The reign of sriracha is not over yet. The price for a bottle of this magic sauce remains stable at my local grocery store, so panic is averted for now.
I fell in love with chicken thighs a while back when I made the Maple Dijon Chicken Thighs. They’re super easy to cook, usually quite inexpensive, and always juicy and tender. For boneless, skinless chicken thighs all you have to do is add some sauce and pop them in the oven. A little while later you have an easy to eat and very delicious meat. That’s all I want—easy, delicious, inexpensive.
For this honey sriracha version, I’ve mixed up a marinade/sauce of the basic goodies: garlic, ginger, soy sauce, honey, and brown sugar. I used half brown sugar and half honey to cut costs, but if cost is not your concern, use all honey and no brown sugar. The end product is sweet, spicy, and full of flavor. Plus the thighs are tender and juicy as always. I’ve been eating this all week over a bed of jasmine rice with a few florets of broccoli. When I’m leaving for work in the morning I add all three to a container (the broccoli is frozen, from a bag in the freezer) and then they all reheat together in the microwave at lunch time. It’s the perfect little inexpensive and filling lunch!
Honey Sriracha Chicken Thighs
Honey Sriracha Chicken Thighs
Servings 6 1 thigh eachIngredients
- 6 boneless skinless chicken thighs (2 lbs) ($5.98)
- 2 cloves garlic ($0.16)
- 1 inch fresh ginger ($0.11)
- 2 Tbsp sriracha hot sauce ($0.17)
- 1 1/2 Tbsp soy sauce ($0.15)
- 1 Tbsp rice vinegar ($0.11)
- 2 Tbsp honey ($0.24)
- 2 Tbsp brown sugar ($0.03)
- 1 Tbsp vegetable oil ($0.02)
- 1/2 cup water ($0.00)
- 2 Tbsp corn starch ($0.12)
- 1/4 bunch cilantro or green onions ($0.20)
Instructions
- Mince the garlic and grate the ginger into a bowl. Add the sriracha, soy sauce, rice vinegar, honey, brown sugar, vegetable oil, and water. Stir to combine. Add the corn starch and stir until dissolved.
- Add the chicken thighs to a large zip top bag or a shallow dish. Add half of the marinade/sauce mixture to the chicken and toss to coat (be sure to stir the sauce before adding it to the chicken. The garlic, ginger, and corn starch tend to settle to the bottom.) Refrigerate for 30 minutes. Save the unused portion of the marinade for later.
- Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Add the chicken and its marinade to a 8×8 inch casserole dish. Bake in the preheated oven for 30 minutes, basting the chicken with the juices half way through.
- While the chicken is baking, add the second reserved marinade (the half that wasn’t used with the chicken) to a small sauce pot. Bring it up to a simmer over medium heat while stirring. As soon as it reaches a simmer it will thicken into a nice glaze. Set the sauce aside.
- When the chicken is finished baking, spread the thickened sauce over each piece of chicken. Add fresh cilantro or sliced green onions and serve.
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Nutrition
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I like to add a few spears of broccoli to this dish to make a complete meal!
Step by Step Photos
Mince two cloves of garlic and grate one inch of fresh ginger on a small holed cheese grater. Add them to a bowl along with 2 Tbsp sriracha, 1.5 Tbsp soy sauce, 1 Tbsp rice vinegar, 2 Tbsp honey, 2 Tbsp brown sugar, 1 Tbsp vegetable oil, and 1/2 cup water. Stir to combine.
Add 2 Tbsp corn starch and stir until dissolved.
Add half of the marinade mixture to a large zip top bag (or shallow dish) along with 2 lbs. boneless, skinless chicken thighs. Toss to coat and then marinate for 30 minutes in the refrigerator. Be sure to stir the marinade mixture well before pouring it into the bag because the garlic, ginger, and corn starch tend to settle to the bottom. Save the second half of the marinade for later.
Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Add the marinated chicken thighs to a small casserole dish, along with all of the marinade from the bag. Bake for 30 minutes and baste the chicken half way through (either spoon the juices over top of each thigh or use a baster to squirt the liquid over top).
