This baked cajun chicken thighs recipe is a juicy and delicious easy weeknight family dinner. This main dish requires 5 simple ingredients and a few minutes of prep time. Plus, you can use either chicken breasts, thighs, or legs. Enjoy this with these cajun chicken sides to make a meal.
Why Make Cajun Baked Chicken Thighs
- Easy weeknight dinner: Try this chicken recipe if you’re looking for something easy that the whole family will love.
- Simple recipe with just a few ingredients: This recipe is straightforward and uses just a handful of basic ingredients.
Ingredients Needed
This easy chicken recipe doesn’t require much. Here’s what you need to gather:
- Chicken thighs: I use raw bone-in chicken thighs with the skin on
- Cajun seasoning: this is a homemade spice blend that includes things like old bay seasoning, garlic powder, smoked paprika, and more. If you are using cajun spice rub from the grocery store. You will need to use less and treat it like regular salt (1/2-3/4 tsp per pound of meat).
- Butter: Salted and melted
- Cloves garlic: Minced
- Lemon: Juiced
Be sure to check out the recipe card at the bottom of the post for the full instructions and exact ingredient amounts
How To Make Cajun Baked Chicken Thighs
- Preheat the oven to 425 degrees. Add the chicken thighs to a broiler-safe dish with the skin side facing up. Sprinkle on the cajun seasoning and rub the spices throughout all sides of the chicken, including under the skin.
- Mix the butter, garlic cloves, and lemon juice.
- Pour it over the chicken.
- Bake at 425 degrees for 20 minutes. Baste the chicken with some of the drippings. Bake at 425 degrees for 15 minutes. Baste the chicken again.
Recipe Tips & FAQs
- Baste the chicken often: Basting the chicken as it cooks adds flavor and color and keeps it from drying out.
- Broil the chicken (optional): You can broil the cooked chicken for an extra 2-3 minutes. The high heat on top of the chicken works to brown its top and give it some crispy skin.
- For easy clean-up, you can cover your baking sheet with aluminum foil or parchment paper. But, be sure that it is broiler-safe if you opt to do that.
Variations
- Roast your chicken on top of vegetables like onions, bell peppers
- You can swap chicken thighs with different chicken pieces like chicken drumsticks (or chicken legs) and chicken quarters. I do not recommend using chicken breasts with this recipe since it is less fatty and will require a different cooking approach to have juicy chicken breasts.
Storage and Leftovers
Store your leftover chicken in an airtight container for next time (3-4 days max).
Cajun seasoning is one of the main ingredients in this baked cajun chicken recipe. My homemade Cajun seasoning contains Old Bay seasoning, natural ancient sea salt, black pepper, onion powder, garlic powder, cayenne pepper, smoked paprika, and dried parsley.
You don’t have to cover small cuts when baking in the oven. However, large cuts or whole chicken may need covering for even cooking. Sometimes, you might cover chicken breasts and cook it on a lower temperature to keep it moist.
I cook my bone-in, skin-on baked cajun chicken thighs for 35 minutes at 425 degrees.
Baste your chicken regularly as it bakes to keep it from drying out and avoid overcooking it.
More Cajun Chicken Thighs Recipes
You can have more cajun flavors with these simple chicken recipes:
- Best Cajun Chicken Sides
- Cajun Chicken Wrap
- Cajun Chicken Sandwich
- Cajun Chicken Thighs (Air Fryer): this recipe uses similar ingredients with boneless skinless chicken thighs
- Creamy Cajun Chicken Orzo
Baked Cajun Chicken Thighs
Ingredients
- 1.25 lb chicken thighs bone-in with the skin on
- 1.25 tbsp Cajun seasoning click for my homemade recipe
- ¼ cup Butter salted, melted
- 8 cloves garlic minced, about 1 tbsp of the minced garlic you can get in a jar
- ½ lemon juiced
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 425 degrees.
- Add the chicken thighs to a broiler-safe dish with the skin side facing up. Sprinkle on the cajun seasoning and rub the spices throughout all sides of the chicken, including under the skin.
- Mix the butter, garlic cloves, and lemon juice.
- Pour it over the chicken.
- Bake at 425 degrees for 20 minutes. Baste the chicken with some of the drippings.
- Bake at 425 degrees for 10-15 minutes, or until the chicken is 160 degrees (it will continue to cook as it rests). Baste the chicken again.
- Optional: broil on high for 2-3 minutes to brown the top of the chicken.
- Allow the chicken to rest for 5 minutes before serving.