Asian style sticky chicken thighs roasted in the oven than is healthier than any takeaway. They’re ready straight out of the oven in 30 minutes and you don’t even have to marinate the chicken to get all that delicious flavour. These succulent chicken thighs are covered in a sweet glaze made using coconut sugar that caramelises in the oven, while you can prepare the rest of dinner or relax on the sofa with a glass of wine.
Now you know how I love my simple and fuss-free cooking, all the recipes on the blog follow that theme. This one couldn’t be any easier and it made the perfect easy family meal on Monday night, served with homemade vegetable fried rice and stir fried pak choi. The whole family dug in and it was completely stress-free which I think made it more enjoyable. Nothing makes cooking more challenging than a complicated recipe that is hard to follow, an ingredients list as long as your arm and difficult techniques only a qualified chef can achieve; that definitely takes the fun out of cooking for me!
- 6 chicken thighs on the bone
- 4 tbsp dark soy sauce
- 4 tbsp rice wine vinegar
- 3 tbsp runny honey
- 4 tbsp coconut sugar
- 2 tbsp sesame seed oil
- 2 tsp Chinese 5 spice
- 2 cloves of garlic minced
- 1 thumb size length of ginger grated
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Preheat the oven to 180 degrees and place the chicken thighs in an oven proof dish.
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Place the rest of the ingredients into a saucepan and cook on a medium heat for 5 minutes to let the sauce reduce and thicken.
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Once thickened, pour or brush the chicken thighs with half of the sauce, covering generously.
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Bake the chicken thighs for 25-30 minutes remembering to turn over halfway through and pour over the remainder of the sauce.
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The chicken is ready when the temperature on reads 74 degrees on a Superfast Thermapen. Towards the end of cooking the chicken should look caramelised and sticky.
Preparation time includes creating the Asian sticky sauce.
‘Love them and leave them food‘ or something that can be whipped up in 30 minutes or less is more my cooking style. The recipe instructions do suggest a second coating of the thickened sauce, which helps to create an even stickier coating. However, you will still get the same effect if you were to leave the chicken thighs to their own devices. I just like to make sure that they are fully coated all the way around and that Asian sticky sauce is delicious, a second coat was a must.
To make sure that the chicken thighs were cooked all the way through I used my SuperFast Thermapen, which are British made. If you’re not confident in the kitchen then it makes cooking so much easier, simply insert the thermometer into the chicken thighs to test the temperature and it gives an accurate temperature reading in 3 seconds. When the chicken thighs are ready the temperature should read 74 degrees, it’s that simple. I’ve found it such a handy piece of equipment to have in my kitchen. Roasting meat is just one thing that you can use a Thermapen for, it can also be used for baking, poaching, and sugar crafting as well.
As I previously mentioned, you can get on with the rest of dinner while these are roasting in the oven, or relax on the sofa. These chicken thighs go great with a vegetable stir fry with noodles or how we had them with vegetable fried rice, although they are equally good on their own too. I think you could use the sauce to as a glaze for tofu and seitan as a vegetarian option.
Seriously, who needs a takeaway when you can make healthier and delicious food at home?
*Recipe commissioned by Thermapen, but all opinions are my own.
wow great recipe. i will have to try making this someday. amazing pics too it got me so hungry.
Thank you!
This sounds just absolutely wonderful and I could quite happily be sat eating them right now to be honest, even at 9.15am x
Haha! I could have too.
O yum!! This looks like one delicious dinner!
Thanks Rebecca, it’s very tasty.
This is really similar to the first thing that I learnt to cook for my husband and it is still a favourite in our house now.
They’re a big hit in our house too. 🙂
It is almost lunch time here and reading this is just making me hungry. I love the look of this, it looks so succulent and I have not had sticky chicken. I like that the recipe is not complex and will try this on the weekend.
Thanks Sheri! I hate long ingredient lists, so try and keep the recipes the same on the blog.
These tights look amazing!!! I would love to eat this chicken with a plain rice along with glass of wine!! 🙂 Sounds perfect!!
Hahaha! Tights? A glass of wine would go well with these.
I love all the flavours in the marinade! And how nice to have a recipe where you can sit down with a glass of wine while it cooks.
I know, I wish all recipes were like that!
