Honey garlic chicken thighs are one of our favorite dinners. It’s quick and easy to make, is loaded with flavor and everyone in the family loves eating them. You can also cook boneless skinless chicken breasts in this recipe and the chicken is still juicy and delicious! The homemade honey garlic sauce can be used on other dishes too.

honey garlic chicken thighs in pan

Easy Homemade Honey Garlic Chicken Thighs Recipe

Making this homemade for your family is a great way to save money and still have a quality restaurant style meal. Best of all, you can make as much as you want and not break the bank. The savory homemade sauce is fantastic and if you have any leftover, it’s great to drizzle on top of vegetables.

Chicken Thighs or Chicken Breast for this recipe?

You can use chicken breast if you like! There’s no rules. We’ve always used chicken thighs because they’re more flavorful, but any cut of chicken will work. Even if you wanted to try chicken wings, they still taste great! You just need to adjust cooking times.  Our honey garlic chicken thighs recipe is finished in the oven, but you don’t have to use the oven. You an still finish cooking on the stove top if you want. Just lower the heat so that the chicken thighs cook all the way through. It’s important to cook on the lower heat so everything is cooked to perfection.

pouring sauce over honey garlic chicken thighs

Watch the video making the Honey Garlic Chicken Thighs:

How to Make Honey Garlic Sauce for Chicken to be Delicious

  • Good honey- a good quality honey will give a great taste and consistency
  • Soy Sauce – this adds the Umami flavor to the honey garlic sauce. Low sodium is great too if you’re watching your sodium content.
  • Garlic – lots of it and we prefer fresh garlic, but garlic powder and granulated garlic tastes great too
  • We like to thicken the sauce a bit to make it cling to the chicken. So we use cornstarch.
  • Combine all the ingredients together: Our recipe below will show you the complete recipe.
  • Fan of sauces for chicken? try our super simple, lazy and easy honey mustard sauce recipe.

How to Serve these juicy honey garlic chicken thighs

A great way to serve these honey garlic chicken thighs is with some rice or even pasta! There’s enough delicious honey garlic sauce to pour over the rice and pasta. You can also shred the chicken in the sauce and make a fabulous honey garlic chicken sandwich! This chicken stuffed in a sandwich is yummy and you can even add them to sweet rolls for perfect sliders! They can be a full entree or appetizer so there’s plenty of options to gobble up these thighs for any weeknight dinner or serve them up on a party platter! If you love chicken try our chicken thighs in creamy garlic lemon sauce.

Easy Honey Garlic Chicken Thighs Recipe Best Chicken Recipe Ever! | @bestrecipebox

Honey Garlic Chicken Thighs

Yield: 4 servings
Prep Time: 10 minutes
Cook Time: 35 minutes
Total Time: 45 minutes
You can also cook boneless skinless chicken breasts in this recipe and the chicken is still juicy and delicious! We've always used chicken thighs because they're more flavorful, but any cut of chicken will work. Adjust the cooking time as needed depending on how thick your chicken is and if it is bone-in or boneless. Thinner bone-less breast or thigh meat may cook as quick as 15 minutes in the oven, and a thick, bone-in breast might need up to 30 minutes or so.
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Ingredients

For the Sauce

  • 1/4 cup (85 g) honey
  • 1/4 cup (60 ml) water
  • 3 Tablespoons (45 ml) soy sauce
  • 1 Tablespoon (15 ml) rice vinegar or regular distilled vinegar
  • 2 teaspoons (10 ml) cornstarch

For the Chicken

  • 4 chicken thighs (about 2 lbs. (910g)) bone-in & skin on, or boneless & skinless thighs
  • 1/2 teaspoon (2.5 ml) garlic powder
  • 1/2 teaspoon (2.5 ml) salt , or to taste
  • 1/2 teaspoon (2.5 ml) ground black pepper , or to taste
  • 2 Tablespoons (30 g) butter or olive oil
  • 5-6 cloves garlic , minced
  • optional chopped parsley or cilantro for garnish

Instructions 

  • Preheat oven to 375°F (190°C).
    Oven knobs
  • In a bowl, whisk honey, water, soy sauce, vinegar, and cornstarch together. Set aside.
  • Pat dry the chicken. Season both sides of chicken thighs with garlic powder, salt, and ground black pepper.
    Seasoned uncooked chicken thighs
  • Heat large, oven-safe skillet on medium high heat. Melt butter or add olive oil, then place chicken thighs skin-side down and sear until skin is brown, about 2 minutes.
    Chicken thighs in pan skin side down
  • Flip chicken and sear bottom side until browned, about 2 minutes.
    Flipping chicken to skin side up
  • Push the chicken to the edges of the pan and add the garlic to the pan. Cook for about 1 minute, or until the garlic is softened.
    Adding garlic to pan with chicken
  • Add the sauce to the pan and bring to a simmer, about 1 minute. Remove pan from the heat.
    Adding sauce to pan with chicken
  • Transfer chicken skillet to oven and bake the chicken for about 25 minutes or until chicken thighs are cooked through. Occasionally baste the chicken with the sauce. Garnish with optional chopped cilantro or parsley. It is perfect to serve warm over rice or pasta.
    Basting chicken with sauce

Video

YouTube video

Nutrition Information per Serving

Calories: 382kcal, Carbohydrates: 21g, Protein: 20g, Fat: 24g, Saturated Fat: 9g, Polyunsaturated Fat: 4g, Monounsaturated Fat: 9g, Trans Fat: 0.3g, Cholesterol: 126mg, Sodium: 1179mg, Potassium: 296mg, Fiber: 0.3g, Sugar: 18g, Vitamin A: 265IU, Vitamin C: 1mg, Calcium: 24mg, Iron: 1mg
Course: Main Course
Cuisine: American, Asian
Calories: 382
skillet of honey garlic chicken thighs recipe

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Originally published in 2018 and updated in 2024.