The Chicken Dinner Maine Chef Devin Finigan Makes on Nights Off

Certain smells are linked with memory in a visceral way, and, for me, one of the most redolent is sizzling chicken skin.

As a kid, that scent wafting through the house meant my father was rendering a mound of chicken trimmings into schmaltz, the byproduct of which was gribenes — golden, crunchy nuggets of skin. My sister and I would race to the kitchen at the first whiff, elbowing our parents out of the way to pluck those salty morsels off their paper towel-lined plate. Being small and nimble gave us the edge.

That memory came rushing forth recently as I was making a recipe for crispy chicken thighs with cucumber yogurt from Devin Finigan’s newish cookbook, “A Kitchen on Goose Cove” (written with Peter Kaminsky).

As the chef and owner of Aragosta, a restaurant on Deer Isle, Maine, Ms. Finigan is known for her inventive seafood tasting menus. But these crispy chicken thighs are strictly for nights at home with her daughters, ages 9 and 11.

“When you’re slow-crisping chicken skin, the whole house smells amazing,” Ms. Finigan said. “The girls know as soon as they can smell it, dinner’s almost ready.”

She starts the thighs in a cold pan and then sets a second skillet on top to weigh them down, which helps render the skin gradually and evenly. The technique is a bit like that of pollo al mattone, or chicken under a brick, she said, minus the brick.

To test for doneness, she uses a trick she learned from her father, who was also a chef. She nudges it with her spatula. If the chicken stays glued to the pan, it isn’t ready; let it be until it releases on its own. Then you can flip it confidently and firmly so the skin stays in one beautifully burnished piece.

While the chicken is cooking, Ms. Finigan enlists her daughters to help make the sauce, grating the cucumbers and dicing the shallot before folding them into an herby, lime-spiked yogurt.

Although Ms. Finigan swears by bone-in chicken thighs, chicken breasts will also work. Just make sure they’re skin-on. Because that is, after all, the point of the dish.

And if there’s any schmaltzy chicken fat left in the pan, don’t let it go to waste. Ms. Finigan likes to toss in a handful of shishito peppers to cook while the chicken rests. It’s yet another reason to elbow your way to the stove.

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