These Asian style sticky chicken thighs look so succulent and sound so scrumptious! And, the fact that I can relax on the sofa while these bake is an added bonus!
I think we all need recipes like this sometimes.
I’m making this one for sure, looks delicious with all the Asian flavours
Thanks Bintu! Let me know what you think if you do try them.
Chicken thighs are my favorite dinner, this recipe would be a hit in my house
Oh lovely! Let me know if you try them out.
I can’t believe you don’t need to marinate these! They look so good and packed with flavour. And yes to fried rice! 🙂
I know! Recuding the sticky sauce down really helps with getting that flavour in there.
Oh I love chicken thighs! This sounds delicious. Very tasty. The thermometer sounds like a great idea too.
I love them too, much prefer them to chicken breasts.
Looks so yummy! I actually was thinking about making chicken thighs tonight so I might try this recipe 🙂
Would love to hear what you think if you do give it a try.
A very delicious dish, I’m going to have to see about the vegetarian option 🙂
Yes, I would love to hear how it tastes on tofu or seitan.
These look incredible and sound amazing! I am definitely going to make these for me and my partner he would love them.
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Lovely! Let me know how you both get on.
Oh my goodness yes please a million times over – how delicious does this sound! x
Chicken thighs are my favourite part of the chicken to cook with… so flavourful and forgiving! It’s amazing what you can do with a less expensive cut of meat! This recipe looks delicious, I’ll have to try it out!
These look and sound amazing!!! Ik’m a sucker for chicken will have to make this at home!
Wow these look and sound utterly amazing, I really must give them a try for myself.
Thighs are my favourite and these look delicious x
OMGGG this is delicious. My kind of meal! I’m printing it already. This is awesome!
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Wow these look so sweet and sticky! Great that you can knock them up so quickly at home!
I love dishes like this. I have a bunch of drumsticks in the freezer. Do you think it would be OK to use those?
Now this looks incredible! I’m not confident cooking meat on the bone but I’d certainly do it with chicken breast xxx
Gah, this looks SO delicious! Asian food is my favourite. I MUST make this! Thanks for sharing this!! Bookmarked. 😉 x
I was drooling when I saw these on Instagram! Can’t wait to try them!
The marinade sounds delicious and I would certainly try it with tempeh as reckon that would work brilliantly for a veggie/vegan version. Thanks for the inspiration 🙂
This looks really delicious! We’re gonna have to try this. 🙂
this looks yummy, but am allergic to garlic, but i guess i could omit that part!
I would have loved to try something like this when I ate meat, looks great!
Can’t wait to make this next week
Oh wow these look delicious! I never cook with chicken thighs normally but these sound so tasty! x
Okay I am hungry now! this looks delicious and looks like I have got all the ingredients at home! just going to defrost some chicken!
I’m all for fuss free recipes, especially using the oven. This looks so delicious! And it’s healthier than takeout! x
This chicken looks delicious! I am always looking for new recipes because I love to cook chicken. I think this would be a hit with my family and I like that the dish is easy to make.
Looks absolutely delicious I love easy to make meals with no fuss. Trying this recipe big time
This looks delicious and I love dishes like this x
This looks scrumptious ! AND so easy, right up my alley. I’ll definitely be giving this one a try.
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Oh these look utterly delicious! I love making different things with chicken, This is now on my recipe list for next week. Fab recipe!
This is so yummy, and I could eat this dish even my Mom serves this almost everyday 🙂
Fantastic recipe! It looks so easy yet so very tasty. I have printed it off to add to my meal rotations for next week. I can’t wait to try it! xx
I’m having guests over for a barbeque next week and this looks perfect. What a tasty looking dish. I hope I can do it justice.
Gosh this looks so good! I love Asian food! One question though…what is runny honey?
I absolutely love sticky chicken. Your photos look mouth-watering!
This looks lovely! I will have to save this recipe and make it some time
These sounds so delicious! I particularly love sticky chicken thighs and I have some chicken in the freezer that I need to use, this would be lovely!
i can actually taste these right now. it looks so amazing
As always a tres tasty recipe for me to try out! Looks absolutely delicious.
This looks lovey and tasty, I do like Asian style cooking it’s normally nice and healthy as well as tasty.