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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
- 1 ½ – 2 pounds (1 ⅗ kg) boneless skinless chicken thighs, (most of the fat cut and discarded)
- 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
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.
- 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.
- 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
Ha! Ha! Ha! Funny!
Will be trying this…..as is!
This looks amazing, and I can’t wait to try it! A tip if you do happen to get that deliciously sticky sauce on your glass pan: pour boiling water into the pan when it is still hot, and let it sit. Hot water dissolves caramelized sugars in a snap :)
Hi Julie, I tried your recipe but after 40 minutes it was not as nicely browned as yours, in addition there was lots of liquid too and I have a convection oven. So I put it back in and turned on Broil. I confess I used olive oil and fresh ginger instead. It was not bad, I’ll try again and see if it improves next time.
Hello this looks delicious and I was thinking about making it for dinner tonight. I have everything but the sesame oil. Is there a substitute or can I just omit it?
Hi Ashley! Yes, you can just omit it.
How do you want us to give you credit if we pin this? I received an email saying one of my pins for one of your recipes was removed due to copyright, however, its still posted everywhere on pinterest. Thanks.
Hi Sarah – please ignore that email. I encourage all pins and sharing from my blog. You can pin directly from my blog and that is how you give credit to it. It was a big Pinterest mistake and it has been addressed on my Facebook page if you want to read about it. Thanks for checking! :)
I tripled the amount of Sesame Oil and this was AWFUL. How can you post such a DISGUSTING recipe! Just kidding…. about the disgusting part. Fact is I did triple the sessame oil because I read 1T instead of 1t. But I like the taste of sesame oil and this was WONDERFUL. Made this for dinner for the wife and me last night and had to hide some of the chicken so I’d have some for lunch today. Can’t decide if I like this or the Holy Yum chicken better. A great way to spice up a chicken dinner. The double-wrapped foil got torn a little and that little bit of scrubbing I had to do made me very grateful for your warning to protect the pan. Will definately make again! Thanks for another GREAT recipe.
Haha, you scared me for a second with this comment! Glad it turned out well for you!! :)
Did it again with the sesame oil, but I like it with more of that taste. In the oven cooking again for our dinner and still can’t tell if I like this or the Holy Yum Chicken better. Rice is almost done and chicken has about 10 more minutes. Thanks again for this recipe.
Awesome, Ed! So glad you’re making this again :)
I am just learning how to cook chicken more than the three ways I grew up with. This has all the flavor components my family likes. What adjustments would I need to make for cooking with bone in thighs.
No adjustments needed. Everything would remain the same.
This was a great dish. I made it last night and it was yummy.
I made one modification though. When I took the chicken out of the oven, I found the flavors of the sauce to be muted and the sauce was a little too oily for my liking (possibly I did not trim enough fat from the chicken). So I put the sauce into a cup and skimmed some of the fat, then added 1 tbsp of soy sauce and a pinch more ground ginger. That really brought the flavors back to life.
Thanks for a delicious and easy recipe! I’ll definitely be making this again.
-Lem
This was AMAZING! I wish I made more. My husband and I devoured this. The chicken was so tender, it fell apart. I followed your directions to the T (oops, I see now i forgot the rosemary…), and I had an absolutely amazing outcome. Keep the yummy recipes coming!
Also, thanks for telling the recipe bullies off– I don’t know why people feel so entitled.
Julie,
I made this tonight and it was one of the best chicken dishes I have made. We loved it! Thanks for the post!!