Honey Soy Baked Chicken is a good one for busy weeknights and lazy Sundays. Just mix up a simple honey-soy-garlic sauce, pour it over chicken and bake in the oven. It comes a sweet, salty, sticky chicken dinner – just the sort of flavours everybody loves!
Quick-to-prepare baked chicken recipes like Balsamic Chicken, Honey Mustard Chicken and this sticky soy chicken are great back pocket recipes because they’re just made with pantry staples. Finger licking good!
Easy Baked Honey Soy Chicken
The best way to make Honey Soy Chicken is to marinate it for 24 – 48 hours, followed by constant basting while cooking on the stove or BBQ and serving it with a glossy honey soy garlic sauce. And here’s the recipe for how to make it that way – if you have the time!
This recipe is the baked version that’s effortless, with completely hands-off cooking. It’s ever-so slightly adapted from this Baked Sticky Honey Soy Sesame Chicken by Claire from Sprinkles and Sprouts, a fellow Australian food blogger.
The glaze is perfect. Strong in flavour, but there’s not an overwhelming amount of it – just enough to coat the chicken which is all you need. And it’s because the glaze has such great flavour that you don’t even need to marinate the chicken.
Just throw a handful of ingredients in a pan, bake it, and this is what you get:
What you need to make Baked Honey Soy Chicken
Here’s what you need to make this dish:
Chicken thighs – This recipe calls for bone-in, skin-on thighs so they can be in the oven for the 50 to 60 minutes required for the sauce to reduce down and caramelise.
It can also be made with drumsticks and chicken marylands without altering the recipe.
For boneless thighs and breasts, the chicken will be in the oven for substantially less time so I’d give the sauce a head start in the oven first to start reducing before adding the chicken.
Red onion РThis is cut into wedges and used as the bed on which the chicken is baked. The onion adds an extra element of flavour into the sauce, much like the way so many savoury recipes start by saut̩ing onion.
Garlic – Flavour! We are a huge fan of garlic in (almost!) everything savoury!
Honey – This is the sweetness in the sauce which makes it a glaze that coats the chicken.
Soy sauce – This is the salt in the sauce. The recipe calls for all purpose soy sauce, but light soy sauce can be used too. DO NOT use dark soy sauce (flavour is far too intense) or sweet soy sauce like kecap manis (too sweet and too strong). See here for more on different soy sauces, and when you can interchange.
Cider vinegar – Essential to balance out the sweet and savoury.
Sesame oil – I adore sesame oil for the flavour it adds to anything it’s used in, whether a dressing (like this Asian Sesame Dressing) or into soups (like Hot & Sour Soup).
How to make Honey Soy Baked Chicken
Mix the sauce > pour over chicken > bake.
Anything else you need to know?? 😂 (Just joking!!)
Sauce – Mix the honey, soy sauce, garlic, vinegar, sesame oil and pepper.
Line pan – Line a pan with both foil AND baking paper (parchment paper). This is a jammy glaze we have here, and if you just use baking paper, you’ll be suffering through a serious scrubbing session like I did!
Then spread the onion out in the pan.
Pour sauce over chicken – Top with chicken upside down (ie skin side down) and pour the sauce over. We start with the skin side down to get a bit of colour on the underside (because colour = flavour) otherwise the underside is just stewing in the sauce the whole time.
Bake 25 minutes – Bake the chicken for 25 minutes at 200°C / 390°F (180°C fan).
Turn and baste – Turn the chicken and spoon the pan juices over the chicken.
Bake 25 – 35 minutes – Bake for a further 25 to 35 minutes until the chicken is nicely browned. Hopefully, the sauce will be reduced down to a syrup and require no adjustment, but sometimes it will still be too thin. If it’s too thin, it’s an easy fix: remove chicken to a plate, pop pan back into oven. It will thicken quite quickly.
The reason it’s hard to say whether your sauce will be perfectly syrupy straight of the the oven is due to varying factors such as pan size (more space around chicken = faster reduction), juiciness of chicken (juicier = leaches more water = thins sauce more), if the chicken was frozen (tends to drop more water) and how evenly head circulates in the oven.
