Healthy cooks need not avoid chicken thighs

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Stout-braised chicken uses the more flavorful thigh meat. (Matthew Mead~AP)

Most health-conscious cooks focus on boneless, skinless chicken breasts.

It makes sense. This ubiquitous piece of the bird is convenient, versatile and virtually fat-free. But there are other — and often overlooked — options on the same bird. The more flavorful and just as convenient boneless, skinless thigh really should be near the top of your shopping list. Here’s why:

While it is true that the humble thigh is fattier than the breast — about 7 grams per 3-ounce cooked portion — that fat brings with it the extra flavor and moisture breasts can so often lack. Plus, the thigh’s dark meat contains the nutritional jackpot of considerably more iron and twice the zinc of white meat.

That extra fat also means that it’s harder to ruin a chicken thigh recipe, even with quick, high-heat cooking. Unlike with chicken breasts, it’s difficult to end up with a flavorless, overcooked, shoe-leather dry chicken thigh.

Boneless, skinless thighs are just as convenient as breasts (although you may want to trim off any extra bits of fat) but they do take just a little bit longer to cook, which makes them well suited to absorb plenty of smokiness on the grill or flavor from a sauce during a stovetop braise.

This recipe for stout-braised chicken thighs, which is perfect for St. Patrick’s Day, combines two techniques: flash browning over high heat and a quick, low-heat braise. By switching around the sauce ingredients you can turn this method for cooking thighs into an endless variety of dishes

Here, the recipe calls for 3/4 cup of a stout beer such as Guinness (you can drink the rest while the thighs are braising), and just a single strip of chopped bacon to make a smoky, malty sauce that’s nicely balanced by the sweetness of peas, carrots and onions, plus the earthiness of a handful of mushrooms.

Serve with mashed potatoes or even an Irish colcannon (potatoes mashed with kale or cabbage) to help soak up all the dark and flavorful sauce.

AP