Here’s another great weeknight chicken meal with a twist. The blend of honey, soy sauce, Dijon mustard and hot sauce gives a sweet and savory flavor profile that appeals to everyone. And to top it off this honey Dijon chicken recipe is ready in under 30 minutes and is a great source of protein!
Honey Dijon Chicken bone in and skin on
Keep cooking the glaze until you get a nice, dark caramelized look like in the picture above. This picture is skinless, boneless chicken thighs.
For a quick meal and/or a low-cal meal use skinless boneless chicken thighs or breasts (thighs have more flavor but a bit more fat). Or for more flavor use bone-in, skin-on chicken thighs, they will take a little longer to bake than the skillet boneless chicken.
Great accompaniments are Basmati rice and sheet pan baked broccoli and tomatoes. If you choose this easy meal combination you’ll want to get the rice going first so that it cooks while you are prepping the rest of the dinner. This post has been updated December 2017 with improved instructions and pictures.
Handy tip, when measuring the ingredients for the marinade use a measuring cup. Brush the inside of the measuring cup lightly with oil so that most of the honey easily pours out of the measuring cup. Start with the honey to 1/2 cup, then add the soy sauce, Dijon mustard and Sriracha sauce. Now you only have one measuring cup to clean.
For illustration purposes, this measuring cup actually shows twice as much as suggested because I was cooking for 8 people.
Why Chicken Thighs and Not Chicken Breasts?
It’s a matter of preference. I’ve always been a thigh lover because the meat is more flavorful and stays juicier than chicken breasts, and to top it off thighs are less expensive. For this weeknight honey Dijon chicken recipe, the chicken thighs only take 15 minutes to cook. To reduce the time you can use chicken breast and cook about 10 minutes, but you will probably still end up with rather dry chicken. Can you tell I’m a fan of chicken thighs and not breasts?
During the last couple of minutes, raise the heat to high to achieve a richer, darker color. What you see above, the chicken has just been flipped and basted with the honey glaze. It still needs a few more minutes to cook and darken.
When you open the chicken thighs you’ll see that they are folded under themselves. You need to unroll them and lay the chicken thighs flat. This will make the chicken cook more evenly and faster.
The chicken thighs have been unrolled and laid flat in the skillet to cook more evenly
Another optional step is to place the chicken in a heavy plastic bag and lightly pound the thicker part down to about ¼” to ½” to make the whole piece of chicken an even thickness. I rarely do this unless one end of the chicken thigh is really thick and the other end thin.
Seal chicken in zipper plastic bag to keep mess to a minimum. Only light tapping is required to get an even thickness.
Weeknight Meal 101, How Can I Simplify This Recipe?
For those looking to reduce time or ingredients, here’s a suggestion. For the honey Dijon chicken recipe you have several choices. As far as the ingredients you can skip the Sriracha sauce if you don’t like the bite of the heat, or replace it with your favorite hot sauce.
The honey can be substituted with maple syrup.
If you are pressed for time, the skinless, boneless chicken thighs will cook faster than the traditional bone-in skin-on chicken pieces.
You can also make this honey Dijon chicken recipe a complete meal. If rice isn’t your thing, then use small potatoes. You’ll start with Yukon gold or small red potatoes, (halved or quartered depending on size), toss with some olive oil on a baking sheet on one side of the pan. Add some broccoli and cherry or grape tomatoes on the other side of the pan, toss with some olive oil, salt and pepper. Return the whole pan to the oven for 20 minutes at 400 degrees.
If you are cooking for two, reduce the chicken thighs to 2-4 pieces. Reduce the marinade to 1/4 cup honey, 1 tablespoon Dijon mustard, 1 tablespoon of soy sauce and 3 teaspoons Sriracha.
There you go, now you have a complete meal in under 30 minutes. The honey Dijon chicken recipe has great protein with a starch and nutritious vegetable. Eat up!
I Don’t Have Sriracha, What’s a Good Substitute?
You can use any hot sauce you have on hand. Most hot sauces have a lot of vinegar in them, but for the small amount called for in this honey Dijon chicken recipe it shouldn’t make a difference. The Sriracha is mainly there for heat.