Squidge! Turn the chicken over and squidge the chicken skin into the syrupy sauce. And yes, “squidge” is a real word. See?
Baste – Spoon the sauce over the chicken to coat it more. Sprinkle with sesame seeds and something green if you want to pretty it up a touch (coriander/cilantro leaves, green onion, parsley, chives). And serve!
What to serve with Baked Honey Soy Chicken
In the photo above, the chicken is pictured with plain rice. Even though there’s not a ton of sauce, what you do have has a fairly intense flavour so a little goes a long way when mixed through rice.
Choose from: white rice, jasmine, basmati, brown rice or (just in case you’re doing the low carb thing) try cauliflower rice. Actually, this is a good one for cauliflower rice because the sauce flavour is quite strong so it will disguise any remnant of cauliflower flavour!
If you want to raise the bar, try it with a side of flavoured rice! Here are some options:
Love to know what you think if you try this chicken dish. And tell me what you served on the side! – Nagi x
Watch how to make it
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Sticky Honey Soy Chicken – baked
Ingredients
- 1.2kg / 2.4lb bone-in, skin-on chicken thighs OR drumsticks (5 – 6 pieces) (Note 1)
- 1 red onion , peeled, cut into wedges
Glaze
- 3 cloves garlic , minced
- 3 tbsp honey
- 3 tbsp soy sauce (Note 2)
- 1 tbsp apple cider vinegar or ordinary white vinegar
- 1 tsp sesame oil
- 1/2 tsp black pepper
Garnish (optional)
- Sesame seeds
- Fresh coriander/cilantro leaves (or other green things like green onion, parsley, chives)
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 200°C/390°F (180°C fan).
- Line pan: Line a baking dish with foil then baking paper. The baking tray should fit the chicken comfortably, not too spaced apart (glaze will dry out), not too snug (glaze won't thicken enough). (Note 3)
- Glaze: Mix the Glaze ingredients together.
- Pour glaze over chicken: Place onion and chicken in the baking dish skin side down, then pour the Glaze over.
- Bake 50 – 60 minutes: Bake for 25 minutes, then turn and bake for a further 25 to 35 minutes, until the chicken is browned and the glaze is sticky. If the glaze is not syrupy, remove the chicken to a plate and put the pan back in for a few minutes (it will reduce quickly).
- Squidge/coat chicken – Turn chicken and squidge in the glaze, then also spoon it over.
- Serve! Serve with rice and steamed greens, sprinkled with sesame seeds and fresh cilantro/coriander leaves.
Recipe Notes:
Nutrition Information:
Recipe originally published in 2016. Update was long overdue with the addition of a new recipe video and most importantly, a Life of Dozer section!
More simple baked bone-in chicken thigh recipes
More mix > pour > bake recipes!
Life of Dozer
Excuuuuuse me! Some privacy please!!!
hi there, tq 4a great recipe. May i know what type of honey is best for cooking?
Reason i’m asking is becos i bought a bottle of honey from our local supermarket and when i use it for cooking i found that its “honey” smell is rather overwhelming and doesnt blend with the dish.
appreciate your kind advice.
Hi Brian, any normal store-bought honey should be fine here, anything but Manuka 🙂 N x
Made this for dinner tonight and it turned out very well! I used drumsticks instead of thighs, which was fine. Chicken was very juicy and flavourful. The sauce wasn’t exactly thick or sticky, but it was sort of glaze-like enough for me.
Hi Isabelle, just sounds like the sauce could have reduced slightly longer to get more of that sticky glaze. I’m so glad it turned out though! N x
I adapted the recipe to my air fryer and it was delicious! The skin was glazed like lacquer. Next time I’ll reduce the left-over marinade for basting and add some sambal for an extra sweet-hot-savory punch. I served coconut rice and garlic green beans with it.
Sounds perfect Lee!!! N x
Hi Nagi
My sauce did not turn to a glaze @ 5 min so I returned
the chicken and continued cooking. The flavor was delicious but I would like to make it again with the sticky
glaze. Any suggestions?
