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.
I fixed this tonight for dinner. It was really good!! 🙂
Hello Dana,
So happy you enjoyed it! It’s such an easy recipe too. Happy cooking!
Do you think you could freeze the chicken in the marinade for future use and have it turn out okay?
Hello Tiffany,
That’s a great question, but I’m not sure how that would turn out. If you give it a try let me know, and I’ll be sure to do the same if I test one or two next time I make it.
This was soooo delicious! We had a ton of thighs/legs so I’ve been trying a few different recipes lately. The last one was a lemon/thyme which was amazing, but my boyfriend and I liked this one EVEN BETTER! The one thing I did slightly change, and would highly recommend, is that I added some red pepper flakes and chili powder for a little kick. We like spicy in my house and it really rounded out the sweet/salty combo. I cannot wait to make this again! Thank you!
Hey Tiffany, I don’t see why it would be a problem freezing the ingredients in the bag, they do it at the supermarkets!
My husband and I both love the dark meat. Tonight I tried your recipe. We both loved it! Thank you!
Hello KT,
So glad to hear it!
I just prepared and have this marinating in the fridge now! It smells so good just marinating that I can’t wait until it’s time to bake it and then ready to eat! I read about acid in a marinade and took your advice and added a dash of vinegar! Thanks for sharing this recipe! We too eat a TON of chicken (and pork) and I’m always looking for new ways to prepare them.
Let me know how it turns out!
It was delicious!!!! The Family LOVED it!!! I’m glad I found it!!! Thanks for sharing!!! 🙂 🙂
I found this recipe on pinterest and have made it twice. My husband wants me to make it weekly, it’s that good. Thanks!
Yay! It’s so easy it’s hard not to have it as a weekly go-to for us too.
I made this tonight. Delicious!!! It is one I will make again for sure. Thank you for posting such a delicious recipe and photo 🙂
I made this for dinner tonight and the kids loved it. I slow cooked mine in the oven so the sauce didn’t thicken very much, this didn’t alter the taste and afterwards i reduced the sauce down on the hob and have kept it as a stcky marinade for next time 🙂
Yay, Vicki! I bet that sauce is incredible.
Thanks for the recipe! I have used it many times and have featured it in a Spring/ Summer freezer meal post where I used your marinade for kabobs. Thanks! http://heartofafarmgirl.wordpress.com/2014/03/11/spring-and-summer-freezer-meals/
I was looking for an easy baked chicken recipe, and I found your recipe on pinterest – it was AMAZING! I used the leftover marinade to cook shaved brussel sprouts to go with it… delicious!
I made this today with chicken thighs and they were Excellent! Tender, moist, great flavor. The only problem I had was that the marinade bubbled up and spilled over causing quite a smoke show. Not a biggie but I was wondering if anyone else encountered this problem and how to avoid it in the future. Maybe I used too much marinade?
Thanks for any input. and I will be making these again!!
The bubbling happened to me also, but not to the point of spilling over. I used a 9 by 13 pan with edges that go up a few inches.
These look super fantastic!
What would I adjust the cooking time for boneless thighs? Also, what would be the shortest yet still effective marinate time?
Found this on Pinterest this week, husband could not stop raving about how good it was! Made 8 thighs, so I doubled the recipe. Soooo good, we will definitely be having this again!! Thanks for sharing!
Is this sauce good to Marinate and then bbq the chicken?
Yes, that would be perfect!
Amy …. is it ok to use skinless thighs
WOW Amy, I just inhaled two of these thighs waiting for my husband to come home. They are out of this world! I will be making these again and again!!! Awesome recipe!
😉 So glad you enjoyed them!
Hi! I’ve made this twice already and it is so good! I have a question though. The recipe says to start with skin side down and end up with skin side up but it doesn’t end up that way if I follow the directions. Which way does the chicken go when you start baking? Maybe I’m just reading it wrong and sorry if you’ve already addressed this in another comment.
Anyway, awesome recipe!! Thanks =)
Hello Patsy!
There was a typo within the body copy of the post (fixed now), but the printable recipe should be reading correctly. Skin side down first, then skin side up to finish cooking.
Wonderful recipe! Even my toddlers gobbled it up. That’s when you know you’ve got a winner. Put a little extra soy sauce and garlic because we love those flavors, otherwise stayed true to the recipe and it was divine! Thanks for our new favorite chicken. 🙂
I have 4 kids so we use chicken thighs a lot as they are cheaper. We are making this for the 2nd time tonight. It was a huge hit in our house. Thank you!
Btw if you start skin down for 25min, then turn skin up for 15, and turn again for last 10 it would make it skin down. What did I miss? I just start skin up and it seems to work though.
I am so sorry about all the confusion with instructions on flipping, etcetera. I just edited the recipe and post so everything should be clear now. No flipping is really necessary at all. I just think it cooks more evenly and helps avoid dryness, but the most important thing is to make sure the chicken is done and cooked through.
This is a wonderful recipe! I cooked the chicken without the skin, in the marinade, in a foil lined 9×13 pan. No problem with dryness, and cleanup was a breeze. The extra sauce was spooned over rice and steamed veg. I wonder if anyone has used a crock pot, although you wouldn’t get the yummy crispy flavor. Thank you!
Oops,. forgot to add that I used sesame oil instead of the regular oil