Freestyle Roasted Chicken Parm

By Sam Sifton

Freestyle Roasted Chicken Parm
David Malosh for The New York Times. Food Stylist: Simon Andrews. Prop Stylist: Paige Hicks
Rating
4(1,728)
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This is a no-recipe recipe, a recipe without an ingredients list or steps. It invites you to improvise in the kitchen.

You don’t need much for this easy dinner: bone-in chicken thighs, canned crushed tomatoes, mozzarella, a little Parmesan or pecorino, zest from a lemon, olive oil and red-pepper flakes, maybe a few snips of basil if you can find any. (If you can’t, don’t worry, it will still kill.)

Toss the chicken in salt, pepper, zest, red-pepper flakes and a few glugs of olive oil, then get them on a greased sheet pan or two in a 425-degree oven, skin-side up, spreading them out as much as you can manage. While the chicken roasts, warm the tomatoes on the stove with a splash of olive oil and a little black pepper. Watch the chicken get well and truly crisped — it’ll take around 35 or 40 minutes — and then place a nice slice of mozzarella on each one to melt. (Activate the broiler, if you like, but I prefer the gentle style.) Spoon warm tomato sauce onto each plate, then top with a cheese-covered chicken thigh, some sprinkled Parmesan and a few torn pieces of basil. Sautéed greens would go nicely on the side.

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Comments

Brian

Think this recipe would have been better with skinless chicken breasts instead of thighs. Thigh skins were simply too fatty when mixed with the mozzarella. Everyone ended up peeling off the skin, and then having to place the melted cheese on top of the thighs—quite messy.

Brian

These non-recipe recipes are a bit terrifying for a newish cook like me, but this was great. My only improvisation/suggestion: added oregano, garlic, salt, pepper, and red pepper flakes to the tomatoes. I ended up being rather proud of the sauce as a result.

Valerie

Never buy cheap meat, especially from place like costco. Animals should not be industrialized and tortured. Buy local. If you cannot afford it, buy small amounts. Industry fatm is no 1 cause of climate change and its immoral

Suzanne

Consider removing the chicken to a platter after baking with the cheese. Cover in foil and swirl some slices of focaccia or baguette in those pan juices, toast for a few minutes in the oven, and serve with your chicken. It doesn’t disappoint…

MeganCM

I did this with boneless skinless chicken breasts trimmed into roughly the size of thighs for a ‘oh hey plans changed tonight, what are we having for dinner?!!’ dinner. I used a glass baking dish in a convection oven at slightly lower temp. But will keep temp the same as per recipe next time! It was low stress, easy and even my slightly picky eaters (5 and 2 yrs old) enjoyed it along side some plain pasta noodles! Keeping this in the rotation!

Staysi

Absolutely delicious! Used boneless skinless breasts, dipped in yogurt mixed w a little water (no buttermilk) and coated w breadcrumbs and then added salt, pepper, red pepper and lemon zest…also made the Marcela Hazaña tomato sauce which made the entire dish perfect. Baked 23 min then broiled once I added mozzarella. This will be a keeper.

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