Baked Chicken with Soy and Garlic

This Baked Soy Garlic Chicken Thighs recipe makes an easy weeknight dinner. It's easy, tasty, healthy, and the perfect blend of sweet and savory with soy sauce, garlic, molasses and more! This baked chicken recipe is sure to be a hit on the dinner table.

We eat a lot of chicken around here! It's usually on the menu at least several times each week. I am always looking for sales and try to keep my freezer stocked with a variety of cuts to use to make easy meals.

This baked chicken recipe makes it on our regular meal rotation pretty regularly. If you love it you might also enjoy Honey Lemon Soy Chicken, Easy Oven Baked BBQ Chicken and this baked crispy chicken thighs recipe.

Why You Will Love Soy Garlic Chicken Thighs

• Flavorful Marinade: The chicken is infused with the flavors of soy sauce, garlic, and other seasonings giving it plenty of rich and savory flavors for a mouthwatering taste that you will find irresistible.
• Tender and Juicy Texture: Baking chicken thighs allows them to cook evenly and retain their moisture, resulting in tender and juicy meat. The combination of the marinade and baking method ensures that the chicken thighs are perfectly juicy and flavorful.
• Sweet and Savory Balance: The soy-garlic combination strikes a perfect balance between sweetness and savory umami. The sweetness of garlic and molasses in the marinade contrasts beautifully with the salty and savory notes of the soy sauce.
• Easy Preparation: This recipe is simple and perfect for novice and experienced cooks. The marinade can be prepared quickly, and baking is a straightforward cooking method, making it an attractive option for home cooks looking for a convenient and tasty meal.

Ingredients

The taste is a definite favorite and the best part is you may already have all of the ingredients on hand in your pantry, fridge, or freezer.

• Chicken Thighs: For the best flavor use bone-in, skin-on chicken thighs. The skin keeps the moisture inside as the chicken cooks and the bone creates a more flavorful piece of chicken.
• Soy Sauce: Adds instant flavor to the simple marinade for baked chicken.
• Dry Sherry, Dry White Wine, or Apple Cider: Any of these options work to make a more flavorful marinade for your baked chicken.
• Sweetener: Sugar and molasses are used to sweeten the marinade. The molasses brings a deeper flavor than sugar alone.
• White Vinegar: Just a bit of acid that balances the sweet and savory flavors.

See the recipe card below for the exact quantities of each ingredient.

Easy Substitutions

Don't have the correct ingredients on hand? Or want to change something up? Here are some helpful tips for you to change this soy garlic chicken thighs recipe.

• Chicken thighs: This recipe works well with boneless chicken thighs or chicken breasts as well. Just be sure to adjust the cooking time depending on the cut of chicken you use.
• Molasses: It brings a depth of flavor you can get from most alternatives but you can swap it for dark corn syrup, honey, or maple syrup. The best options in my opinion are honey and brown sugar.
• Ginger: Use ground allspice, ground cinnamon, ground nutmeg, or a blend of all three instead.
• Garlic: Use a teaspoon of garlic powder instead.

How to Make Soy Garlic Chicken Thighs

This is one of the easiest baked chicken recipes I've got on the blog! The marinade mixes up in just minutes and the oven does all the rest of the work.

1. Combine the water, soy sauce, dry sherry, sugar, molasses, garlic, ginger, and vinegar in an oven-safe skillet. Stir until the sugar is dissolved. 
2. Place the chicken, skin-side down, in the mixture, and bring it to a simmer.

PRO TIP: Use an oven-safe skillet to go straight from the stovetop to the oven! This means fewer dishes.

3. Transfer your skillet to the oven with the chicken thighs still skin side down.  Cook uncovered for 30 minutes. 
4. Flip the chicken over so the skin side is now facing up. Cook for another 25 minutes longer. Serve it up and enjoy!

PRO TIP: When the chicken is almost done, turn your oven to broil and place the chicken skin side up under the broiler until skin darkens and crisps up.

⭐ Hint: Cook chicken skin side down first, then flip over and cook skin side up in order to achieve optimal crispiness of skin while maintaining juicy meat inside each thigh piece.

If you love recipes like this, you may also enjoy our Easy Chicken Adobo with Coconut Milk.

Storage

• Refrigerator: Store for up to four days in an air-tight container.
• Freezer: Store for up to three months in an air-tight, freezer-safe container.
• Reheat: Place the chicken and sauce in a skillet, cover with a lid, and cook over medium-low heat until heated through.

What to Serve with Baked Chicken

There are so many different sides that go perfectly with these baked chicken thighs. Here are a few of our favorites.

• Potatoes: It's great with mashed potatoes, air fryer garlic potatoes, or this cheesy potato casserole.
• Mac and cheese: Serve it up flavored with bacon macaroni and cheese, rosemary macaroni and cheese, or our spicy macaroni and cheese.
• Rice: Steamed white, brown, coconut rice, instant pot cheesy broccoli rice, or wild rice pilaf works great too.
• Vegetables: Southern collard greens, slow cooker corn on the cob and fried tomatoes are a few of our favorites.

If you need some more inspiration, check out this what to serve with chicken cacciatore for more ideas.

Tips

• Use an oven-safe skillet for easy transfer of ingredients from the stovetop to the oven.
• Make sure to dissolve all the sugar in the marinade before adding the chicken thighs to the pan for cooking.
• For an even crispier skin, pat the chicken thighs with a paper towel before placing them in the oven-safe skillet.
• Cook chicken skin side down first. Then flip them over and cook the skin side up in order to achieve optimal crispiness of skin while maintaining juicy meat inside each thigh piece.
• Broil the top of the chicken right at the end for an even crispier outer skin.
• Cook the chicken in a single layer in the pan.

FAQ

Recipe Video

More Easy Chicken Thigh Recipes

Ready to get cooking? Remember that you can print this recipe if you would like.

This post was originally published July 2020. It has been updated with new images and content.