Honey Baked Chicken

Sticky sweet and everything nice, this Honey Baked Chicken is the dinner your busy weeknight has been looking for! 

Honey Baked Chicken from The Girl In The Little Red Kitchen

If there’s any season I look forward to every year it’s the beginning of fall.  There’s a slight chill that starts to creep in the air and an energy that’s contagious with the start of the new school year.  In our house, our child happens to have four legs, a tail and a lot of fur but we still get swept up into that back to school groove.  Our slowed down summer schedule picks right back up in the fall with students back to guitar lessons for Braden and for me? Well I’ve always felt like the year really started fresh in September, not January – I can’t be the only one that thinks that way right?

My work schedule doesn’t actually slow down in the summer, but when you’re the boss, you have the luxury to slow things down.  That includes a relaxed pace around dinner time – more salads and simple meals find there way to table during the summer.  Not just because I’m trying to take advantage of the fresh summer produce but because I just don’t want to turn on my oven when it feels like an inferno outside.

Honey Baked Chicken | girlinthelittleredkitchen.com

As soon as the temperature drops and the calendar fills up again, all bets are off and it’s time to fill our busy bodies with good eats.  I tend to keep dinner time simple during the week – after all who wants a big fussy meal after a long day but simple doesn’t have to mean sacrificing taste or flavor.

A big burst of flavor is exactly what you get with this Honey Baked Chicken! This recipe is inspired by a similar one my mom would make for us growing up.  It wasn’t one we had often – although she certainly cooked baked chicken often enough.  In fact, when I inquired about the recipe she couldn’t even remember making it – if that gives you an idea of how often we had it.  However, this sticky sweet, honey glazed chicken dish stuck in my mind all these years later that I just knew I needed to create my own version of it.

In fact honey has many versatile culinary benefits, it provides balance to any dish complementing and enhancing a variety of foods and flavors: including sweet sour, bitter, salty and savory.  Honey also attracts and holds moisture, which makes this chicken some of the best you will ever have – that’s a promise I can guarantee!

Honey Baked Chicken | girlinthelittleredkitchen.com

To make it a little more weeknight dinner friendly, I went ahead and took out a few steps I recall anytime mom cooked up something that was breaded – honey glazed or not.   The first is to skip the browning in the frying pan – not only does this save you time but it’s one less pan you have to wash. Not to mention honey adds a rich golden or amber color to foods, making it ideal for this chicken.  As you can see, just because we’ve skipping the frying step doesn’t mean we are losing out on color or flavor!

How do you get that crispy brown coating on the chicken then? Easy, I take my foolproof oven baked chicken method of mixing the breadcrumbs with oil so that it crisps and browns right up in the oven.  After that, I went ahead and cooked down the honey and orange glaze on the stovetop while the chicken baked in the oven.  This saves on time and gives you a thick rich glaze to pour over top for a dinner that everyone in the family will love!

This post is sponsored on behalf of The National Honey Board.  As always all opinions are my own and thanks for supporting brands that I work with. 

For more information on The National Honey Board please visit them on Facebook, Pinterest, Twitter,Instagram and YouTube.

Honey Baked Chicken
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Ingredients

  • 2 1/2 - 3lbs skin-on, bone-in chicken thighs and drumsticks
  • 1 cup all-purpose flour
  • 2 large eggs
  • 1 1/2 cups panko breadcrumbs
  • 1 1/2 cups plain breadcrumbs
  • 1/4 cup avocado oil
  • kosher salt and black pepper
  • For the honey glaze
  • 1 cup honey
  • 3/4 cup orange juice
  • 1/4 cup soy sauce
  • 2 garlic cloves, finely minced
  • 2 teaspoons hot sauce
  • 1 teaspoon black pepper
  • 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
  • parsley for garnish

Instructions

  1. Heat your oven to 400 degrees F. and have a large baking pan (9x13) nearby.
  2. Set up a breading station with 3 shallow bowls, filling one with the flour, one with the eggs and the last with the panko, plain breadcrumbs and avocado oil. Season each with salt and pepper. Mixing together to combine. The texture of the breadcrumbs should feel and look like wet sand.
  3. Rinse and pat dry the chicken, season generously on both sides with salt and pepper. Starting with the flour, dredge on both sides, move on to the egg to coat even and then cover with breadcrumbs. Transfer to the baking pan. Repeat with remaining pieces of chicken.
  4. Bake the chicken for 25 minutes.
  5. While the chicken is baking, in a medium saucepan combine the honey, orange juice, soy sauce, minced garlic, hot sauce, pepper and salt. Bring to a boil and reduce down slightly.
  6. After 25 minutes, remove the chicken from the oven, using tongs turn oven and lower the temperature to 350 degrees. Pour over the glaze, leaving about 1/4 in the saucepan.
  7. Return the chicken to the oven and continue to bake for another 10 minutes.
  8. Place the saucepan with the remaining glaze back on the burner, bring to a boil and continue to reduce until it is a nice thick syrup.
  9. Once the chicken has finished cooking, transfer to a serving platter and pour the cooked down glaze over the top. Sprinkle chopped parsley over the top and serve.
Recipe Type: Main
https://girlinthelittleredkitchen.com/2016/09/honey-baked-chicken/

 

Honey Baked Chicken | girlinthelittleredkitchen.com

 

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