Easy Dinner Recipes to Make with Chicken Thighs

You’ll always be able to rustle up something tasty for dinner when you have a pack of chicken thighs in the fridge. Although not as lean as chicken breasts, they have a richer, deeper flavour, and they’re usually more budget-friendly to buy too!

Our weekly meal plan always includes two or three easy chicken thigh recipes, since they’re high in protein, while still being slimming friendly. As well as tasting delicious, they’re a really versatile ingredient, so you can make a whole host of different meals to keep your midweek menu interesting. 

If you’re looking for inspiration for next week, scroll down this list of easy dinner recipes to make with chicken thighs…

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Cajun-Style Chicken Thighs

Juicy, tender and bursting with flavour, these Cajun-Style Chicken Thighs are beautifully simple. You’ll only need some fat-free Greek yoghurt, a spoonful of tomato puree and a sprinkle of Cajun seasoning to create a fiery marinade for the meat. 

Yoghurt helps to tenderise the chicken thighs, so it’s a good idea to prep this recipe in advance – you can let it marinate for up to 24 hours before cooking. 

Half an hour in the oven is all it takes to get the chicken lovely and brown, ready to be finished with a squeeze of lemon juice. They’re perfect for lunch, served alongside a crunchy, fresh Greek Salad. 

Lemon and Garlic Chicken Traybake

We’re a big fan of one-pan meals (so much so, we’ve filled a whole book with them – you can pre-order Pinch of Nom: All in One here). This Lemon and Garlic Chicken Traybake is one of our favourite things to make with chicken thighs, especially on a busy midweek evening. 

Once you’ve parboiled the potatoes and carrots, they can go straight onto the baking tray with the chicken. All the flavours mingle while they roast in the oven, until your kitchen smells too good to be true. 

Best of all, this one’s so hearty, you won’t need to add any side dishes…unless you want to!

Chicken Cacciatore

When you cook chicken thighs in a slow cooker, magic happens! For this Italian-inspired Chicken Cacciatore recipe, we’ve used a mixture of thighs and drumsticks, and left them to cook low and slow until the meat falls off the bone. 

Simmered in a rich tomato sauce that’s packed with vegetables, this comforting dish is perfect for chilly evenings. We love to spoon it on top of a bed of pasta, but it’s every bit as delicious served with mashed potatoes or lots of extra veggies. 

We like to make this recipe using our Instant Pot Duo 7-in-1 Smart Cooker. It has a 5.7 litre capacity, with slow cooker and pressure cooker included in the choice of functions.  

One Pot Mediterranean-Style Chicken Orzo

The summery flavours of this One Pot Mediterranean-Style Chicken Orzo are not to be missed! We’ve coated chicken thighs in a smoky blend of spices, before throwing them into a pot with earthy veggies, tomatoes and lemon juice. 

It’s as simple as it sounds, especially since the orzo goes in with all the other ingredients. That’s a full meal all on its own, without needing to set another pan on the hob (yay for less washing-up!). The good news is this one’s freezer friendly too – the leftovers will keep and reheat like a dream. 

Baked Spaghetti with Chicken

Raid your store cupboard! Along with budget-friendly chicken thighs, you’ll need some spaghetti and a tin of chopped tomatoes for this slimming-friendly Baked Spaghetti with Chicken recipe. 

Cheap and cheerful, it’s a hearty pasta dish that you’ll turn to time and time again. Once you’ve boiled the spaghetti until it’s almost cooked, it’ll go in the pot with everything else. This gives it plenty of time to soak up the garlicky, herby flavours in the sauce. 

We’ve even included a slow cooker method if you like to get ahead. You’ll be rushing home at the thought of twirling that spaghetti round your fork!

Salt and Pepper Chicken

Set the table for a fakeaway feast! We love salt and pepper anything, but we especially like smothering the salty, spicy seasoning all over juicy chicken thighs. You can use as much chilli as you like to give our Salt and Pepper Chicken just the right kick of heat. 

We’ve said goodbye to all the oil that’s used to make the takeaway version of this recipe, without losing any of the taste bud-tingling flavour. Each portion works out at just 308 calories, so it’s ideal if you fancy adding a few of your other Chinese-inspired fakeaway dishes. 

We’d go for some Fakeaway Fried Rice and a couple of our Prawn Bites!

Baked Chicken Thighs with Lemon and Cumin

Our zesty Baked Chicken Thighs with Lemon and Cumin make sure the chicken is the star of the show, no matter how you serve it. Roasted to perfection in just 20 minutes, the classic flavours bubble away until your kitchen smells incredible!

When the chicken thighs are melt-in-the-mouth tender, it’s time to dish them up. We love them with veggies and potatoes, or loaded into wholemeal pittas with loads of crispy, fresh salad and a dollop of Tzatziki.

Pesto Chicken Orzo

When we need a real crowd-pleaser, we always put this Pesto Chicken Orzo on the menu! The herby green sauce gives a lovely flavour to the succulent chicken thighs, juicy cherry tomatoes, green beans and orzo pasta. 

It’s well worth the extra effort of roasting the tomatoes before adding them into the pan – it makes them so much sweeter, with a much more intense flavour. You’ll finish the whole thing off by melting in some Parmesan cheese, but hold a little in reserve to sprinkle over right before tucking in!

You’ll need a casserole dish with a tight-fitting lid to make this one. This MasterClass Casserole Dish with Lid will come in handy for all kinds of one-pan recipes since it’s suitable for use on the hob as well as in the oven. 

Spicy Lime and Coconut Chicken Curry

If you love fiery food, you won’t want to wait another minute to try this Spicy Lime and Coconut Chicken Curry. A favourite over in our Facebook group, you’ll want to mop up every last drop of the zesty sauce with a Simple Naan Bread.

Instead of thickening the curry with high-calorie coconut cream, we’ve poured in some coconut plant-based drink, and left it to reduce. Paired with diced chicken thighs, chopped tomatoes, fresh green chillies, dried chilli powder and a spoonful of madras curry powder, everything simmers into a hot and spicy curry with a Thai-inspired flavour. 

We use this Alpro Coconut Plant-Based Chilled Drink for our recipe. You can pick it up in most supermarkets, or order it online from Amazon!

What’s your favourite chicken thigh recipe?

If you have a go at any of these tasty chicken thigh recipes, we’d absolutely love to see a photo of it in our Facebook group. We have almost 1 million lovely community members waiting to support you on your slimming journey.

Don’t forget to take a quick look in our Gallery if you’re on the hunt for even more inspiration. You’ll want to sign up to a free website account to upload and share your photos (we’ve got a step-by-step guide you can follow that makes it even easier).

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