Honey Soy Baked Chicken Thighs Recipe
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Honey Soy Baked Chicken Thighs recipe will become a regular on you weeknight menu. Make it once and see for yourself.
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 and pasta … the list goes on.
You would think with all of that chicken, my family would get sick of seeing chicken one more time. But no. They never get tired of chicken thighs. We like the dark meat around here y’all. It’s good stuff and relatively inexpensive, too, but use whatever kinda chicken you like.
This Honey Soy Baked Chicken Thighs 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-degrees F oven for 25 minutes with the skin side up. Flip the chicken and cook skin side down another 10 minutes. Then turn the chicken again to skin side up and finish cooking for another 10 minutes to crisp up the skin for a total of 45 minutes, or until done. Cook until internal temperature of chicken reads 165-degrees 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 Honey & Soy Baked Chicken Thighs would be mighty tasty grilled as well. Check out the Honey Jalapeno Grilled Chicken Recipe for instructions on how to grill chicken thighs.
Honey Soy Baked Chicken Thighs Recipe
Honey Soy Baked Chicken Thighs
This super easy and delicious baked chicken thighs recipe with honey and soy will become a regular favorite in no time.
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-degrees F.
- Mix first 6 ingredients together in a large plastic zip-top storage bag. Add salt and pepper to taste. Add the chicken to the plastic bag, seal bag and turn chicken to coat each piece, then place in refrigerator to marinate until ready to cook, up to a day ahead.
- When ready to cook, add chicken and marinade to a baking dish in a single layer. Bake chicken in a 425-degrees oven for 25 minutes with the skin side up. Flip the chicken and cook skin side down for another 10 minutes. Then turn the chicken again to skin side up and finish cooking for another 10 minutes to crisp up the skin, for a total of 45 minutes. Cook until internal temperature of chicken reads 165-degrees F.
Originally published April 24, 2010.
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 =]
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
Yes, the skin was almost black on mine as well! Will them down the heat or shorten time.
Yes, I had the same problem – it burned. I got back on this site to warn people of that. I tried making it a second time, thinking that I had made a mistake the first time. Burned again, and ruined the non-stick pan. But I loved the looks and smell of this recipe, so next time I just lowered the temp to 375 and baked for 35 min. It was perfect. So delicious!
No harm done about the pan since I’m getting away from non-stick anyway. I’m also getting away from plastic bags. I just marinated the chicken in a covered bowl and turned it a couple of times during the day.
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.
I’m sorry but does the chicken bake skin side down, and then skin side up or vice versa? The directions are “skin side up, then turn skin side up”. I know you mean skin side down in one of these. Which side bakes first? Thanks.
Whoops! Bake skin side down and then skin side up so it will crisp up.
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!
Thank you! I scrolled through so many comments before I saw someone who used boneless chicken thighs. You just saved our dinner! You rock!
Found you on Pinterest and this looks great! I don’t think you should worry though about people putting your instructions on the pin, b/c once they taste this yummy goodness they’ll be finding that pin and going to the source to see what other deliciousness awaits them 😉 Plus, if they don’t care for it, they don’t have your site pulled up to comment on, lolol.
Found you via Pinterest! These were delicious! I’ve been trying to use chicken thighs more since they are cheaper (and tastier!) then breast meat. Thank you!
Very easy to make and it tasted very good. We loved it.
Made tonight! It was delicious! I always seem to make chicken dry but not tonight, it was so so good! I made with bone in and skin on the chicken.. so both work im assuming!
Hey! I made this dish last and OMG! it was delicious. I will definitely add this to my repeat dishes. Thank you for sharing this recipe with us.
Thank you & Love the recipe. I made mine tonight!
Made these a few months ago… Delish! Making them again tonight! Must try!
Do you discard the marinade,putting chicken in dish to bake with no juice – I never like to cook chicken in the liquid it has marinaded in – I did not read all the comments so sorry of you already addressed this.
I add a little of the marinade, but not all of it.
Can these be done in a pressure cooker? I’m new to cooking with mine, but would like to use it! Anyone have any advice?
I have not tried this recipe in a pressure cooker so I cannot say how long to cook them for and how it would turn out. Let me know if you try it.
These looks delicious, Amy! I love the flavor combo of these ingredients and chicken thighs are my favorite cut, too. Pinning…can’t wait to try! 🙂
Absolutely delicious!! I marinated the chicken overnight and turned out wonderful!! Thanks for sharing this super yummy recipe 🙂
This recipe looks yummy and simple…can’t wait to try it. One question…is the cooking temp and time for bone-in or boneless thighs? Thanks so much!
Hello Melissa,
The cooking temperature and time are for bone-in thighs.
Happy cooking!