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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
Currently in the oven and it smells great.. can’t wait to try it. Glad I read info about broiling!!
Can you use chicken breasts instead of thighs and would it cook just as well in the slow cooker? It looks delicious and I would love to try it…..
I haven’t tried this in the slow cooker. I definitely prefer dark meat over white meat when it comes to slow cookers anyway because it’ll dry out.
Great recipe. My husband and 5oddler are great fans!
I have tried the Holy Yum chicken and loved it. Will try this one this week! Also, I am so glad you have a disclaimer – I get tired of reading reviews, good or bad, where the reviewer changed half of the ingredients! It’s not the same recipe if you do that and the review is really worthless.
Ermahgerd! Amazing! Delicious! A keeper!
Saved recipe and checked comments. You are so sweet and patient. I have been cooking for 50 years and still learn something new every day.
Thank you so much!
I covered the chickens with foil and put cooked them in the oven for 1 hour more in 225 centigrad degree. They were cooked some how. But why??? (My oven is an electrical oven. )
Did you turn on the oven the first time? I honestly don’t know how it would take 1 hour and 40 minutes to cook chicken in such a high degree oven.
@Ravash, did you say “you covered the chicken with foil and cooked them?”The foil is supposed to cover the baking pan, not the chicken, that’s why the chicken didn’t cook the way it should have.
Hi, I follow your instructions step by step. I just put my oven on 225 225cantigrad and my chicken thighs had bones. I cooked them for 40 minutes. But nothing changed. It was raw.. Why??? Could you please help me???
Hi, I truly do not know how chicken that has been cooked at such a high degree and for that long, could still be raw. I honestly don’t know what to say because I just don’t think that’s possible.
I have made this recipe numerous times and always comes out amazing. Made the mistake once of using skin on chicken thighs, never again. It made the sauce greasy. I truly suggest using skinless meat. I am making this dish now as I type this, I always use 3 types of chicken, boneless skinless breasts for the husband, boneless skinless thighs for me and legs for my kids. Lol! Of course, 3 different cook times, but it still is always amazing. I make what I call garlic sticky chicken rice and buttered garlicky green beans. My picky kids gobble this up every time! I added a touch of ketchup to see if it can stick more to my chicken ?. Thanks for the recipe!
Can you make this in a ricecooker
I haven’t tried that myself so I cannot answer that with certainty.