter who picked it up in Europe for me.  The homegrown lemons added so much fragrance and zing – made this dish soar!

This recipe is an adaption from one on californiagrown.org. I cut it in half since there are only two of us and reduced the spice amounts quite a bit plus I used boneless thighs instead of bone in.  It was licking the plate delish! The sum of these ingredients is far more than you might expect. Simple but the flavor interplay of these ingredients was perfection. Even the 8-year-old adored it!

Spanish Chicken with Lemons, Olives and Paprika

 

Serves 4

Ingredients:

4 boneless, skinless thighs

1-2 Tbsp EVOL

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1 tsp sea salt

1 tsp. paprika

½ tsp. smoked paprika

1 tsp. dried oregano

1 tsp garlic powder

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1 medium onion, yellow or red

1 lemon, particularly great if you can use Meyer lemons

½ cup green olives, no pimentos; I used jarred Manzanilla olives

Directions: Put the thighs in a bowl; add half the olive oil. Mix around. Mix the dry ingredients in a small dish and rub/pour over the thighs. Cover with plastic and refrigerate up to 8 hours; I did one hour in fridge and 10 minutes on counter to warm a bit.

Line the bottom of a 9×12 baking dish with aluminum foil. Drizzle with a bit of the olive oil. Cut up the onion from top to bottom in thin wedges. Lay in pan, slice the lemon thin and sprinkle slices around. I actually made 4 oblongs of the lemon and onion and laid my 4 thighs on top. Bake at 400 degrees for 20 minutes, turn thighs over and add olives in the center of the pan, corralled by the chicken thighs; bake 10 more minutes. Let rest 5-10 minutes before serving. 

Side dishes: I took a separate sheet pan; sprayed with olive oil spray and laid halves of small russet potatoes, cut side down and baked along with the chicken. When the 20 minutes of baking time went off I added a pound of whole asparagus spears with bottoms snapped off to the potato pan. Drizzled them with EVOL and sprinkled entire pan with kosher salt. Let it cook until chicken has rested; good if you can flip the potatoes and asparagus spears when you take out the chicken.

Notes; amazing if you have the fragrant Meyer lemon for it. Easy to double. I had some special European paprika which I used; very flavorful; made it amazing tasting. If you want it much spicier visit the original recipe but I wanted a more nuanced version and it was perfection! Enjoy.