The easiest honey garlic sesame baked chicken is made with just 5 ingredients makes a perfect weeknight meal. 
Don’t you just love it when you finally learn how to make one of your favorite take-out dishes at home?! This is totally happening here. I’ve been trying to replicate all of our favorite takeout dishes while making them healthier. The trick is simplifying the recipes so you don’t spend all day in the kitchen.
This easy baked honey garlic chicken is just that. It’s really easy to prepare and makes a great dinner. The chicken is baked in a honey, garlic, soy and vinegar sauce that is out of this world. The honey and soy sauce caramelize the chicken so you end up with a slightly sticky texture.
I used chicken legs (thighs and drumsticks) but breasts would also work with this, although you would have to adjust the baking time. The chicken can be marinated in the fridge over-night then popped in the oven when needed. Just remember, the longer you marinate the chicken, the tastier and more flavorful the dish will be!
Easy Baked Honey Garlic Chicken
Ingredients
- 3 lbs chicken leg quarters, with skin (about 4 legs quarters)
- 4 cloves garlic, minced
- 1/4 cup honey
- 2 tablespoons dark soy sauce
- 1 tablespoon white vinegar
Instructions
- Heat oven to 400F degrees F. Line a baking dish with aluminum foil (optional); set aside.
- Layer the chicken legs on the baking dish. In a small bowl combine the garlic, honey, soy, and vinegar. Whisk until fully combined. Pour mixture onto chicken legs, coating evenly.
- Bake 40-45 minutes or until skin is crisp and caramelized and chicken is cooked through.
- For dark crispy skin: Place chicken under the broiler for 3-5 minutes or until desired crispness.
My family really liked this recipe and don’t recommend we change a thing about it! Thank you!
Added some orange marmalade on top when finished cooking and added more garlic, some onion powder, and some sriracha. Was very good
Here is a twist to this recipe and it came out fantastic.
Take the legs put it in a pot then add Pepsi and Worcester sauce and soy sauce boil the legs until the Pepsi turns clear take legs out place on a oven rack. Then coat the chicken with honey garlic sauce cook until done.
Family always loves it
It says sesames too??
Use salt and pepper to season chicken before you do anything and use olive oil
Use salt and not just a pinch lol
This is one of my go-to recipes that my husband loves. The sauce is thin, so I do baste regularly as it cooks as it does slide off the chicken otherwise. To get the nice brown skin I turn on the broiler at the end for 5-7 minutes. That also thickens the sauce into a bit more of a glaze. I also use way more garlic (based on our preferences.) We usually make along with mashed potatoes and use the remaining sauce as a “gravy” yum!
I made this tonight and it was different looking than the pinterest photo because I varied the recipe, but, it was delicious! I used boneless skinless chicken thighs cut up and marinated in a baggie overnightr. Isaw that it wasn’t browning, so I poured of most of the liquid and made some more marinade with honey,soy and vinegar. I used more honey than soy or vinegar so the extra marinade would be thick. I brushed it on and increased the oven temp. To 425° first about 20 more MINS.
Made this tonight with some tweaks(got them from others who made this).
Added in some carrots and it turned out amazing.
(My tweaks I seasoned the chicken as I normally do with salt,pepper, garlic and ONION pOWDEr. I flipped the chicken about halfway through I used bone in thighes).
Would recommend as a quick dish to po ur in oven and forget for an hour.
Making this tonight and after reading all comments, my chicken is marinating all day before I cook it. I’m hoping that it comes out as good as it looks and sounds.
Delicious
looks delicious
I would like to try it with boneless chicken thighs any suggestions on cooking time. I definately want to marinate & bake!
Need to try it
I added fresh grated ginger straight from my freezer to the mixture & sprinkled fresh cilantro from my plant on top when came out of oven. Skipped sesame seeds since didn’t have any but didn’t muss them at all. This was fantastic and so easy! The fresh ginger pulled it all tighter for authentic Asian flavors!! Will definitely make again!!!!!
Pros: The cooking time was perfectly spot on. I had two quarters, so I baked them in my cast iron instead, basting periodically, and then broiled them for the last few minutes. Perfectly juicy, tender chicken – almost falling off the bone – with lovely, crispy skin.
Cons: It was almost totally flavorless. I suspected as much from the ingredient list, and even tried to tweak it to accommodate. I used rice vinegar to complement the honey and soy sauce; I added in a few splashes of teriyaki sauce and sesame oil, and about a half-tablespoon of sriracha. Still, even with this, the chicken came out almost flavorless. I wager marinating it ahead of time would have really helped.
To spruce it up, I whisked in some extra honey, sesame oil, garlic powder, and red pepper flakes to the sauce in the pan, sprinkled some corn starch, and made a thick sauce for the chicken – sublime! Definitely tastier. I’ll for sure try this again later, but I’ll try marinating the chicken for a couple hours next time. The basic bones of it are good.
First time ever making a post on Pinterest! I used all chicken legs! I actually baked it for one hour and flipped the chicken around 40-45 minutes. I then grilled the chicken after it baked for one hour, but before I grilled it I rubbed the chicken with more honey and soy sauce! The honey made it more sweet and it caramalized while it grillled and made it taste more BBQ’ish and smoked! Enjoy!
If cooking with bone in breast and legs how long do you cook for
I used bone-in legs and cooked them for 40-45 minutes.
At what temp?
I just made this. It took only 5 min to prepare and 30 min to bake. It’s delicious with rice. Yum!
For crispy skin, melt 2 Tbsp of butter in a pan and sear the chicken about 2 minutes on each side then continue the recipe
cant you just broil it to make it crispy?
Tried this last night. It was not for me. I like my chicken crispy on the outside and these are not crispy at all. The flavor is fine. I think maybe next time I will bake the chicken first and then add the sauce after.
i like it want to make it again
i like it