Asian Baked Chicken is mouthwatering and packed with flavor!
Just a few ingredients from your refrigerator and pantry will make an amazing lunch or dinner.
These one-pan baked Asian chicken thighs are full of Asian flavors. You can add the marinade in the morning, refrigerate and bake for dinner, making it a great weeknight meal. The marinade becomes rich and sticky as it cooks and seals in a delicious Asian flavor.
Common ingredients for Asian Baked Chicken:
This is an easy Asian sauce that you can use for fish, pork or chicken
- Bone-in Chicken Thighs with the skin on. Breasts, legs, and wings work as well but will need less cooking time. Thighs will give you the most tender results, but the breast will be lower in fat.
- Honey
- Soy Sauce
- Garlic and Ginger
- Dark Brown Sugar – light brown will work fine but dark brown will have a deeper flavor and color
- Hot Chili Paste. I like Sambal Oelek, but Sriracha or gochujang work great too. Add more if you like it spicier!
- Sesame seeds, for garnish
How to make a great Asian marinade sauce
It’s important to let the flavors of the sauce meld together. Everything comes together pretty quickly.
- Combine all of the sauce ingredients together
- Heat the sauce to a low boil until the honey and brown sugar are melted, whisking continuously. The sauce should start to thicken
- Let sauce cool for about 5-minutes
- Place chicken in a large baking dish, cover with sauce and cover tightly with foil
- The chicken should marinate for 2-hours and up to 12-hours
How to Cook Asian Chicken Thighs
Chicken thighs have more flavor than other parts of the chicken and they are harder to overcook. As a result, they are perfect for this recipe. Be sure to use bone-in thighs. These thighs will cook at 350°F, then finish at 375°F to caramelize the skin.
- Preheat oven to 350°F
- Cook the chicken, covered with foil, for 30 minutes, skin side down.
- Increase cooking time to 375°F
- Turn the chicken skin side up, uncover, and bake for another 15 minutes, to caramelize the chicken. Check the temperature as the chicken is finished cooking at 165°F
- If needed, finish cooking for about 5-15 more minutes
- Cooking time will vary based on the size of your chicken thighs
- Even if you don’t want to eat the skin it’s still best to cook with it on to ensure moist chicken.
Thighs marinating 
Baked Chicken
Serving Asian Baked Chicken
Be sure to let the chicken rest for about 5 minutes after cooking to allow the juices to settle back into the meat. Before serving, spoon some additional sauce over the top of the chicken, and sprinkle with sesame seeds.
Other great easy main dishes to try:
- Perfect Pan-Seared Scallops
- Easy Oven Baked Salmon
- Chipotle Roasted Shrimp
- Garlic Shrimp with Roasted Tomatoes
- Skirt Steak with Mustard Sauce
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Asian Baked Chicken
Equipment
- Roasting pan or large baking dish
Ingredients
- 8 Boneless Chicken thighs, skin on
- 1 cup honey
- ½ cup soy sauce
- ¼ cup garlic minced, about 12 cloves
- ¼ cup ginger, grated
- 1 Tbsp brown sugar
- 1-2 tsp Sriracha, sambal oelek or gochujang, or any chili paste, to taste
- 1 Tbsp sesame seeds, optional
Instructions
- Rinse chicken thighs and place in a large baking dish skin side down.
- In a small saucepan combine honey, soy sauce, garlic, ginger, brown sugar, and chili paste. Whisk together and cook over medium heat until the sauce comes to a low boil, and the brown sugar is completely melted. The sauce will start to thicken. Remove from heat and allow the sauce to cool for 5-minutes.
- Pour sauce over chicken, making sure all pieces are well coated.
- Cover with foil and marinate in the refrigerator for at least 2-hours, and up to 12-hours.
- Once marinated, preheat oven to 350°F.
- Place covered baking dish in the oven and bake for 30 minutes. Remover the foil from the pan and turn the chicken skin side up. Check temperature. Chicken is cooked at 165°F.Increase temperature to 375°F and bake for additional 5-15 minutes. Spoon extra juices that are at the bottom of the pan over the chicken thighs and cook to an internal temperature of 165°F.
- Remove from oven and let rest for 5 minutes before serving. Sprinkle with sesame seeds, if desired.
kazy
I would have given this a full 5 stars but I thought the cooking time of 1 hour dried the thighs out. In fact when I got to the second part of step 6 where I had to cook the chicken for the last 15 minutes, before doing it, I placed my thermometer into the thighs and the temp was way beyond 165. So even at 45 minutes, it had overcooked the thighs. Next time I will definitely reduce the the time in order to have a more moist chicken thigh.
Jayne
Hi and thanks for your comments about the timing. Always a good idea to check it with the thermometer and cook to 165F. The thighs I use are fairly large so maybe that is the difference in cooking time. Thanks for stopping by!
Patrice
This looks really delicious and versatile! Like that it uses many ingredients I already have on hand.
Nart | Cooking with Nart
Tried it and it was amazing…so juicy! Thanks for such a great recipe!
Kari Anderson
This sauce is perfect – sweet, spicy, and gingery! We are going to try it over wings next!
Cate
This Asian chicken looks so yummy! Beautiful photos too!