Around here chicken makes a regular appearance on the dinner table. To tell you the truth, it gets a little boring after awhile – grilled chicken, baked chicken, sautéed chicken, chicken soup, chicken n’ pasta… But with all that chicken, my family never tires of chicken thighs. We like the dark meat around here y’all. It’s good stuff and pretty inexpensive, too, but use whatever kinda chicken you like.
This recipe is simple to whip up right before cooking or to use ahead of time as a marinade. Although a marinade typically includes an acid, such as a vinegar or citrus juice, you could certainly add either to this recipe. For this recipe you’ll need olive oil, soy sauce, garlic cloves (or garlic powder), ground ginger, honey, salt and pepper. You can easily switch up the ingredients to your liking and taste. A splash of sesame oil would be a nice addition.
Basically, mix all ingredients together in a large plastic zip-top storage bag, add the chicken making sure to coat each piece. Place chicken and sauce/marinade in baking dish or leave in large plastic bag to marinate in the refrigerator until ready to cook.
When ready to cook, bake in a 425° oven for 25 minutes with the skin side up. Turn the chicken and cook another 15 minutes. Then turn the chicken again to skin side up and finish cooking for another 10 minutes to crisp up the skin. Cook until internal temperature of chicken reads 165°F.
You can skip all the turning and flipping of the chicken if you’d like, but I think it cooks more evenly helping to avoid one side being too dry. These would be mighty tasty grilled as well.
Enjoy!
Ingredients
- 3 tablespoons olive oil
- 3 tablespoons soy sauce
- 5 tablespoons honey
- 4 cloves of garlic; minced (or substitute 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder)
- 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
- 1/2 teaspoon fresh ground pepper
- 3 pounds (approximately) chicken thighs (or preferred chicken meat)
- salt and pepper to taste
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 425°F.
- Mix first 6 ingredients together in a large plastic zip-top storage bag. Add salt and pepper to taste. Add the chicken to plastic bag making sure to coat each piece.
- Place chicken in baking dish along with sauce/marinade or leave in large plastic bag to marinate in the refrigerator.
- When ready to cook, in a baking dish, bake chicken in a 425° oven for 25 minutes with the skin side up. Turn the chicken and cook another 15 minutes. Then turn the chicken again to skin side up and finish cooking for another 10 minutes to crisp up the skin. Cook until internal temperature of chicken reads 165°F.
Oh Amy, I want to come and eat with you! This looks delicious.
I know what you mean about chicken getting boring, but this looks anything but! I can’t wait to try it this week.
Love the honey and soy, two main staples in my house
but I am a freak about bones and chicken so I will use breast. Can’t wait to try it though.
PS: Your photos look great!!
I use the boneless chicken thighs and they are soooooo yummy, no bones
Your photos are always so vibrant. Love them! Great dinner dish!
Thanks. Our chicken gets boring, too. We also like dark meat – this will be on my table next week. All help appreciated.
Always up for a new chicken recipe. My youngest is always whining, “Chicken again??” Yeah, buddy.
We eat a LOT of chicken. I just bought a ton of chicken today, I think I’ll marinate some of it this way for tomorrow night, thanks!
I just bought some chicken thighs tonight. Can’t wait to try this recipe. Kind of reminds me of my favorite salmon recipe.
How in the heck did you make chicken thighs look sexy? That’s really hard to do
I have never made chicken thighs, but how much we do want to bet that my husband would LOVE them?!
You just made a “non dark meat lady” think twice…and perhaps cross over to the DARK SIDE!
Happy Birthday , Amy!!!! Just thought I’d spread the word. Love you and hope you are having a wonderful day. Mom
Now that looks absolutely delicious! Great photography too. I grew up in a white-meat-only family, but only after venturing out into the world of dark did I truly find my nirvana. So much more flavor!
and ex-squeeze me? HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!! mine is Saturday, we’re practically TWINS!
Amy, Happy Birthday! I hope it was a great one!
if i haven’t tired of chicken by now, i doubt i ever will. there are so many ways to prepare it, and this one appeals very much!
ah, your mom came through for us–happy birthday!
Sounds like an excellent marinade…and that picture makes me think twice about always eating white meat.
I love a similar marinade a friend taught me — just made a big batch last week! I like to add a little mirin to it as well, but then I use a little less soy sauce and honey to offset what the mirin adds.
The photos are fabulous, Amy!
[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Amanda Padgett and Amy Johnson, Amy Johnson. Amy Johnson said: On the dark side. (It's just chicken y'all.) new post http://bit.ly/aA70Do [...]
This is the top searched recipe on my blog!
LOL.
I love love love this recipe it’s one of our favorites, for sure!
your pictures are gorgeous, as always! xo
Made similar recipe and marinade last night. Had the same ingredients but not the measurements. Thanks now I can make your recipe when I use more chicken.
these look AMAZING! thanks so much for sharing — will make them soon!
we eat thighs most of the time and today I used this recipe. VERY yummy thank you. I did change on thing I used 2tbs. of seasame oil instead of any olive oil. It marinated for 8 hours prior to cooking. I should have made more! ’cause it’s gone.
hi Amy
I found your recipe through TasteSpotting when doing a search for finding a new way to cook chicken and would like to give this a go, but I can’t tell what kind of soy sauce you’re using. I have sweet, thick (Indonesian) soy sauce but I doubt that’s what you’ve used because my mother tells me that that burns very easily, hmm?
Myra =]
[...] the original recipe as it is [...]
[...] Teriyaki Chicken, Thai Coconut Rice & Grilled Veggies [...]
My boyfriend loves when I make this! Such a great recipe.
Well I found this recipe online realized that I have all of the ingredients so letswait and see but it is smelling spectacular.
So delicious! Followed recipe exactly and it felt like real cooking when you get to turn the chicken during the cook time! Great favors and the house smelled delicious!
I cooked the thighs according to the recipe, and even before I turned them over for the last 10 minutes they were burnt and it took me a week to scrape off the burnt honey off the pan. Next time i’ll turn down the heat, I wonder if anyone else has come into this problem! But it was still very tasty, great recipe
This was so easy and your photos look so delicious, but my chicken came out a bit bland. Perhaps the problem was that I pulled the skin off in an effort to be healthier. I have to try this again with the skin, because the ingredients themselves tasted good, and the chicken came out with a lovely color. I suspect the extra crispiness of the skin would have tied it together beautifully.
Howdy! Yep. I wouldn’t recommend removing the skin until after it has cooked. The skin helps hold in the juices and adds flavor. You can still cut fat and calories by removing the skin after it has cooked.
[...] (adapted from SheWearsManyHats) [...]
Hello! I am going to cook these tomorrow night!
I am going to use boneless chicken breasts and I was just wondering how long can I let them marinate?
Hey Elena!
I think letting them marinate for up to a day is fine. Enjoy!
Okay, thanks!
Can’t wait to try them, they look delicious!
Holy cow these were delicious!! I used the boneless/skinless thighs and they worked perfectly. I turned the temp down to 400 and only baked them for about 35 minutes. They were fairly small and I didn’t want it to burn! These will be added to my rotation! Thank you!
[...] Yield: 4 servings | Prep Time: 5 minutes | Cook Time: 40 minutes | Source: adapted from She Wears Many Hats [...]