There’s nothing easier or tastier than crispy oven baked chicken thighs, and these Honey Mustard Chicken Thighs are one of our absolute favorite! Super easy to make with just a few ingredients and so full of flavor. Give them a try!
Crispy chicken thighs
Are you a dark meat or a white meat kind of person?
In my family my husband prefers the white meat, such as chicken breast, and my son and I prefer the dark meat, such as chicken thighs.
Luckily, I do most of the cooking, so we have roasted chicken thighs pretty often! We switch up the flavors often, but these Honey Dijon Chicken Thighs are one of our absolute favorites.
This recipe is made with bone-in, skin-on chicken thighs. The bone-in thighs always turn out extra juicy and tender. Bone-in thighs take a little bit longer to bake (5 minutes extra? maybe?) but that is a GOOD THING. The extra few minutes in a hot oven is what makes the skin on these chicken thighs extra crispy and delicious without overcooking the chicken.
More chicken thigh recipes: Tandoori Chicken Thigh Kebabs (Air Fryer Recipe)
Honey Dijon sauce
All the flavor for these baked chicken thighs comes from the easy Honey Dijon sauce. I just combine the following ingredients in a small bowl and whisk them together with a fork:
- 1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
- 1 tablespoon honey
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- ½ teaspoon lemon juice
- 1 finely minced garlic clove
- ½ teaspoon Italian seasoning (feel free to use any dried herbs you like!)
- Pinch of salt and pepper
Of course, you can use any mustard you like for these honey mustard chicken thighs. Love grainy brown mustard? Use that! Want to get rid of that last bit of yellow mustard? Go for it!
More chicken thigh recipes: Instant Pot Creamy Sun Dried Tomato Chicken Thighs
How to make Honey Mustard Chicken Thighs
I always like to trim off any extra fat and skin underneath the chicken thighs - this cuts down on a lot of the fat. Don't trim the skin from the top of the chicken thighs though - the skin shrinks a lot during baking and you'll have chicken thighs that are only have covered with crispy skin.
The crispy skin is the best part of this recipe!!
Now that we got that out of the way....
Step 1: Rub olive oil on the tops of the chicken thighs, and season the chicken thighs with salt and pepper on both sides. Use your hands to rub the oil and salt mixture under the skin too, if you can get in there without ripping the skin off.
Step 2: Get your honey Dijon sauce and brush it all over the chicken thighs. Get under the skin again - you want all that delicious honey mustard flavor all over those chicken thighs! If you have leftover sauce, you can brush it on while the chicken is baking.
Step 3: Bake your honey mustard chicken thighs at 400 degrees Fahrenheit for 25-30 minutes, or until the chicken is fully cooked (use a meat thermometer to make sure the temperature on the inside is at least 165F), and the skin is nice and crispy.
Step 3A (optional): About 20 minutes into the chicken baking, you can carefully remove it from the oven and brush it with the remaining honey mustard sauce. If you want, you can turn the heat up to 425 degrees Fahrenheit to get that skin to be extra golden brown.
The beautiful part about chicken thighs is that it's hard to overcook them and make them dry, so it's OK to leave them in the oven for a few extra minutes to get that crispy chicken skin. It's worth it.
SUPER EASY, RIGHT??
To summarize: Season the chicken, brush the chicken with sauce, bake.
DONE.
Serve with mashed butternut squash and a side of Pan fried Brussels sprouts with turkey bacon.
Turn this into a sheet pan chicken thighs dinner:
One of my favorite ways to make super easy sheet pan chicken dinners is to add veggies to the baking pan while I am roasting chicken.
The chicken thighs release delicious juices that give roasted vegetables so much flavor. Choose veggies that take a similar amount of time to cook and don't get too mushy, such as:
- Halved Brussels sprouts
- Cubed potatoes
- Thyme roasted carrots (thinly sliced)
- Parsnips
- Larger pieces of butternut squash (make this mashed butternut squash side dish to go with your chicken dinner!)
- Larger pieces of sweet potato
I would skip zucchini or yellow squash for this recipe because they might end up too mushy by the time the chicken is done.
One of my FAVORITE dinners ever is making butternut squash and white bean mash using roasted butternut squash, and serving that butternut squash mash with roasted chicken thighs. SO GOOD.
