Baked Honey Lemon Soy Chicken Thighs are quick, easy, healthy and full of flavor! The lemon, honey, soy sauce and garlic make tasty roasted chicken thighs.

Honey Lemon Chicken

I don’t know about you, but my family and I get very tired of boring and dry chicken. It seems like so many chicken recipes these days don’t have enough flavor!

Who wants to eat that for dinner?

This recipe for Honey Lemon Chicken is the solution to the boring old chicken problem. This recipe is super simple, and full of wonderful flavors.

I love this honey lemon roasted chicken recipe because it works perfectly with any type of chicken. We have tried both breasts and thighs with equal success.

I love when I recipe is flexible that way and luckily most chicken recipes are.

You can use any chicken you have on hand, or whatever is on sale that week. That is what I do!

Honey Soy Chicken Thighs

The amazing flavor comes from the marinade that you make to pour over the chicken to glaze it. I have marinated the chicken before baking but don’t usually with this recipe.

Now that I think of it I’m not sure why, other than time restraints. This recipe is usually made last minute because I always have these ingredients around.

At least you know the chicken tastes great without marinating!

Regardless, cut each lemon in half and squeeze each lemon half into a bowl and add the honey, garlic, and soy sauce.

The marinade only uses honey, soy sauce, lemon, and garlic. These flavors just work so well together. I LOVE it.

With these flavors there is no way your chicken thighs will be boring!

Give the mixture a stir or if you’re going to marinate your chicken just add everything to a large resealable bag.

Add your chicken to the bag and adjust the chicken pieces periodically for up to 24 hours before baking.

Dump contents into your baking pan and bake until chicken is cooked through.

Honey Lemon Roasted Chicken

Boy oh boy could my grandmother cook and bake. She was amazing in the kitchen and taught me so many little cool tips and tricks.

One of them involves the use of aromatics.

For those of you that don’t know aromatics are basically combinations of vegetables and/or herbs that influence the flavor of food while cooking or baking.

I don’t know if you have ever made a whole chicken and placed an onion, carrots and celery inside? The carrots, celery and onion are aromatics.

Their job is to flavor the chicken as it bakes.

In this honey lemon roasted chicken recipe, you squeeze your lemons into the bowl with the honey, garlic, and soy sauce.

Instead of throwing them away, you set them aside because you will be placing them on your rimmed baking sheet with your chicken to bake.

These lemons will help moisten and flavor your chicken as it bakes.

Baked Honey Lemon Chicken

Another thing my grandmother always stressed the importance of is basting.

For those of you that don’t know basting is spooning liquid over top of the chicken to keep it moist and add flavor until it’s cooked.

I baste with the accumulated juices at least three times to create a beautiful glaze on top of the chicken.

This glaze not only looks great but it tastes fabulous too!

Basting the chicken and baking the squeezed lemon halves is a necessity to create chicken rich in color and more importantly moist and flavorful.

I hope that your family enjoys this baked honey lemon chicken as much as we do!

Healthy Honey Lemon Chicken

You have definitely found a healthy honey lemon chicken recipe. These basic ingredients are balanced in flavor and calories.

According to the Harvard School of Public Health , if you’re serving chicken, there’s no need to remove the skin.

Chicken skin has long had a bad reputation for being high in fat and bad for you. In reality, most of the fat in chicken skin is healthy, unsaturated fat which our body needs.

Cooking chicken with the skin keeps the chicken flavorful and moist, so you don’t need to add too much salt or a breaded coating on the outside to enjoy it.

The unnecessary salt and breading on the outside of chicken is where we all get into a bit of trouble! More often than not the breading is not healthy overall.

Luckily, with this healthy honey lemon chicken you enjoy lots of flavor without any guilt.

Ingredients in Honey Lemon Chicken

6-8 chicken thighs, bone in, skin on
1/4 cup honey
1/4 cup soy sauce
2 lemons, halved, juice of
1 tablespoon garlic, minced (I usually use two)
salt, as needed
pepper, as needed
cooking spray

How to make Honey Soy Chicken Thighs

Preheat your oven and get a pan large enough to hold your chicken with space around each piece. You don’t want the pan so small that you can’t get in there are access accumulated juices to baste the chicken.

Place chicken thighs, skin side up, inside your pan.

We cook this chicken dish at 325 degrees because the honey can and will burn if the chicken is cooked at too high a temperature.

This means if your chicken thighs are on the large side, your thighs will take longer to cook than one hour. These chicken thighs are definitely worth the wait.

Season chicken thighs liberally with salt and pepper.

Cut the lemons in half. Squeeze each lemon half into a bowl and add honey, garlic, and soy sauce.

Set aside the squeezed lemon halves. DO NOT THROW THEM AWAY.

Pour mixture over the chicken until covered.

Then include the squeezed lemon halves between the pieces of chicken inside the baking pan.

This will both moisten and add flavor to the chicken.

Roast the chicken in the baking sheet, uncovered, for 55-60 minutes, or done.

Baste with the juices at least three times to create a gorgeous glaze. You will be glad you did.

Let rest for 5 minutes before serving. Enjoy!

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