If you have cayenne pepper in your spice rack then you can skip the Sriracha and hot sauce and substitute the Sriracha with 1/4 teaspoon of cayenne pepper. There will be negligible difference.
Meal Prep
You can meal prep the leftovers so that you will have pre-made dinners or lunches to go. Fill these 
Honey Dijon Chicken Recipe on Sheet Pan
This honey Dijon chicken recipe is ready in 30 minutes with sheet pan vegetable sides included to complete the dinner. Extremely easy weeknight dinner!
Ingredients
- 6 Whole Skinless, boneless chicken thighs allow 2 thighs for bigger eaters
- 1/2 Cup Honey
- 2 Tablespoons Dijon mustard
- 1 1/2 Tablespoons Sriracha sauce or to taste, you can substitute regular hot sauce
- 1 Tablespoon Unsalted butter
- 1 Tablespoon Extra virgin olive oil or canola oil
- 2 small Galic cloves minced
Instructions
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Optional: If making the broccoli and tomatoes preheat oven to 400 degrees. See notes for instructions. If making rice go by label instructions and get started right away. See post and notes for instructions.
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In a one cup measuring cup combine honey, Dijon mustard and Hot sauce. If you like a little more kick add a couple more teaspoons of hot sauce. Mince garlic and add to honey mixture.
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Optional: If making broccoli and tomatoes, prep them on a baking sheet (see notes) and pop in oven for 20 minutes.
For Skinless, Boneless Chicken Thighs
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"Unroll" the chicken thighs so they sit as flat as possible. If chicken thighs have a thicker end than another, then place in a large resealable plastic bag, close and lightly pound with a rolling pin to make the chicken's thickness the same for more even cooking.
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Preheat heavy skillet over medium-high heat, melt butter and olive oil, about 30 seconds to a minute. Salt and pepper the chicken and place in skillet. Brown and cook the chicken thighs for about 5-8 minutes. Flip and continue cooking for about 3-5 more minutes or until no longer pink.
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Turn the heat up to high to caramelize the glaze, keep basting the chicken during cooking. The honey mixture should be thickening and turning a beautiful dark golden brown. Stay close so that the honey glaze doesn't burn. This step only takes about 2 minutes.
For Skin-On Bone-In Chicken Thighs
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Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Line a baking tray with parchment paper for easy clean up. Salt and pepper the chicken. Brush with honey Dijon sauce and bake for 45 minutes. If you want to add some appetizing color put the chicken under the broiler at the end for about 3 minutes. Keep an eye on it, the honey can burn quickly.
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That's it. Your chicken, rice and vegetables should all be rounding out now. To serve put rice in center of plate and with the back of a spoon swirl from the center out to distribute the rice around the perimeter of the plate, you may end up without any rice in the middle of the plate, that's OK. Place one or two chicken thighs in the center of the plate, pour extra glaze over the chicken.
Put broccoli and tomatoes on top of the rice and top with shredded Parmesan cheese.
Enjoy!
Recipe Notes
For broccoli and tomatoes we will have an individual post soon. Until then, preheat oven to 400 degrees. Cut broccoli ( about a pound to pound and a half) into bite size florettes, add grape tomatoes (1 pint), pour a couple of tablespoons of Extra Virgin Olive Oil and stir to evenly distribute. Sprinkle with kosher salt and pepper. Pop in oven for 20 minutes, do not stir or disturb. Remove after 15-20 minutes or when beginning to show brown edges and the broccoli is still bright green. Plate and top with some shredded Parmesan cheese
If making rice get it going immediately so that it can cook as you prep the rest of the meal. Follow package instructions. If using Basmati I'll combine the rice, water, kosher salt and will add a couple tablespoons of Extra Virgin Olive Oil whether it is called for or not. This way you don't need to add any butter at the end of cooking, the olive oil gives a really nice flavor to the rice.
I love easy and I love delicious. This recipe is both. Thanks for yet another great recipe.
Thanks, I love easy too!
Happy to share, thanks for sharing your feedback.