Thank you
Hi Jean, I would just turn the heat up a little to get the sauce reducing and caramelising 🙂 N x
Awesome recipe again Nagi!
Everyone loved it & my son appreciated not having to wash baked on juices from the baking dish!
We love this sort of food, nice one!
perfect Scott!! N x
Have everything but the sesame oil. Would it still be tasty with canola oil do you think?
Sesame oil gives it that true Asian flavour but you could just use canola oil in its place. N x
Thanks,will try soon
Disappointed. So much liquid even though followed r3cioe explicitly. Took forever to reduce in pot . Flavour not very punchy.
Hi Edna, if the flavour wasn’t punchy then it sounds like the sauce hadn’t reduced enough. If you had a small pan, or the chicken was overcrowded – this could cause the sauce to take longer to reduce. N x
Tnx Nagi. I took your hint too literally and crammed chicken in. So will give it another go. Live your recipes. Cheers Edna
A huge thank you for not just this but all your recipes.
In Victoria’s lockdown 101 we started COVID cooking with friends and you were the nominated recipe supplier.
We have loved them all.
Thanks so much Ken, that’s so lovely to hear!!! N x
My teenagers absolutely loved the sticky honey soy chicken saying it was the best meal ever!!!!😋
Your recipes are delicious 💕
Thankyou very much 🤗💜
thank you, nagi, another fabulous recipe, your recipes are my morning delight with coffee. as you have given me so many super fabulous recipes, i feel i must give you something in return: 1) when facing a pot/pan glued with whatsoever—rinse, then pour dishwasher soap all over the offending mess, give it a small splash of water & then leave it. next morning or bedtime it should simply wash away. #2 tip: marinate meat with yogurt/soy sauce…soy sauce gives the salt, & whatsoever herbs/spices you need for that dish. i leave this marinade @ least 24hrs bt have left veal/lamb/beef/pork for days. love you & dozer. thank you.
Could you use Golden syrup instead of honey?
Yes you can Jess! N x
Fantastic! Super easy! Used chicken thighs and cooked according to the notes after the recipe. Served with rice and Swiss chard. Thanks! Will make again.
Perfect Heather!!! N x
Aw Nagi these were delicious. I had 2 large chicken legs and used those, Chicken was so tender. You could possibly use your pork and sauce recipe with the roast potatoes for this dish I’m going to try it next time and sub the chook for the pork. Keep the pics of Dozer coming he is so adorable, he just keeps on looking cute.
Yes 100% Carolyn, delicious! N x
Loved the Honey soy chicken recipe! While I was filling my rice cooker and watching the sauce thicken, I thought that Julianne carrots would be good in there. I added some and it worked out awesome! Thank you
Great addition Michael, I love that idea! N x
Hi Nagi luv all your recipes was a bit disappointed that the sauce didnt get jammy or sticky like video. Is our uk tablespoons different from yours Luv to Dozer too xxxx
Hi Moe, sounds like it just needed to reduce slightly more to get that sticky coating! I use a 15ml tablespoon 🙂 N x
You two are like a gorgeous breath of fresh air! What we all need right now. Hope someone does the same for you. D🥰
Oh that’s too nice of you Deanna!! N x
Hi Nagi,
thanks for another great recipe.
If that door to what appears to be a bathroom is a sliding door, there is no chance of privacy. I love that Dozer looks like he’s smiling.
My daughter’s cats both wait in her bathroom while she’s in the shower.
Take care, stay safe and keep smiling.
I think he’s just assuming that he is moral support 😂 N x
Love Dozer! You both bring so much joy and happiness to me atm in lockdown No.5 in Vic. So refreshing to see your happy face and lots of photos of Dozer. Love your recipes too. Thanks so much for the joy. Hugs and kisses to Dozer ^..^
Oh that’s made my day Jane, I hope you’re staying safe!!! N x
Thank you Nagi for your delicious recipes. I have around 100 recipe books that I very rarely look at now thanks to your easy to follow recipes. My family love the variety of each meal I dish up.
And Dozer is adorable, keep us entertained with his antics please.
This is the best!! I love hearing this Julie, thanks so much! N x