For the entire month of September, I’ll be participating in the SNAP Challenge and attempting to eat on $4.50 per day. Read more here.
Whew. I meant to post this days ago, but this week has been out of control! More about that when I do my SNAP Challenge week one summary on Monday.
I loved the Soy Dijon Pork Tenderloin that I made ages ago and have wanted to use the same marinade for chicken for quite some time. Chicken thighs are cheap, so I figured that it might be a good cornerstone meal for the first week of my SNAP Challenge. The sweet-salty marinade was just as delicious as I remembered!
To add a little extra flavor, nutrients, and bulk, I cubed a sweet potato and layered that in the roasting dish before adding the chicken and the marinade. The sweet potato added a nice sweetness to the dish and definitely helped keep me full. That was a good decision. I also doubled the marinade to provide plenty of sauce to cook the potatoes in, plus drizzle over the rice and vegetables that I served on the side.
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Soy Dijon Chicken Thighs with Sweet Potatoes
Servings 7 to 8 servingsIngredients
- 1/4 cup Dijon mustard ($0.48)
- 1/4 cup soy sauce ($0.40)
- 2 Tbsp vegetable oil ($0.10)
- 2 Tbsp brown sugar ($0.04)
- 2 cloves garlic, minced ($0.16)
- Freshly cracked pepper ($0.05)
- 2 lbs chicken thighs- 8 pieces ($5.65)
- 1 medium sweet potato (1 lb.) ($1.43)
Instructions
- In a bowl, stir together the Dijon, soy sauce, vegetable oil, brown sugar, minced garlic, and some freshly cracked pepper. Add the chicken thighs to a large zip top bag or shallow dish, and then pour the prepared marinade over top. Refrigerate the marinating chicken for at least 30 minutes (can be prepared in the morning and refrigerated all day).
- When you’re ready to cook, begin to preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Peel and cube the sweet potato into 3/4 inch pieces. Lay the cubed sweet potato in the bottom of a casserole dish. Lay the chicken thighs over the sweet potatoes and pour all of the marinade over top.
- Cover the dish with foil and roast in the preheated oven for 45 minutes, removing the foil after the first 30 minutes. After baking, spoon some of the liquid from the bottom of the dish over the chicken and serve. Use the extra juices from the bottom of the dish to spoon over rice and vegetables.
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Step by Step Photos
Prepare the marinade by stirring together 1/4 cup Dijon mustard, 1/4 cup soy sauce, 2 Tbsp vegetable oil, 2 Tbsp brown sugar, 2 cloves minced garlic, and some freshly cracked pepper.
I used about 2 lbs. of chicken thighs, which was eight pieces. Two of the pieces were pretty small, so I counted those as one serving, for a total of 7 servings for this dish. Depending on the size of the thighs, you might get about 8 servings.
Add the chicken thighs and prepared marinade to a zip top bag or a shallow dish. Refrigerate the chicken thighs as they marinate for at least 30 minutes. If preferred, you can mix up the marinade before work and let them marinate all day so it will be ready to cook when you get home.
When you’re ready to start dinner, begin to preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Peel and cube one sweet potato (about 1 lb.) and lay the cubes in the bottom of a casserole dish. Cut the cubes into no larger than 3/4 inch pieces so that they cook through completely while in the oven.
Lay the marinated chicken thighs over the sweet potatoes and pour ALL of the marinade over top. Cover the dish with foil and bake for 45 minutes. Remove the foil after the first 30 minutes to let the top brown.
After it bakes, spoon some of the yummy juices over top of the chicken.
Don’t let that delicious juice go to waste! I used mine to moisten and season the rice and vegetables that I served with the chicken. It’s SO good.
Stay tuned to see how I worked this into my SNAP Challenge meal plan!
Made this tonight. The flavors were perfect but I had to cook a lot longer either due to my oven losing heat or cutting the potatoes too big or both. Will make it again and up the cooking temp I think.
I also had to cook this delicious dish probably twenty minutes longer than the recipe called for, because I just couldn’t get the sweet potatoes done…not sure why.
