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.
Can you used frozen chicken thighs or do they need to be thawed out?
Yes, but if you use frozen you will need to adjust cook time until chicken is done.
Wow – this was SO good! I subbed sesame oil for olive oil since someone suggested that & used jarred ginger since I had that on hand. I also used boneless, skinless thighs cooked at 400 degrees for 20 minutes, flipped & then 10 minutes (per someone’s suggestion). Wow… wow… wow… and so easy! I marinated it for about 4-5 hours & then poured all the chicken & marinade into a 9×13 pan for cooking. I served it over Jasmine rice & used the bubbling juices from the pan to pour over the rice & chicken… Heaven!
Those bubbling juices are like liquid gold, Gwyn! Sesame oil is a fabulous substitute—so much flavor!
I made this a few hours ago and I am completely satisfied with everything. The smell was AMAZING and it was so juicy with a nice crunch. Shared this recipe with my friends.
Happy to hear that you enjoyed it, Firoza!
I googled “chicken thigh kid friendly” and this was the first result. I only cooked 2 thighs so I modified the recipe. I used 1 tbsp olive oil, 1 tbsp soy sauce, 1 1/2 tbsp honey, about 1/2″ fresh grated ginger, and one clove of garlic, salt & pepper. Always use a little more pepper than you think is necessary to really bring out the flavor. I have a basically vegetarian toddler who actually tried this chicken! THAT is a huge deal. My other even pickier toddler (who would prefer to starve than touch anything home cooked) gobbled it down and asked for seconds. You, my friend, are a miracle worker. This dinner was a huge success. THANK YOU!
Making this now, ginger paste, more sesame oil than olive, and added some ponzu..for some acid…boneless thighs ..will let you know….serving with yellow rice. May use some marinade in place of water…
Sounds very delicious, Mary.
Made this today (all the way in New Zealand) and turned out just like the picture. Tasted amazing – the fussy kids ate it so must be awesome. Thanks for the recipe!
Oh, I’m so happy to hear that, Katie! Happy picky eaters make me happy too! 🙂
My sister and I LOVE chicken thighs!! 🙂
I REALLY do not cook meat often and SEVERELY suck with chicken. Your cooking instructions were super easy to follow (thank you!) But I did make a few altercations, I thought I could share.
——–
I went through and heard people talking about trying to be healthy with taking the skin off. I cooked with boneless, skinless, dark thighs and it came out amazing.
But I did instead use (with lbs of chicken ) 4tbs of honey, 3soy, and 2 olive oil. I used powdered ginger (I didn’t have fresh) about a tsp or 2 and added about 2 or 3 tsp of chilli powder. And the same amount of garlic. Freshly minced.
I covered them in the mixture, and then put them in my baking dish. I poured the mixture over the chicken and made sure they were covered and soaking in it as the oven preheated.
After that I cooked them with the mixture in there, following the same instructions you said.
/sorry if this is super long\
It came out perfect, beautiful, and the whole family LOVED it.
Making this tonight! I was curious on what this was paired with? I am serving with white rice! it smells amazing! No burning problems here, maybe to the people who had those problems should try and mix up better and let sit for at least 45 min before putting in pan to bake!
Flavor is great although clearly your oven is either badly calibrated or there is an error in the recipe – after marinating the chicken I did not pour it over when starting to bake as I knew the honey was going to cause it to burn but clearly the amount of sauce still left on the skin caused it to blacken in less than 15 minutes at 425 degrees….I had planned to flip early & then add sauce at that time – there is no way your pictures came out of a 425 degree oven after baking for 45 minutes…I would make again but start at 350 degrees, watching carefully….I also used grated fresh ginger instead of spice.
Alison, thank you for your input. I’ve made this recipe as written many times without any problems, as have others. The photos are from the recipe as written.
In response to the comment left by Ms. “Knwoles~it~all”, I’ve cooked (professionally) all my life, and have had apprentice whom would challenge my style and direction—(almost) invariably failing their endeavors. Having said that, I would suggest that the readers having issues with times/temperatures, consider that their oven’s regulator or temp. gauge may be defective…or the chicken too fatty or too old/dry. I poured off the grease prior to the last step, and I basted (in the final 10 min.) chicken with the marinade. Amy, your technique is flawless! Continuer à faire, et profiter de votre nourriture. That is, carry on with your [job], and enjoy your food!
Made this recipe last night. First thing my husband said was”this is good” and he does not usually give any comment good or bad. Unfortunately my daughter and he ate all six pieces so I’m making this again tonight and maybe every other night hahaha. Thanks for this recipe!
That is so funny, Teodora! I’ll be making it again this week too. Happy to hear that you and your family enjoy it.
What a great chicken dish! I am definitely trying this!
Drooling over these chicken thighs, AMY!!
These will be rocking my dinner table in the near future!
Amy, just wanted to let you know I made this for dinner tonight and my husband and daughter, who both prefer boneless, skinless white meat pretty much all the time, loved it!!
I’m so happy to hear that, Susie! Yay!
What side dish would be good with this
We enjoy it with green beans, roasted vegetables or potatoes and/or salad.
Thanks for sharing this recipe. I did have to tweak it a little since I didn’t exactly have everything needed in the ingredient list. I replaced the honey with brown sugar. And since my chicken thighs were skinless, I seared them a few minutes on each side in my trusty skillet first before I put them in the oven. I also lowered the temperature to 350 and baked them for about 35 minutes instead. They came out perfect! The flavors were great and the meat was perfectly moist. So yummy! Hopefully next time I can actually make it as the recipe is written but is was a great base line to work with at the time. Thanks again!
I have mine marinating right now and I used chicken quarters. Because the sugar in the honey ,I am not going to cook it at that very high heat. I am wanting the chicken to be moist and almost fall off the bone tender, so do I cook it low and covered in the oven
Should I foil the glass dish?
If you want to. I don’t, but that is your preference.
frustiatnign because the times to cook and temp can vary!1 plp dont nkow usually what dam time or temp to cook.. i usually do 30 in 359 but then i should do longer covred? i dont know.. making it 30 min uncovred.. they dont have that thickn dark sauce rtexture as my first time.. annoying.. orob not making this again.. im a dam good chf but sutimes u can rely on otehr plps recipes.. not making this again
can i make this with skinless chicken thighs?