Meanwhile, add the reserved half of the marinade (the half not used on the chicken) to a small sauce pot and bring it up to a simmer over medium heat. As soon as it reaches a simmer, the corn starch will begin to thicken the sauce until it becomes a nice glaze. Set the thickened sauce aside until the chicken is finished baking.
When they’re finished baking they look like this. Kind of naked, huh? That’s why we saved half of the sauce! :D
Sauce them thighs up! (Just use a spoon to spread some of the sauce over each thigh.)
Add a little greenery to freshen it up (cilantro or sliced green onions) and you’re ready to serve! Like I said earlier, I’ve been eating this in a bowl with jasmine rice and a little broccoli. So good—So easy.
The left overs of this chicken went into a batch of Dragon Noodles…..AMAZING!!!!!
I saw these an thought of you-http://damndelicious.net/2013/12/06/baked-honey-sriracha-wings/#_a5y_p=1138756.
And I figured the perfect place to tell you about it would be here since it’s sriracha related. :)
This looks so good…going to make it tonight. Just stumbled on your site by looking for a smaller portion chocolate lava cake (also for tonight). Your stuff looks so good…just pre-ordered the cookbook. Thanks!!!!
I just made this last night and it is pretty fantastic. Has a good kick to it for sure. Only thing I’d recommend is adding a little salt or more soy sauce (i used low sodium). I cooked Farro as a side along with spinach.
Made this tonight and it was fantastic. Husband said it was a keeper and he’s not a huge chicken fan (because we have it so much!) but he loves spicy/sweet. I used breast tenders and pulled them after 20 min or so. It needed more salt in my opinion but I’ve been told my salt receptors are out of whack :)
Think I could do this in the slow cooker with some chicken breasts? Still making the glaze stove top to add on after? Thanks!
Yep! I think that would work great. You generally have a lot of liquid left over after cooking in the slow cooker, but you can just pull the meat out and add it to the sauce that you cooked separately.
Is the sriracha mainly for flavor at 2 tbsp/8 thighs? In other words, I know everyone’s spice rating is different, but how spicy does this end up? Our 2-year-old eats what we eat, so we try to avoid too-spicy mains – she is not too sensitive to heat, but I’m wondering if reducing the sriracha would be detrimental to the dish.
It’s still fairly spicy, but you could definitely reduce the sriracha and then it will be kind of like a teriyaki sauce instead. :)
I don’t have rice vinegar but I do have white vinegar, would that be an OK sub??
White vinegar is much stronger than rice vinegar, so I would start with half the amount and add more if you think it needs it.
I just hate peeling fresh ginger. (Shhh.) Can I subsititue ground ginger w/o sacrificing too much of the flavor? If yes, aproximate amount please?
I think you could here without hurting it much. :) I think I’d go for 1/4 – 1/2 tsp, depending on how much you like ginger.
Have you tried using a spoon to peel fresh ginger? If that is still too much trouble, grate it with a microplane grater (something like this http://www.amazon.ca/Microplane-40020-Classic-Grater-Zester/dp/B00004S7V8) I keep a big hunk of fresh ginger in the freezer at all times, grate off as much as I need and back it goes for another day.
I took a tip from a TV cooking show and use my microplane for my garlic also. So fast and easy!
I recently discovered that my grocery store has canned “fresh” ginger. It’s in the same place that the canned minced garlic is. Such a timesaver!
To peel ginger easily, use a spoon and just scrape it down. simple.
Do you think it would be okay to use ground ginger? I have some in the pantry. If so, how much would you use?
Yes, I think 1/4 to 1/2 tsp would be good, depending on how much you like ginger.
Great sounding recipe and love the sweet/spicy combo here. How did we live before we discovered Sriracha sauce???
This recipe is fantastic!! Pinning to try! :)
Looks pretty tasty and I bet the hubster would even eat this! It’s going on my recipes to try list.
Do you think that this would work with breasts? I’m not really a fan of dark meat.
Yep, definitely. Although you’ll either want to cut them into smaller pieces, or cook a little longer since they tend to be larger and thicker than thighs.
Looks fab! Ca’t wait to try it.