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 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. 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. 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 Honey & Soy Baked Chicken Thighs would be mighty tasty grilled as well.
Enjoy!
- 3 tablespoons olive oil
- 3 tablespoons soy sauce
- 5 tablespoons honey
- 4 cloves of garlic; minced (or substitute ½ teaspoon garlic powder)
- ½ teaspoon ground ginger
- ½ teaspoon fresh ground pepper
- 3 pounds (approximately) chicken thighs (or preferred chicken meat)
- salt and pepper to taste
- 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. *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. Cook until internal temperature of chicken reads 165°F.
These would be mighty tasty grilled as well.
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.
I made this and it taste wonderful! Added some rosemary and thyme though
Thanks for the recipe!
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 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 =]
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.
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!
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.
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!
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!
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!
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
I made this with boneless breast,and for a little crunch I added a handful of walnuts…YUM
Found this recipe the other day and decided to make it for dinner tonight – was definitely worth it!
Saving for future use
Thanks for an awesome recipe!
Thank you for letting me know, Michele!
We enjoy it too.
Hi Amy. Was just gonna marinate my thighs now to try for the first time , question is mine are boneless and skinless
Would it still work nicely? Baking directions suggestions? I assume no flipping needed and dould it need less cook time! Would they dry out and should I cover then at all
Tnx. This is my dinner plans for tongiht. Looking forward to tasting it
Sue
Hello Sue,
Maybe reduce the cook time to about 20-25 minutes, and I think covering them for the last little while should help them not dry out.
Mine were boneless and skinless and they turned out great and really moist. Hope this helps!
How long do you cook if they are boneless and skinless- were they covered?
Thanks
I did 400 degrees for 30 minutes uncovered
I just made this tonight and I marinated the chicken in orange juice for a couple hours beforehand. I don’t think I achieved the desired result though since I used OJ from concentrate instead of fresh squeezed. I might have gotten more of an orange flavor had I used fresh juice and and some zest as well. Otherwise, it turned out pretty good although I’m not sure I like how much grease there was at the bottom of my pan that the chicken was essentially swimming in by the end of the cook time. Any suggestions on reducing that grease?
MADE THIS ONE THE GRILL LAST NIGHT AND THEY WERE SO DELICIOUS!!! I’VE ALREADY SHARED IT WITH A FEW LADIES IN MY OFFICE TO TRY!! THANKS SO MUCH FOR POSTING THIS!
I didn’t have any ginger so I substituted Chinese Five Spice. Also, substituted 1 TBSP for 1 of the Olive Oil. These were delicious.
I made this a couple of days ago for dinner…it was delicious! The hubby gave me 2 thumbs up!
So this is looking delish! I have my chicken out and ready to cook! my question is it necessary to marinate the chicken prior to cooking for this recipe or can i jump right in?
You can jump right in. That’s what I do since I’m a poor planner when it comes to meals. You can marinate it before hand too though if you wanted
Mine is burning as we speak. I’m even cooking it at a lower temp. What gives?
Do you have it centered in the oven or close to the top? That is the only thing I can think of.
Ya gotta love a recipe that brings Mr Picky to a drooling standstill the moment he walks in the kitchen door!!!! I doubled the “marinade” and substituted Ginger Paste. I’m not sure what I loved more about this recipe the taste of the final product or the lack of prep and dirty dishes. I used one knife, one measuring cup, a fork and one 9×13 glass dish. That’s my kind of prep!!!
Ooooh ginger paste! I need to get or make some of that. Isn’t it the easiest recipe ever? Glad y’all enjoyed it!