Smoked Paprika Baked Chicken Thighs

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These smoked paprika chicken thighs will spread a deliciously smoky aroma around your kitchen and they make a perfect quick and easy weeknight meal served up with rice, salad, or my instant pot mashed potatoes. This is an easy-to-make and nutritious staple dish that no busy cook should be without!

Smoked Paprika Baked Chicken Thighs

You only need a few ingredients for this recipe and most of those are herbs and spices for the paprika rub which you’ll have ready in mere minutes. You can also change up the amounts of each ingredient you use in the paprika rub depending on how much depth you like to have in your smoked paprika. In our house, we like to keep it at a happy medium for everyone.

How To Make Baked Chicken Thighs

1. Preheat your oven at 375 degrees.
2. Start with the dry rub: just combine the ingredients and then set it aside.
3. Mix about 2 tablespoons of the dry rub with the olive oil.
4. Layout the chicken thighs in one layer in a baking or braising pan or a large roaster.
5. Use the oil/dry rub mix to brush the chicken thighs until they’re completely coated.
6. Place the chicken in the pan and leave it in the oven to bake for about 45 mins uncovered (or until the temperature hits 185 F).
7. Take your deliciously crispy paprika thighs out of the oven and serve!

Tips And Tricks For Making Smoked Paprika Chicken Thighs

• If you have any spice mix leftover you can use it on other meats like pork chops or pork tenderloin or even blend it into ground meat to make spiced meatballs! It also goes great with fish!
• Want to grill your chicken thighs instead? No problem! This recipe makes amazing grilled chicken thighs. If you’re grilling, set the grill at 300 after you’ve tossed the chicken with spices once the internal temperature of the chicken hits 160 F it’ll be ready to serve.
• You can serve these smoked paprika baked chicken thighs with any of my side dishes here on the website, they work great with plain rice or a side salad too.
• Use this spice rub as an alternative to the normal chicken wings at parties – your guests will love them.
• If you want to change it up a bit (or just don’t have chicken thighs) you can use any other part of the bird, just change the cooking time accordingly.
• You can cook this recipe ahead of time and it’ll keep in the refrigerator for up to 2 days. Just add the oil before roasting

Other Chicken recipes to try:

Mom’s Easy Honey Garlic Chicken

Crispy Oven Baked Chicken Thighs

Amazing Salt and Pepper Chicken Wings

Uncle Bob’s Japanese Chicken Wings

Happy cooking! These have become a new favorite, we looooove paprika in our house, so this combines two of my favorite things, smoked paprika and chicken thighs! I love a good chicken thigh recipe above allll others, they are so much more tender than the other cuts of chicken. Hope you love it!

Love,

Karlynn

Smoked Paprika Baked Chicken Thighs

Smoked paprika is the star of the show in these easy to make, tender baked chicken thighs, You can adjust the seasonings to your liking as well! The dry rub is enough for two recipes.

5 from 9 votes

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Prep Time

15 minutes

Cook Time

45 minutes

Course

Main Course

Cuisine

American

Servings

4

Calories

677

Author

Karlynn Johnston

Cook ModePrevent your screen from going dark

Ingredients

 

• ▢ 8 chicken thighs bone in and skin on
• ▢ 1/3 cup olive oil

Smoked Paprika Dry Rub Ingredients

• ▢ 2 tablespoons smoked paprika
• ▢ 1 tablespoon paprika
• ▢ 2 teaspoons garlic powder
• ▢ 1 teaspoon dried basil
• ▢ 1 teaspoon onion powder
• ▢ 1 teaspoon seasoning salt
• ▢ 1/2 teaspoon ancho chile powder

Instructions

 

• Preheat your oven to 375 °F
• Combine the ingredients for the dry rub and set aside.
• Take 2 – 2 1/2 tbsp of the dry rub and mix together with the olive oil.
• Place the chicken thighs in a large roaster, baking or braising pan in one layer.
• Brush the chicken thighs with the oil/spice mixture until they are well coated.
• Place the chicken in the pan into the oven uncovered.
• Bake for 45 minutes or until the chicken reaches a temperature of 185°F.
• Remove and serve.

Recipe Notes

• Nutritional values will vary
• Chicken thighs need to be cooked to at least 185°F for the proper texture. The higher the temperature, the more the meat fibers break down and the more tender chicken thighs are. They should always be cooked to between 185-200 °F for the very best texture! 

Nutrition Information

Calories: 677kcal, Carbohydrates: 5g, Protein: 38g, Fat: 56g, Saturated Fat: 13g, Cholesterol: 221mg, Sodium: 765mg, Potassium: 600mg, Fiber: 2g, Sugar: 1g, Vitamin A: 2812IU, Calcium: 34mg, Iron: 3mg

All calories and info are based on a third party calculator and are only an estimate. Actual nutritional info will vary with brands used, your measuring methods, portion sizes and more.

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