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This honey soy chicken is as equally flavorful as its sister, holy yum chicken, but just a different flavor profile! Asian and saucy!
I came up with honey soy chicken because of the overwhelming response to my holy yum chicken.
Quick and easy chicken dinners that can be made in one casserole dish seems to be the way to your hearts!
I know it is for me because when you’re tired after a long day, the last thing you want to do is make an elaborate dinner.
Have no fear that just because this is an easy chicken recipe that it is lacking in flavor.
It is just the opposite!
Honey soy chicken has so much flavor!
The ingredients in honey soy chicken give it a lot of flavor. Here’s the run down of the ingredient list:
- Honey
- Soy sauce
- Sesame oil
- Garlic
- Ginger
How do you get it all nicely browned on top?
I stick the entire casserole dish under the broiler to get the nice golden brown color you see in the photos.
This step is absolutely optional and you don’t have to. I obviously did it because I think it looks better and I love a crispy caramelized edge on my chicken thighs.
Can you use chicken breasts?
You can but I love using dark meat/chicken thighs.
They are foolproof and don’t dry out like chicken breasts do.
They also tend to take less time to cook.
Is the sauce supposed to be thick?
No. I keep getting comments from people saying their sauce is runny.
It’s supposed to be runny like you can see in the photos.
There’s nothing in the ingredients that would make the sauce thick.
I did mention that soy sauce and honey are both sticky ingredients when cooked at high heat but that doesn’t mean the sauce is going to be thick.
I’m saying that the excess sauce that may be on the sides of your baking dish or foil will be sticky/crusty. Hope that clarifies things!
Can you make this in the slow cooker?
I mean, I guess you could but it already whips up so fast in the oven that I feel putting it in the slow cooker would be a bit of an overkill.
Here are some tips to help you make this honey soy chicken recipe a success!
- If you don’t follow directions and want to improvise, that is definitely ok! But please do not come back to yell at me for a failed dish. The instructions are laid out completely above because I have tested it myself and it works the way it’s written above.
- If you do not use the right equipment it will likely not turn out either. 8×8″ pan means 8×8″ pan. 2 layers of foil means 2 layers of foil. Why? 8×8″ pan will keep the sauce together and compact and won’t cause it to spread out over a large surface area. If you put it in a larger pan, it will spread, therefore, causing the sauce to get cooked off and you’ll end up with dry chicken and little to no sauce. Double layering the foil insulates the sauces and the chicken, it’ll keep the sauce from burning on the scalding hot pan.
- Yes, it really is cooked at 425 degrees. I’m not going to lie to you. Yes, it’s high but it also works (proof: above pictures!)
- If you’re using (thin cut) chicken breasts, reduce cooking time by 10-15 minutes or you’ll end up with dry chicken.
More chicken recipe ideas:
- Holy yum chicken
- Roasted chicken with olives and tomatoes
- Fig and rosemary glazed skillet chicken
- Coconut harissa curry braised chicken
- Chicken with 40 cloves of garlic
Honey Soy Chicken
Equipment
Ingredients
- 3 tablespoons vegetable oil
- 3 tablespoons low sodium soy sauce
- 1 teaspoon sesame oil
- 5 tablespoons honey
- 4 cloves of garlic, minced
- ½ teaspoon ground ginger
- ½ teaspoon ground black pepper
- 1 ½ – 2 pounds (1 ⅗ kg) boneless skinless chicken thighs, (most of the fat cut and discarded)
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 425 °F (218 °C). Line a 8×8" oven-proof pan with 2 layers of tin foil. I HIGHLY advise using foil in this dish because soy sauce & honey are STICKY and tend to adhere heavily on glass dishes when cooked at high temperatures. Unless you want to be scrubbing forever, use the foil!
- In small bowl, whisk together vegetable oil, soy sauce, sesame oil, honey, garlic, ground ginger, and pepper.3 tablespoons vegetable oil, 3 tablespoons low sodium soy sauce, 1 teaspoon sesame oil, 5 tablespoons honey, 4 cloves of garlic, 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger, 1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
- Place the chicken thighs in the foil layered pan then pour the mixture on top of it. Turn the chicken around in the sauce to make sure it gets all coated.1 1/2 – 2 pounds (1 ⅗ kg) boneless skinless chicken thighs
- Bake, uncovered, for 40 minutes, checking occasionally to make sure the tops are not browning too quickly. If they are, cover with foil and resume baking until chicken is done.
- Remove from oven and let chicken sit for 5 minutes then transfer to a plate. Do NOT discard the liquid.
- Immediately after plating chicken, pour sauce over top of chicken. It’s delicious so you want all the sauce you can get!
- Serve with white or brown rice and some steamed veggies.
Notes
Nutrition
Photography by Ari Laing
I am so excited to try this, your holy yum chicken is amazing. I am going to try it on the stove top since I make the holy yum chicken like that every time. I hope it works ok with breast meat since I dont have any thighs :( . We love everything we have tried from your blog you rock!!
Hope you enjoy this as much as holy yum! I’m sure it’ll turn out ok :)
I used to make a similar dish. It had pineapple slices that you placed under the chicken and then broiled the chicken/pineapple. The pineapple was a nice complement to the other ingredients. Just thought I’d share. :)
Made this tonight with breast meat and a little brown sugar because I didn’t have enough honey. Came out awesome! Just a little dry, next time chicken thighs. Thanks for the recipe!
Oh. My. Gosh.
I made this tonight for dinner, and it may just be my new favorite recipe! I did do one thing slightly different (OH NO!), and added an extra tablespoon each of honey and soy sauce, and an extra teaspoon of oil, just because the amount of chicken I had was a little much, but it ended up perfect! I made some fried rice to go with it, and my boyfriend and I were both practically licking our plates clean! Thank you so much!
Sound delicious! Glad you and your boyfriend enjoyed it so much!
So if I wanted to cook this for five people would I just double the proportions and cook it longer?
I would double the proportions but I would still cook it for 40 minutes and check on it at 40 minutes. Doubling the cook time to 80 minutes seems awfully long and I’d hate for you to dry out your chicken! Enjoy!
I love your cooking blog! I just made this and it is DELISH! I am always looking for a new way to cook chicken. I only made one change. I doubled the recipe and baked the chicken in half. I took the second half and added corn starch and cooked on the stove top. This produced a slightly thicker sauce to add over the chicken on the plate. I think I might also try cooking tofu in this sauce as well. Thank you for your wonderful blog. I always look forward to your posts!
So glad you enjoyed this DJ! I’m so happy that you enjoy my blog :)
This was absolutely delicious!! Big thanks for sharing this recipe!! <33
I’m glad you enjoyed! :)
This is the holy grail of recipes- fast, easy, cheap,& DELICIOUS. Top 3 favorite pins of all time! Can’t wait to see what else you have cooking on here. Thank you so much!!
Thanks, Christina! So glad you enjoyed :)
Can i use chicken breasts instead of thighs?
really would like to use chicken breasts…have you ever tried?
Please read the disclaimer above where it addresses the use of chicken breasts in this dish.
This was SUPERB! I’m a student living with my brother and we are always cracking our heads for ideas for dinner! I almost gave up on my sudden “baked honey chicken” idea until I came across your blog. The chicken turned out so tender and juicy that both of us had a very satisfying dinner thanks to your recipe! I hope you continue to post easy but delish recipes for college kids like us! :)
So glad you enjoyed this, Meimei! Definitely check out the blog for more recipes like this – there are a ton that’s great for a college student!