What size roasting pan to use
If you're going to go the sheet pan dinner route, you're going to want a large baking sheet, or 2 separate baking sheets.
If you just want to roast chicken thighs and not double the recipe, you really only need a 9x9 or a 9x13 baking pan, or somewhere in between. This recipe is for about 2 lb of chicken thighs, or 4 large chicken thighs, so you really don't need a huge pan for just the chicken.
If you decide to double this recipe, then definitely increase the amount of sauce too!
I hope you love this recipe as much as we do! If you make these oven baked chicken thighs, please take a picture and tag me on INSTAGRAM or FACEBOOK. You can find me at @babaganoshblog on both. I love seeing your creations!
Looking for more easy chicken recipes?
- Slow cooker honey chicken
- Bourbon chicken - restaurant quality bourbon sauce chicken, so good!
- Instant Pot BBQ pulled chicken - one of my most popular recipes ever! Everyone who makes it LOVES it!
- Creamy chicken thighs in sun-dried tomato sauce
- Instant Pot honey ginger garlic chicken wings
- Instant Pot Buffalo chicken
- Spinach and mozzarella stuffed chicken breast with roasted tomatoes - a gorgeous chicken dinner and super simple to make
- Oven baked BBQ chicken
- Ethiopian chicken stew
- Sweet potato chicken soup with black beans
If you enjoyed this recipe, let me know with a comment and a star rating below. And don't forget to share it on Facebook and save it on Pinterest for later!
Crispy Honey Mustard Chicken Thighs
Ingredients
- 2 lb chicken thighs - bone-in, skin-on (4 chicken thighs)
- 2 tablespoons olive oil - divided
- Salt and pepper - to taste
- 1 tablespoon Dijon mustard - or your favorite mustard
- 1 tablespoon honey - or agave nectar
- ½ tablespoon lemon juice
- 1 clove garlic - grated or finely minced (or use ½ teaspoon garlic powder)
- ½ teaspoon Italian seasoning
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit.
- Pat the chicken thighs dry with a paper towel, and rub with 1 tablespoon of olive oil, making sure to get under the skin if you can. Season with salt and pepper, rubbing the chicken thighs to get under the skin.
- Prepare the honey mustard sauce: in a small bowl, combine 1 tablespoon Dijon mustard, 1 tablespoon honey, 1 tablespoon olive oil, and ½ tablespoon lemon juice. Add the grated garlic and Italian seasoning. Whisk together with a fork.
- Brush the chicken thighs with the honey mustard sauce, making sure to rub the sauce under the skin. There will be leftover sauce, you'll use it in the next step.
- Place the chicken thighs on a baking sheet. (See notes for how to make this a complete sheet pan dinner!) Bake at 400F for 20 minutes, carefully remove from the oven and brush the chicken thighs with the remaining honey mustard sauce. Continue to bake for 5-10 minutes, or until the internal temperature of the chicken thighs is at least 165. Remove from oven and allow to rest for 5 minutes before serving warm.
Notes
- To make a complete sheet-pan dinner, bake the chicken thighs on a large baking sheet brushed with olive oil, and add veggies to the other half of the baking sheet (try cubed butternut squash, cubed sweet potato, cubed potatoes, broccoli florets, or cauliflower florets). Spray the vegetables with olive oil spray and season with salt, pepper, and garlic powder.
- If you prefer firmer vegetables, you might need to check on them after 20-25 minutes and remove them from the oven. This is a good time to brush the chicken with more honey mustard sauce!
Nutrition
The nutritional information displayed is an estimate and not to be used as dietary or nutritional advice. Consult a nutritionist or dietician for nutritional info based on the exact ingredients you use.
Traevynn
Wednesday 3rd of January 2024
Quick, easy, and tasty. This is my kind of recipe and it now has a permanent spot in the recipe rotation for dinner! We doubled the sauce ingredients so there was enough to brush on in the second stage. Plus, I'll be following the recommendation for turning up the oven temp to 425* F after brushing on the mustard sauce the second time to get the skin crispy. The prep times are a little longer than listed. It takes 5 minutes to just dry the chicken, mince the garlic, & preheat the oven. With my partner and I tag-teaming it, we got the prep time down to 15 minutes from start to the oven. I can't wait to make this for friends. :D