Baked Sweet & Spicy Honey Mustard Chicken is an easy recipe for crispy chicken thighs marinated in hot honey, garlic, and Dijon mustard.
This oven-baked Chicken Recipe makes a wonderful family-friendly weeknight meal. They are quick and flavorful, especially if you prep the chicken before heading to work. For more easy baked chicken dishes try our recipes for Brown Sugar Garlic Baked Chicken and Oven Baked BBQ Chicken.
Table of contents
- Sabrina’s Baked Sweet and Spicy Honey Mustard Chicken Recipe
- Ingredients
- Kitchen Tools & Equipment
- How to Make
- Nutritional Facts
- What to Pair With Hot Honey Mustard Chicken
- How to Store
- Ideas to Serve Spicy Honey Mustard Chicken
- Alternative Cooking Techniques
- Frequent Questions
- Recipe Card
- Variations
- Related Recipes
Sabrina’s Baked Sweet and Spicy Honey Mustard Chicken Recipe
Sticky sweet and the perfect amount of heat, that’s what you get when you bite into a piece of delicious Baked Sweet & Spicy Honey Mustard Chicken. This amazing, easy chicken recipe is made by prepping chicken in a honey mustard marinade for at least 4 hours. The marinading time is key to making this flavorful chicken dish. But that’s about all the prep work you need! After the chicken has time to absorb that delicious flavor, you pop it in the oven for about 30 minutes and then voila! Hot honey mustard chicken baked to perfection.
Ingredients
- Chicken Thighs: For the meat, use bone-in, skin-on chicken thighs. They’re perfect for this dish because they’re packed with flavor, and baked chicken thighs have an amazing crispy skin that soaks up all the sweet, spicy, tangy flavor.
- Mustard: We used Dijon mustard for this recipe because its sharp and tangy flavor tastes great with the heat and sweetness. Other kinds of mustard will subtly change the flavor but will work just as well. The mustard is more than just flavor, the vinegar helps break down the meat for juicier, more tender chicken.
- Honey: The other part of this Spicy Honey Dijon Glazed Chicken, is sticky sweet honey. For more delicious honey flavor, make hot honey by mixing ¼ cup of honey with 1-2 teaspoons of hot sauce. Brush the hot honey over the top of the baked chicken thighs in the last 5 minutes of the cooking time.
- Spicy Ingredients: Speaking of spicy ingredients, the honey mustard chicken gets a kick of heat from the ground Chipotle powder and a teaspoon of hot sauce. You can switch up the levels of heat by increasing or decreasing the amounts, or add different spicy ingredients like hot mustard powder or cayenne to play with flavor.
- Garlic: The minced garlic adds a lot of flavor to the marinade and brings out the natural flavor of the Dijon mustard. Plus garlic as a natural heat to it and using 4 cloves of garlic definitely brings some more spicy flavor.
- Vinegar: A little red wine wine vinegar helps with tenderizing the meat along with the mustard. It also has a little sweetness along with the tangy, tart flavor.
Kitchen Tools & Equipment
- Baking Dish: You’ll want to use a large 9×13 baking dish because it’s big enough to keep from crowding the chicken pieces. The sides of the dish also keep the juices from spilling out while the chicken bakes.
- Mixing Bowl: You mix the marinade in a larger mixing bowl and then toss the chicken in the same bowl so there’s minimal clean up. Either use a lid with a bowl or wrap it with plastic wrap.
How to Make
Time needed: 4 hours and 30 minutes.
- Marinate the Chicken
Add the minced garlic cloves, Dijon mustard, brown sugar, red wine, salt, black pepper, chipotle chile powder, and hot sauce to a large mixing bowl. Whisk the honey Dijon glaze together. Place the chicken thighs in the bowl of marinade, and put it in the fridge to marinate for 4 hours.
- Prep for Baking
Start by preheating the oven to 400 degrees. Place the marinated chicken in a 9×13 baking dish lined with parchment paper with the skin side facing up. Pour any remaining marinade over the chicken pieces.
