My simple and delicious Honey Soy Chicken is a failproof recipe that works every time. This savory and sweet dish requires minimal prep and just a few pantry ingredients for an easy weeknight dinner. Make extra and pack the leftovers in tomorrow‘s bento lunch!
On the busiest nights, we all need some reliable chicken recipes to save the day. This is my fail-proof, super easy Honey Soy Chicken that works every time.
Savory and sticky sweet, my family never seem to have enough of these chicken whenever I cook up a batch. I hope the recipe will come in handy on your busy days too!
Why You’ll Love This Recipe:
- So delicious!
- Requires minimal, pantry-friendly ingredients.
- Simple prep work.
- Highly flexible – I used drumettes for its tender dark meat and quick cooking time, but you can use any other cuts of chicken like breasts, thighs, drumsticks, or wings. If you like to fire up the grill or smoker, this recipe works great too.
3 Ingredients Marinade for Honey Soy Chicken
The tasty marinade requires only 3 ingredients:
- Soy sauce
- Sake
- Honey
The savoriness from the soy sauce and the slight sweetness from the honey not only imparts a wonderful flavor to the chicken but also a shiny golden glaze on the surface. The sake or Japanese rice wine tenderizes the meat and helps remove any odor. If you couldn’t find sake, you can substitute it with dry sherry.
All you need is to combine the mixture in a large ziplock bag. Add in the chicken, make sure each piece is well coated, and let it marinade. When ready to cook, pop them into the oven and bake for 30 minutes until golden. The results are tender, juicy drumettes that everyone will love.
Pack Your Chicken Leftovers in the Bento!
If you cook up a big batch for leftover, you can remove the meat from the wings and shred it into pieces and pack it into a bento lunch box with tamagoyaki (Japanese Rolled Omelette), cherry tomatoes, sauteed cabbage, fruits, and onigiri (rice balls).
What to Serve with Honey Soy Chicken
When the chicken is baking in the oven, I would prepare steamed rice, a simple salad, and miso soup. In no time, a delicious, healthy dinner is ready for the family!
This Honey Soy Chicken makes an ideal candidate for a weeknight dinner. Because they are so fun to eat, my family also enjoys them on movie nights.
More Delicious Japanese Chicken Recipes
- Teba Shio (Salted Chicken Wings)
- Spicy Miso Chicken
- Karaage (Japanese Fried Chicken)
- Chicken Teriyaki
- Baked Chicken Katsu
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Honey Soy Chicken
Ingredients
- 1½ lb chicken drumettes (12 pieces; or other chicken parts; if you use drumsticks, marinate overnight for more flavor)
- Diamond Crystal kosher salt
- freshly ground black pepper
Instructions
- Gather all the ingredients.
- Pat dry 1½ lb chicken drumettes with a paper towel to remove the moisture.
- Combine 4 Tbsp honey, 4 Tbsp soy sauce, and 2 Tbsp sake in a Ziploc bag.
- Prick the drumettes all over with a fork. Season with Diamond Crystal kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper.
- Add the drumettes to the Ziploc bag, squeeze the air out, and seal the bag. Rub the drumettes through the bag to coat them with the marinade. Marinate in the refrigerator for at least 30–60 minutes or up to overnight. If you use large chicken parts, increase the marinating time.
To Bake
- Preheat the oven to 425ºF (220ºC). For a convection oven, reduce the cooking temperature by 25ºF (15ºC). Place the drumettes in a baking pan skin side up in a single layer. Make sure the drumettes do not overlap each other. Pour the marinade liquid on top. Bake for 30 minutes.
- Baste the drumettes a couple of times during baking. If the chicken is browning too fast, cover with a sheet of aluminum foil to keep it from burning. On the other hand, if the drumettes are cooked but the top is not browned, you can switch to the broil setting for a few minutes until the top is nicely browned. Serve immediately.
Nutrition
Editor’s Note: This post was originally published on April 9, 2013. It’s been edited and republished in May 2020.
Hi Nami, looks like I’m going to share all my reviews on all the dishes that I’ve tried on your blog! I really loved this simple dish! Something an amateur like me can totally handle. The drumlets turned out beautifully brown and had a lovely sweetness to it. This was truly finger-lic’ken good =D . One question, do you think I can sub the chicken with short pork ribs? If possible, will it be the same time / temp in the oven? We are expecting some friends this weekend and am wondering if this can be done! Thank you Nami !
Hi Natalie! Isn’t this dish easy and delicious? So glad you enjoyed it too! Hmm instead of short pork ribs, I’d use meatballs (beef/pork/or chicken), other parts of chicken, etc since it has nice sweet taste to it. I haven’t made it with other kinds of meat, so I can’t give you the right time, so please adjust according to your ingredients. 🙂
Hi! can i know what is substitute for sake and dry sherry? because i am a muslim i can’t drink alcohol, can you give another for ingredient to replace (sake and dry sherry). thanks
Hi Haszreen! You can just omit it, but dilute the sauce with water. Maybe add a bit of ginger (optional) to remove gamey flavor from chicken? We use sake to remove the gamey flavor from meat. But that’s up to you if you don’t mind. Hope this helps and enjoy the recipe! Thank you for vising my site!
Ah! thanks.. i will try it. thanks for helping
Hope you enjoy, Haszreen! 🙂
Hi Nami
Thank you for your wonderful site and recipes.
Can I ask you if I can use vinegar instead of sake?
