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. Out 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 – This 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 sautéing 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!!!
What a beautiful meal. I can see why you loved it.
How lovely this sauce sounds. 🙂
I want to be a rockstar!!!! Making these soon.
You already ARE! 🙂
I’ve been on a chicken thigh kick recently – I think they’re the most flavorful part of the bird! This recipe is a must try for me and thanks for the intro to Claire and her beautiful blog! xo
She is wonderful. One of those people who have dealt with some serious hardships in life and yet is always chin up, so cheerful, so supportive of others. She totally inspires me. 🙂
Thank you Marissa, and Nagi, now you have gone and made me well up!!!
Thank you!!!!
xx
I think I’d want to lick the leftover sauce off the plate! Yum!
I do. I do!!!
Nagi Nagi Nagi, can’t you see
Sometimes your recipes just hypnotize me 🙂
Fantastic photo and a really straightforward recipe. I will be trying this out for dinner tonight. I roast thighs at least twice a week and am always experimenting with different cuisines. Being a lover of all things Asian, I am sure I will love this dish. As a massive lover of hot food, I will add some dried habanero flakes to the glaze :).
I’ve been following your blog for a while now and I love everything you do.
Thank you for all your hard work. Whenever I get an email from you, it brightens up my day.
Oh boy. I await in anticipation to hear what you THINK Ronnie!!! 🙂
Nagi, the dish was fantastic.
I added fresh Ginger and dried Habanero chilli flakes to the recipe and it was delicious.
I also reduced the honey to only 1 tablespoon as I’m not a ‘sweet & savoury’ or ‘sweet & sour’ fan and it was perfect.
The cooking time was spot on and the chicken came out looking wonderfully caramelized, sticky, dark and beautiful!
oooh, I love those additions Ronnie! So glad you loved it! All credit to Claire over at Sprinkles & Sprouts, it’s her recipe!! <3
Nagi! This recipe looks and sound absolutely wonderful!!! I love everything about this!!! And thank you for introducing me to another blog I know I am going to love…and FYI…I am VERY obsessed with potatoes 🙂
Oh I KNOW you are hun. The Russian blood…..
I believe I grew up with this chicken. It was really good, but my mom insisted on broiling it. This was before smoke alarms were in houses, however it didn’t stop the smoke! It was worth it!
I KNOW WHAT YOU MEAN!! My smoke alarms are going off constantly!! 🙂
Oh, Nagi & Claire, this looks so amazing! I can’t wait to cook this one next week. It’s my first week back at work next week after 2 years of maternity leave, and I think I need a special treat!
Gloria, I hope work is going well and I agree you deserve a treat xx
After the chicken, I’d suggest making some of Nagi’s Apple Pie Fries!!! They are seriously amazing!
The collection of recipes for YOU is underway….
Oh Nagi,
You are a superstar, thank you for the glowing tribute.
xx
p.s you have to try the garlic chicken parcels. They are everything that we both love. Packed with flavour, super simple and elegant enough for company! Winning on a weekday! 😉
Great recipe! It certainly looks sticky and delicious. I must try out more of Claire’s recipes.
She’s a champ and YES you MUST!! 🙂
Thank you Amanda, hope you find plenty you will enjoy 🙂
Yummy Nagi san. I was busy last night and had no idea what to cook for dinner. Elizabeth saw your Instagram and suggested to make this> We did not have time to bake it so we fried it instead. It was delicious. Thank you for the recipe.
I LOVE knowing this can be pan fried too! Haven’t tried this on the stove!! Say hi to Elizabeth for me. What a wonderful time we had together!!!
Looks fabulous! How does it get that nice blackened look to it? Do you put it under the broiler for a few minutes?
Hi Lisa! Nope, that’s how it comes out 🙂
HELLO from Baltimore MD USA …I’ve become a BIG fan of your this past year… You make so many recipies with sauces that are kid friendly. My girls love your Chicken dishes and that makes me happy I don’t have to cook separate food for them!
WOW, thanks Monika! I’m so glad your girls love my recipes!!! 🙂
Wow!! Not only is your shot of this dish absolutely gorgeous but it looks delicious as well. We eat lots of chicken and we do try to find different ways of serving — this would be great. I love the green veggie next to the dark colored chicken. Making it this week.
This looks amazing! I will try this out ASAP.
Question, did you try this with chicken breast? Did it work out?
Hi Rebecca! It doesn’t work as well with breast because it has so little fat, you need some fat 🙂 Trimmed skinless thigh fillets worked well! The skin won’t look as dark brown and sticky simply because you need skin for that, but it tastes just as good!
Hi Nagi! I have a package of thighs in the frig that I’m planning on cooking tonight and now I know HOW I’m cooking them! This glaze is amazing! Thank you (and Claire) for another wonderful recipe! 🙂
Dorothy,
I hope you love it as much as my family and Nagi does.
OOOH!!!! I await in anticipation to hear what you THINK!!! 🙂
My hubby is a chicken fanatic and I’m always looking for new ways to make it! Thanks to you and Claire for this one. Being from Arizona, we definitely like a little kick in our sticky sauces so what do you think about adding some cayenne to it? Any thoughts on amount? I just want a little kick, but the sauce is quite thick so I’m not sure if I should use a little or a lot? Thanks!
Heather,
When I make this I add some fennel seeds to mine. But if the kids aren’t eating I often add some red chilli flakes (Red pepper flakes) they soften into the sauce and give it a nice spicy edge.
I add about 1/2 tsp but our flakes are pretty hot.
Could never go wrong with a pinch of cayenne! 🙂
Hi Nagi,
Your website is an inspiration. Much like what I am hoping to achieve with http://www.allinmoderation.com.au It’s great to see so many fresh ideas and ingredients with interesting content. Love all of your work!
Thanks so much Lydia, that so nice of you to say! Your blog is beautiful!! 🙂