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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Nutrition
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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!
I didn’t have actual garlic, so I used garlic powder, also I had chicken tenders already so I used those, they only marinated for 10 minutes but it turned out delicious! I only had to purchase .57 cents worth of sweet potato. Thank you for this tasty inexpensive meal recipe.
This was wonderful! Scored on every point: easy, cheap, filling, delicious. I had to put mine in for another 10 minutes, but I think that was because I was using smaller dish to cook it in. It would probably be good to specify what size to use in this recipe like you do in some of your others.
Thank you for the wonderful recipes. This is my favorite food blog. I will make this dish again and again.
Oh, this was SO good! I definitely will be holding on to this recipe! Yum. I originally gravitated toward it to use up some Dijon mustard but now I’m going to go out and get another bottle.
Two thumbs way up!
My review is sort of mixed on this one. The sauce was fantastic, so I hands down loved the taste. The cook time was an issue, though. When I pulled the dish out of the oven after 45 minutes (dying to dig in because it smelled soooo good) even the smallest pieces of chicken were still pink in the middle. A number of the sweet potato pieces were also still a bit hard, even though I purposely cut them smaller than the recipe recommends. I put them the dish back in the over for about 10 minutes, but any longer and I was worried about the tops burning without the foil (plus I was super hungry), so I finally just pulled the chicken thighs out and put them in the microwave for a few minutes to get rid of the pink. I’ve been baking other dishes without any problems, so I know it isn’t the oven. I’m not sure what to do next time aside from cooking it quite a bit longer, or maybe turning up the temperature a tad? There will be a next time because it tastes too good to ignore, but I’ll have to adjust the cook time on my next try.
There are a lot of different things that will effect cooking time, unfortunately, so sometimes you do have to play around with recipes a bit. :) The size and shape of the cooking dish can affect how quickly it cooks in that if the pieces are more spread out it will cook faster (more exposure to heat) or if they’re more packed in tightly it will take longer (less exposure to heat in the center). That and small variances in oven temperatures can end up making a big difference. :) I would try baking longer and just keep some foil on there to prevent the top from browning too much.
Can you do all the steps and put this in the crock pot? If so how long would you cook it in the crock pot?
You can, but the end product will be a lot more watery because slow cookers hold in almost all the moisture and ovens allow for evaporation, so it will look and taste differently. I’d probably do 4 hours on high.
This was seriously tasty! The marinade was extemely easy and delicious as well. I used carrots instead of sweet potatos and broiled the chicken towards the end for a little bit to get some crisp on the skin, but followed the rest of the recipe and ended up so pleasantly surprised at how great a meal this was!
can I also use plain white potatoes?
You can, but the flavor of sweet potatoes goes especially well with and adds a lot to this dish.
Eating this meal as I type, which I made, following the recipe exactly, alongside your seasoned brown rice and some broccoli that I roasted in the oven next to the chicken. Everything is so delicious, I can’t believe it took me this long to make this recipe. My chicken and potatoes are cooked perfectly and the marinade is amazing. I will be making this again, thank you!
Soooo good! I cooked it covered on low heat on the stove because it was too hot to turn on the oven. I added a splash of chicken broth to keep it from burning and cooked for an additional 10 minutes. Thickened the sauce with a little cornstarch. Served with quinoa and green beans. Will be making this again.
We love this recipe! Can it be made as a freezer/crockpot meal?
I could potentially be done in a slow cooker, but it will be much more liquidy/soupy since slow cookers hold in most of the moisture while cooking.
Could you pair this with any sort of veggie on the side or is there a few that would taste better with the sauce?
I think any sort of root vegetable would be good in the sauce (potatoes, carrots, turnips, etc.) but if you want something more green, you should cook that on the side. Broccoli or green beans would be really good on the side with this.
Would this taste good with onions thrown in the mix? or garlic?
I bet a diced onion would go great if you put it in with the sweet potatoes. They’d get nice and soft and soak up that delicious dressing!
Is there something to sub in for sweet potatoes? I thoroughly dislike them and don’t know what would be a good replacement.
Carrots would be a great replacement in this recipe.
I did this on the grill since its too hot right now to cook indoors; the taste when it caramelizes from the flames is delicious. Another amazing recipe! I’m planning 30 days of Budget Bytes and this was day 2. :-)
This chicken was a big hit with my family, it was soooo delicious. Budget bytes is my all time favourite website! Thanks for doing what you do!!!
This was an excellent recipe that had both my wife and daughter finishing their meal. This will be going into our normal rotation. Thank you for sharing this recipe.