Thank you 😀
Hi Z! Thank you for following my site! 🙂
Sake and vinegar is different thing and you can’t substitute each other. If you have Chinese rice wine or dry white wine (such as sherry) you can use instead. Otherwise you can omit. Sake helps flavor of the seasonings more mild and remove games flavor. If you plan to cook a lot of Japanese food, sake is one of must ingredients. Hope this helps! 🙂
Hi! I just found your site and it’s amazing! I tried your tuna tataki and it was a real winner with my boyfriend. I am thinking of trying this chicken recipe tonight. I noticed that you turn you measuring cup over in the bag to get every last drop of honey. Someone recently showed me a neat trick of lightly lining the spoon or measuring cup with olive oil which results in the honey slipping right out. Hope this helps!
Hi Natasha! Thank you so much for the tip! I’ll definitely try that out. I usually use mini silicon spatula to take out the last bit of condiments but someone told me they don’t have those spatulas… =P Your tip is good for everyone! 🙂
I’m happy to hear you and your boyfriend enjoyed the tataki recipe! Thank you so much for your kind feedback. xoxo
I’ve tried this twice now. The marinade makes even chicken breasts juicy when baked. Also works well for grilled chicken. Yum!
Hi Kate! Thanks so much for trying this dish two times already! Happy to hear you enjoy the recipe! 🙂
Hi Nami,
My sister and I made this recipe tonight… to be used for our bento lunches tomorrow. Sadly, it didn’t make it to our bento boxes. On the plus side, it was really delicious while it lasted! We just couldn’t resist it, then we had to share with mom and dad… and our uncle who was over. Everyone enjoyed it. Thank you for sharing this recipe. We followed everything as directed, and it smelled and looked wonderful!
Hi Pepper! Haha, well it’s too bad that they didn’t make it into bento lunches, but I’m very happy to hear your family enjoyed this recipe! Thank you so much for your kind feedback! 🙂
Made your Honey Shoyu Chicken. Was really simple and so good.
Hi Charles! So glad you tried this recipe and you liked it! Thank you very much for your feedback! 🙂
Love this site already.Just cooked fried rice for the first time.Tomorrow going to cook honey soy chicken.
Hi Jenny! I hope you enjoy this recipe! 🙂
Just wanted to say thankyou Nami.
I have just made this recipe and oh my god, it was amazing ! i couldnt understand that honey and soy sauce could go so well ! I was sceptical but when we ate that chicken…ooooh mmy goodness its so good !!!
Thanks again 🙂
Hi Crystal! Thank you so much for your feedback. Glad to hear you enjoyed this recipe. Yes, it’s simple and easy yet delicious! Most of Japanese recipes uses soy sauce, mirin or/and sugar to make similar flavor (aka teriyaki sauce). Thank you again! 🙂
Making this for my Valentines Day dinner. Can I do this on my grill? If so how do I adapt the cook time etc?
Hi Clif! Sure, you can. 🙂 But when you marinade the chicken first, it gets burn easily over BBQ grill. I recommend you to baste it several times while grilling. Hope I answered in time before your Valentine’s Day dinner…
Hi, I tried this recipe for lunch, it turned out so yummy, my girl love it, do you think I can use whole chicken for this christmas ? I am not a good cook, need your advice, how long should bake for whole chicken? any other tips.
Thank you for sharing !
Hi Soh! Thank you so much for trying this recipe! For the whole chicken to absorb good flavor, you need to marinate a little longer. But at the same time you don’t want to make the chicken salty either, so the balance is a little bit difficult. Small drumettes/wings works better because meat is think so the flavor goes in easier. If you really want to try with whole chicken, marinate for a longer time, but try adjusting with soy sauce amount. Maybe reduce a little bit to marinade for a longer time and 1-2 hours before cooking add the rest of soy sauce. That way you cook with the sauce but it won’t be too salty. The cooking time vary depending on the size. Hope that helps. 🙂
I tried this recipe tonight and I guess something like „overmarinating“ does exist. I marinated drumsticks over night (2pm to 6pm the following day). After putting the drumsticks in the oven at 220 C for 30 minutes the drumsticks tasted like cooked soy sauce, a taste I do not fancy that much. I guess marinting less could do the trick.
If anyone can give some good advice, anything is welcome.
Hi Ken, Thank you very much for trying Nami’s recipe!
Have you tried marinated the meat in the morning and cooked them at night? We hope this helps!
what do you mean by its tastier than it looks.that was hella amazing and my mouth is watering.
Aww thanks Ei! 🙂
Hi Nami. It is possible if I marinade overnight the chicken in cooler box with ice? I live in dormitory, and no refrigerator in here.
Thank’s..
Hi Yulianda! Chicken has to be stored below 40F or below. If your ice box can keep that temperature or below, it should be safe. 🙂
Hi naomi..
Your chicken looks yummy.. I would like to ask, what must i use if i don’t have sake or dry sherry? Thank you naomi..
Do you use any alcohol? Like white wine or Chinese rice wine? They are okay too since it’s a small portion. It helps removing gamey taste, so it’s kind of important. But if you don’t really care about the gamey flavor, you can omit it. 🙂
Hi! I’m a college student that’s looking for some nice easy food to make like this. However, I’m not 21 yet, so I can’t buy sake. Is there a good substitute for it?
Hi Ryan! If you have a Japanese grocery store nearby, you can use “Cooking Sake”. They are not considered alcohol, and it’s more of seasonings, so it’s available for purchase without ID. If you cannot find cooking sake, then… hmmm… you can dilute with water a little bit (if soy sauce taste is too strong). Hope that helps, and enjoy the recipe!