Tango Spice Test Kitchen: Twist & Shout Chicken Thighs!

Saturday was an amazing day for the simple fact it was not raining, it was not snowing and the temps were in the 50s! A spring-like day in winter, we take the little joys where we can get them.

While out back taking stock of how the ice and snow has messed with the yard and the plants it seemed like a good day to light a fire in the fire pit and whip up something tasty in the Dutch oven.

One thing you will note about most of my Dutch oven cooking is that I am not good at coal counting and getting the temps just right. I have counted coals a few times, but mostly I am lazy and just light a fire and get cooking.

Here is a cook inspired by a recipe I saw at Every Day Dutch Oven. This is a superb resource that I found and will be going back to over and over.

Saturday's meal was a very good one with just 8 plump chicken thighs. I placed a wire rack in the Dutch oven to keep the chicken off the bottom and this worked out really well. I was lucky enough to find a small, round rack in our 'stash of stuff' that fit perfectly.

After a nice bed of coals had formed I put a rack in the fire pit that was about eight inches above the heat. I was able to add some smaller pieces of wood to keep the heat up and also take some of the coals to place on the lid of the DO. Every once in a while after the first 40 minutes I would lift the lid and see how the chicken skin was looking. I kept a nice amount of hot coals on the lid until the skin got nice and crisp.

Have to say that these were some of the best chicken thighs I have ever had, super moist, just a tad bit spicy and the skin was very crisp. Because of the rack the fat rendered out of the skin and did not make the meat greasy.

Here is how I cooked these up. All on the fly, so you may have to adjust times and such when you try this in your back yard. I will definitely be making these again, many times!

Twist & Shout Chicken Thighs - Dutch Oven Style!