I’ve never made sweet potatoes before but I don’t think they are supposed to be crunchy. So back to the oven it goes for another half hour. Did you use fan? That might account for the difference in baking time.
This is a fabulous recipe! It may have been cheap to make, but I think I can impress my friends and family with this recipe all day long. I made the marinade the night before to make my morning go more slowly. I threw in some fresh green beans in the last 15 mins and baked up some buttermilk biscuits I previously made and froze.
Wow! I think this is my favorite recipe that I’ve tried from here. Except maybe the honey wheat sandwich bread, which is a weekly staple. I served with seasoned rice that was made with vegetable stock instead of water. So great! Though I’d say this serves 4, even with the rice and double sweet potato. My husband is very active.
This was delicious! I marinated my chicken in a baking dish, and just tucked the sweet potatoes underneath when I was ready to put it in the over. I paired it with green beans on the side. Thanks for the great recipe!
Hi Beth, I was wondering (hoping to not be nitpicky), does the size of the casserole dish matter for this recipe? I see from one of the comments you recommended a 9×13 over an 8×8 however I make your Maple Dijon Chicken with 2lbs chicken skinless chicken thighs in and 8×8 and it always turns out great so is it just a matter of how big the dish is or that the 9×13 is recommended because of the sweet potatoes at the bottom (I use a ‘deep’ 8×8)?
Thank you, cannot wait to try this! =)
If it can fit in the 8×8, I’d use that. It will fill it up edge to edge like my oval pan did. :)
Finally got around to making this last night in my deep 8×8 and it worked out great! Marinated in the fridge for an hour in a mixing bowl. Thank you for the recipe =)
You kind of miss the whole point of the exercise if you bought boneless/skinless thighs at more than twice the price of bone-in thighs. Bone and skin the thighs yourself, use the rendered fat to cook potatoes, eat the crispy skins, and use the bones to make stock.
How are you storing these for the week?
I’m using resealable/reusable food storage containers (Ziploc, with the blue lids). You can see a picture of it in my week one summary. :)
I made this last night and so did my 2 friends after me sharing what I was making for dinner! We all loved it and so did the kiddies.
I made this tonight and my super picky ten year old said ‘this chicken is amazing!’ And he’s a really plain and fussy eater. I used sweet potato because I love them but kind of forgot that my children don’t like it. I would mix and use normal potato too for them next time I think. I served with a mix of roasted peppers/mushrooms and rice as that’s what I had in.
Never been disappointed by BB recipe yet! Tomorrow it’s (No) Butter Chicken :-)
Big thanks!!
Question: I have a bag of cubed frozen sweet potato in my freezer. Do you think I could use this instead? If so, how should I adjust the recipe? Thanks! Can’t wait to try this.
Yes, absolutely. I’d let it thaw first, then just use it as I did.
Question: Does the size of the casserole dish matter? I do not have one that looks like yours. Would you say an 8×8 inch ceramic or 9×11 inch glass?
It might be a little tight with 8 thighs in an 8×8, so I guess I’d go with the 9×11. :)
Hi, I just want to know what is the size of the casserole dish. 2 quart?
It’s probably closer to a 4 quart dish.
I made this yesterday in the crockpot, only I forgot the brown sugar as I was too lazy to pull up the recipe on the computer. :o) It was amazing! I’ve made your maple dijon chicken thighs before and my family loves them, but the added sweet potato really brought it up a notch. I served it with some rice and mixed veggies and, while there wasn’t any chicken left, I did have a nice lunch today of the sweet potato, rice, veggies, and a bit of the juices from the crockpot all mixed together. And, let me tell you, it was awesome!
I made this recipe today. It is DELICIOUS. My family agreed too. I did not have sweet potatoes, so I used regular potatoes. It was really good and I KNOW it would be excellent with sweet potatoes. I made a little extra and am imagining it to be the meat for a stirfry later in the week. Thanks for posting this!!
This looks delicious. Also cheap and easy which is a bonus in my world on weeknights.