- Cooking Time
Put the baking dish in the oven for 30 minutes of baking. The outside of the chicken should be crisp while the inside remains juicy. When you take the chicken from the oven, you can use an instant-read thermometer to make sure it’s reached a safe temperature. Check the meat at the thickest part while it’s still on the baking tray. If the temperature hasn’t reached 165 degrees, return chicken to the oven until it’s cooked through and safe to eat. Serve Baked Sweet & Spicy Honey Mustard Chicken with your favorite side dishes.
Can this chicken dish be made ahead of time?
You can marinate the chicken for up to 48 hours but it’s best to cook it within the first 24 hours. The vinegar in the mustard breaks down the meat to make it tender and juicy, but if it marinates too long, the meat breaks down too much and the texture will be off.
Nutritional Facts
What to Pair With Hot Honey Mustard Chicken
Baked Sweet and Spicy Honey Mustard Chicken is a simple but flavorful recipe that tastes wonderful with a variety of side dishes. This spicy hot dish is great served with classic sides like Roasted Broccoli, or Baked Sweet Potatoes. The balance of sweet and spicy tastes is especially great with the natural sweetness from sweet potatoes.
How to Store
Store: Don’t leave Baked Sweet & Spicy Honey Mustard Chicken at room temperature for more than two hours. After you’ve let the chicken cool, you can seal it in an airtight container to store in the fridge. Then it will stay good in the fridge for 3-4 days.
Reheat: It’s best to reheat the chicken slowly so it doesn’t dry out. Warm in an oven on low heat in a baking dish and cover the dish with foil. If you use the microwave, reheat the Spicy Honey Mustard Chicken Thighs in 30-second increments until it’s heated through.
Freeze: Once the chicken pieces have cooled completely, place them in a freezer bag and freeze for up to 4 months. You can reheat it from frozen in a dish covered with foil or thaw it first overnight in the fridge.
Ideas to Serve Spicy Honey Mustard Chicken
If you have leftovers, you can reheat the Honey Dijon Chicken to serve as a main dish, or rework it into a lunch recipe. Try slicing up leftover chicken to toss with fresh leafy greens for a chicken salad. Or, slice the juicy chicken thighs into chicken strips to layer into a delicious honey mustard chicken sandwich with toasted bread.
Alternative Cooking Techniques
Slow Cooker Hot Honey Mustard Chicken
- Place the chicken thighs in the slow cooker skin side up.
- Whisk the marinade ingredients together in a medium bowl.
- Pour the honey mustard chicken marinade over the chicken thighs.
- Cover the slow cooker.
- Cook on high heat for 3-4 hours or on low for 7-8 hours.
- If you want to crisp up the skin, pop them on a baking sheet under the broiler for a few minutes.
Frequent Questions
Using a mustard mixture to marinate chicken works similar to buttermilk because the acidic properties in the mustard help break down the meat and add flavor. It makes the chicken moist, flavorful and extra juicy.
Absolutely! You’re welcome to swap out Dijon for other types of mustard, either a favorite kind or whatever you have on hand. Yellow mustard, brown mustard and deli grainy mustard would all taste great in this delicious dish.
Recipe Card
Ingredients
- 5 chicken thighs , bone-in and skin-on
- 4 cloves garlic , minced
- 3 tablespoons Dijon mustard
- 1/4 cup honey
- 2 tablespoons red wine vinegar
- 1/2 teaspoon Kosher salt
- 1/4 teaspoon coarse ground black pepper
- 1/2 teaspoon ground chipotle powder
- 1 teaspoon hot sauce , Tapatio or Sriracha
Instructions
- Mix all ingredients together in a medium bowl and marinate 4 hours.
- Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
- Line a 9×13 baking dish with parchment paper.
- Add the chicken and and the marinade to the prepared dish, skin side up.
- Bake for 30 minutes, until the skin is crisp and the chicken is cooked through.
Nutrition
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Variations
Chicken Pieces: You can also make this recipe with chicken breast, either bone in or boneless, skinless chicken breasts, a whole chicken, or chicken leg quarters. Depending on the piece of chicken, you’ll need to adjust the baking time more or less.
Spices: Try adding different kinds of seasonings or swap out the ingredients in the marinade for some other spices. You can add in a teaspoon paprika, cumin, or onion powder. Or, exchange the chipotle powder for ½ teaspoon cayenne pepper.
Sugar: Instead of the honey mustard mixture, you can use brown sugar or a mixture of honey and white sugar to add sweetness.
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