With succulent chicken thighs cooked in a luscious savory sauce, today's honey soy chicken thighs recipe adds a delightful Asian twist to your meal. Curious about the taste? The soy sauce adds a bunch of umami flavors, while honey adds a mildly sweet touch to satisfy the taste buds.
Ingredients for Honey Soy Chicken Thighs
Here are our list of wholesome ingredients for making honey soy chicken thighs:
- Chicken: This recipe calls for skinless boneless chicken thighs. Their high moisture content makes them ideal for stir-fries since the meat can easily remain juicy while being exposed to the heat and oil in the cooking process. To give it more flavor, we scored the meat and seasoned it with paprika and garlic powder.
- Sauce: Here comes the honey-soy sauce that gives our dish a bunch of savory flavors with mildly sweet notes—you’ll only need 6 ingredients for this: red pepper flakes, chili powder, cornstarch, water, honey, and reduced-sodium soy sauce.
- Veggies: We pair our honey soy chicken thighs with boiled carrots and edamame beans for a boost of taste and textures. Plus, their bright orange and green colors make our dish look more delicious and presentable.
- Rice: Simply serve it with cooked white rice for a filling and well-rounded meal, but if you are counting calories, opt for brown rice.
Is Honey Soy Chicken Thighs Healthy?
Yes, our honey soy chicken thighs are healthy. Here’s why:
Thanks to the chicken, our dish is high in protein, with a considerable 32.4 grams for one serving. It's important to consume enough protein since it supports muscle growth and maintenance while also giving your body the fuel it needs for daily activities.
On top of that, we include edamame beans and carrots for a healthy boost of fiber and other essential nutrients. Carrots are famously known for being an excellent source of vitamin A. What about edamame? Edamame is a type of premature soybean that is green in color, and rich in vitamins, minerals, and antioxidants (100 grams of these beans can also provide you with 18.2 grams of protein, a considerable number for a vegetable).
Lastly, we have carefully considered the amount of each ingredient to ensure that the dish’s nutritional values meet with the 2020 – 2025 Dietary Guidelines for Americans. Specifically, for each serving, there are 478 calories, 1.7 g saturated fats, and 593.7 mg sodium.
How to Make
How to Store and Reheat
You can keep the honey soy chicken thighs in an airtight container in the fridge for around 2 to 3 days. For reheating, simply microwave or give them a quick stir-fry.
What to Serve With Honey Soy Chicken Thighs
For a well-rounded meal, serve these tasty sides with our honey-soy chicken thighs:
- Asian Cucumber salad
- Stir-fried Chinese Broccoli Recipe
- Cabbage Soup Recipe
- Winter Melon Meatball Soup Recipe
- Stracciatella Soup Recipe
Honey Soy Chicken Thighs Recipe
This honey soy chicken thighs recipe makes a satisfying weeknight meal. It features tender and flavorful chicken thighs glazed in a gorgeous honey-soy sauce, paired with boiled carrots and edamame beans, and served over hot white rice.
- cook TIME 25 mins
- prep TIME 15 mins
- total TIME 40 mins
- COURSE Main Dish
- CUISINE Asian
- SERVINGS servings
- CALORIES 477 kcal
INGREDIENTS
- 1 tbspcanola oil
- 1 tspginger (chopped)
- 8 ozcarrot (cut into strips)
- 0.5 tspred pepper flakes
- 0.5 tspchili powder
- 1 tspcornstarch
- 2 fl ozwater
- 2 tbsphoney
- 3 cupcooked medium-grain rice (from 1 1/2 cup uncooked)
- 6 ozedamame
- 1 tsppaprika
- 1 tbspgarlic (minced)
- 0.3 cupscallion
- 3 tbspreduced-sodium soy sauce
- 16 ozskinless boneless chicken thighs
- 1 tspgarlic powder
- 0.5 tbspunsalted roasted sesame seeds
INSTRUCTIONS
Prep:
Cut the carrot into thin strips: Cut off the top and peel the skin. From top to bottom, peel the carrot to have thin slices, then stack the slices up and slice them to have thin strips.
Chop the ginger: Separate the knobs and slice away the skin with a knife. Cut the knobs into thin slices. Stack the slices up, and slice them into thin strips. Rotate the strips 90 degrees, then cut them into tiny cubes.
Peel and mince the garlic: Cut to remove the root part of each garlic clove and mash them down with a knife to remove the peel with ease. Mince the peeled cloves.
Cut the scallions diagonally into thin slices.
Cook:
Score the chicken: On a cutting board, make around 4 to 5 cuts halfway through each chicken thigh for better flavor absorption.
Season the chicken: Add 1 tsp paprika and 1 tsp garlic powder to 16 oz skinless boneless chicken thighs. Rub the seasonings onto the meat to coat evenly.
Make the sauce: In a small mixing bowl, add 1/2 tsp red pepper flakes, 1/2 tsp chili powder, 1 tsp cornstarch, 2 fl oz water, 2 tbsp honey, and 3 tbsp reduced-sodium soy sauce. Stir well to combine.
Boil the carrots: In a skillet over boiling water, add 8 oz carrot and cook for 5 minutes. When done, drain and rinse the carrots through running water. Remove the remaining water from the skillet.
Pan-sear the chicken: In the same skillet, add 1 tbsp canola oil. When the oil is hot and ready, add the chicken and pan-sear both sides over low heat for a total of 10 minutes.
Add the garlic and ginger: Add 1 tbsp garlic and 1 tsp ginger, then stir for 30 seconds.
Add the sauce: Add the sauce and cook over low heat for 5 more minutes.
Add scallion and sesame seeds: Remove from the heat, then sprinkle 1/4 cup scallion and 1/2 tbsp unsalted roasted sesame seeds on top.
Serve: Divide the honey soy chicken thighs into 4 servings with cooked rice, boiled carrots, and edamame beans.
NUTRITION
Tuyet Pham
Chef, Culinary Consultant
Luna Regina
Writer, Author