Lemon Chicken Thighs — Pizza Oven Tray Bake

Sometimes the best things you can cook in a pizza oven aren't pizza at all. These lemon chicken thighs are a perfect example — bone-in, skin-on thighs tossed with garlic, thyme, lemon zest and a good glug of olive oil, then slid into a searingly hot oven where the skin blisters and crisps while the meat underneath stays incredibly juicy. It's the kind of dish that looks and smells like you've been cooking all day, but takes about half an hour start to finish.

Ingredients

• 4–6 chicken thighs, bone-in and skin-on
• 3 cloves garlic, crushed
• 1 lemon, zested and juiced
• A few strips of lemon peel
• 4–5 sprigs fresh thyme
• 2 tbsp olive oil
• Salt and black pepper, to taste

Method

1. Fire up your pizza oven and let it come up to temperature, then allow the flame to die down a little so it's very hot but just below full pizza-cooking heat. You want fierce, radiant heat — not a raging inferno that'll char the garlic before the chicken is cooked through.
2. Put the chicken thighs into a sturdy roasting tray. Add the crushed garlic, thyme sprigs, lemon zest, lemon peel and lemon juice. Drizzle over the olive oil and season generously with salt and black pepper. Give everything a good toss so the thighs are well coated.
3. Slide the tray into the oven, positioning it slightly away from the fiercest heat — this protects the garlic from burning while still giving you that beautiful, golden, slightly charred skin. Cook for 20–25 minutes, turning the thighs once halfway through.
4. The chicken is ready when the skin is deep golden and crisp, and a meat thermometer inserted into the thickest part (away from the bone) reads 75°C. Don't rely on colour alone in a pizza oven — the outside can look done long before the inside is safe.
5. Spoon the tray juices generously over the chicken before serving. A final squeeze of lemon never goes amiss.

Originally published by DeliVita. Adapted for UK audiences by Cedar Kitchen in the Garden.