Although not strictly necessary for all meats, a nice marinade is a great way to impart some extra flavor. While a ribeye may just need a bit of salt and pepper, leaner beef cuts like skirt steak, the inexpensive cut Bobby Flay prefers for feeding a crowd, definitely can benefit from the added flavor and tenderization. Chicken is no different. You can give a whole chicken a nice salt, pepper, and herb rub, but when cooking with chicken thighs, a marinade is probably the best way to go. And with a simple technique, you can get double the flavor out of your chicken thigh marinade. How? Marinate your thighs, then cook them with the marinade to create an easy, caramelized sauce.
As the chicken thighs cook in the oven, they will expel fat and juices to enhance the flavor of the marinade pooling underneath. From there, the marinade will thicken in the oven, the ingredients bubbling into a beautiful, stewed sauce. It’s a simple way to add a whole new element to your dinner with hardly any extra work. Ladle the sauce directly over the chicken when it comes out of the oven or add it to rice or roasted veggies. Let’s explore a few more tricks to help you get the most out of your chicken and the marinade sauce.
What you need to know to turn your chicken marinade into a sauce
This technique works beautifully with honey soy marinated chicken thighs, but you can use pretty much any marinade you normally would. You’ll definitely want to use vinegar in your marinade, or some other acid, because it will help tenderize the meat and add more flavor to the ultimate sauce. Any sweet element also works great, but just be sure you’re not cooking it too hot, because it could go from beautifully caramelized to simply scorched in the pan. Also, don’t marinate for too long, because the acid could break down the protein a little too heavily, taking it from tender to mushy. You can marinate for as little as a half hour or so to get some flavor, but usually two to eight hours is good (or overnight), while anything more than 24 hours will probably be too much.
When it’s time to cook, simply pour your chicken and marinade in a baking dish or pan and bake them together. If it was pretty substantial to begin with, your marinade should thicken into a sauce without any extra work necessary. However, if it comes out a little thin, you can add some flour or cornstarch and heat the dish on the stove to thicken it up. Just be sure that your dish is flame safe. And if it cooked down a little too much and it’s too congealed to be considered a sauce, you can deglaze the dish with an acid element, like vinegar, citrus juice, or wine. Just note that deglazing works best with stainless steel. So, when you’re cooking chicken thighs, you’re probably going to want to marinate them, but don’t dump that marinade down the sink. Instead, turn it into a sauce.
