Garlic Brown Sugar Chicken
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The best and easiest chicken ever, baked to crisp-tender perfection along with the most amazing sweet garlic sauce!
So I’ve been on a major chicken-thigh-kick lately. It’s weird because I never even thought I liked chicken thighs until I used it in this slow cooker honey sesame chicken. From there, I was hooked. But then I used bone-in, skin-on chicken thighs for the very first time in this pan roasted lemon chicken and I was in heaven.
From the honey mustard chicken to the chicken and mushroom skillet, I’m just loving the whole sear-first-then-roast method since it makes the most crisp-tender chicken thighs ever. It’s unbelievably juicy and yet you still have that amazing crust on top too.
And this sweet brown sugar, garlicky crust is to die for. I seriously wanted to guzzle it down. Or triple the sauce so I can serve it over everything and anything. I’m actually bummed that I didn’t because there was absolutely no sauce leftover here. I licked the plate clean and a single drop wasn’t left at all!
Garlic Brown Sugar Chicken
Ingredients
- 8 bone-in, skin-on chicken thighs
- Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste
- 3 tablespoons unsalted butter, divided
- 4 cloves garlic, minced
- ¼ cup brown sugar, packed
- 1 tablespoon honey
- ½ teaspoon dried oregano
- ¼ teaspoon dried thyme
- ¼ teaspoon dried basil
- 2 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley leaves
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.
- Season chicken thighs with salt and pepper, to taste.
- Melt 2 tablespoons butter in a Dutch oven over medium heat. Add chicken, skin-side down, and sear both sides until golden brown, about 2-3 minutes per side; set aside.
- Melt remaining tablespoon butter in the skillet. Add garlic, and cook, stirring frequently, until fragrant, about 1-2 minutes. Remove from heat.
- Stir in brown sugar, honey, oregano, thyme and basil until well combined. Return chicken to the skillet.
- Place into oven and roast until completely cooked through, reaching an internal temperature of 175 degrees F, about 25-30 minutes.
- Serve immediately, garnished with parsley, if desired.
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When you add the chicken back in do you do it skin side down so the sauce gets on the skin? This looks delicious, I’m going to make it this week! 🙂
It is best to add the chicken skin side up as pictured.
hello! can i substitute olive oil for the butter? if so, how much olive oil would i use? thanks so much! i’ve had so much fun checking out your website. beautiful pix!
Sari, you should be able to substitute olive oil for the same amount, although using butter is really best!
This was absolutely delicious !!! Thank you for All of your Outstanding recipes
This recipe is quick, easy and delicious.
Can you substitute agave nectar for the honey?
You can certainly try substituting agave but without further recipe testing, I cannot speak for how much this will change the overall taste/texture of the dish. Using a substitution may also result in a mediocre outcome.
I tried this recipe last night for dinner. I used split chicken breast instead of thighs and it was A-MAZING!!!! I used a cast iron skillet and that worked very well. Thanks for this recipe definitely will be saving this to use again. maybe even for a potluck 🙂
This was delicious and easy! Thank you!
I really enjoyed this recipe I’ve made it a couple of times now, I even included in my newest blog post, I gave you all the credits by the way.
http://livingwithjuan.blogspot.com/2015/03/10-cheap-and-easy-chicken-recipes.html
I made this tonight and it was amazing! My husband and I couldn’t get enough of it that’s how delicious it was. I never cooked chicken thighs before so I didn’t know how it was going to turn out but it was so good. I followed the recipe exactly except I transferred the chicken to a casserole dish and poured the garlic brown sugar sauce over the top. It gave the chicken a nice caramelized skin which was amazing. I will definitely be making this again soon!
We made this for dinner a week ago. I loved it! My husband thought the sauce was very sweet, and was surprised that it actually came out so good. I could drink that sauce. Omg. Also, leftovers heated up great!
Hi! I will be making this tonight I just had a question.
After adding the garlic and herbs and honey and putting the chicken back in to put in the oven. do you put the side with the skin down or up?
It is best to return the chicken skin side up.
I made this chicken last night for dinner and it was amazing! I don’t have on oven safe pan so I transfered the chicken and sauce to a casserole dish and it turned out great. Thanks for a great recipe!
Like thighs, but not a fan of baked chicken but this sounds really good so giving it a try.
Usually my wife just throws it in the oven, smoke alarm goes off…dinner is ready.
I made this last night. The flavors were great, the chicken was done perfectly. However, I too had a bit of burnt skin. When I also added the butter then garlic to the pan that the chicken was in (non stick), it immediately cooked way too fast and burnt (should I take if off the heat or lower before adding?), it also seemed the brown sugar, and honey and the herbs I added to the pan seem to burn on the bottom of the pan, would like to try a stainless steel pan next time, but concerned that the sauce with the sugar and honey will just burn to the bottom of the pan. Any suggestions to avoid?
Thanks!
Julia, it seem that your heat source was set too high.
Such a quick and easy recipe! The thigh is my favorite part of the chicken. I had to cut the ingredients in half because I only had 4 thighs. Other than it needing a little bit more salt, it turned out great!
Thanks so much!
I made this about 3 weeks ago, and since then I’ve made it 3 or 4 times already – SO yummy, and SO simple!! The thighs freeze really well, too, so I can take them to work for lunch!
I found this on Pintrest and made it tonight and it was great! I only did 4 thighs and I used a cast-iron skillet. Other than the number of thighs, I followed the recipe exactly. This is a winner! My husband had me go back to put some sauce on the rice too. I imagine the sauce would be good on a bunch of different things. Salmon comes to mind! I have a church carry in soon and I think I’ll do some boneless thighs and legs chopped into smaller pieces and cooked like this. Ought to be a hit. Thanks for the great recipe.
Hi! I’m so excited to try this recipe tonight! Do I baste the chicken with the sauce? or just lay the chicken on top of the sauce in the skillet?
You can baste as needed to let the sauce really soak into the chicken.
I made this tonight with chicken breasts and it was four star awesome!!!!!! Thank you for posting this recipe. I used some corn starch to thicken the sauce before serving….yum yum!
want to try this but I don’t have a skillet/frying pan that could go in the oven. All have plastic handle. Any suggestions? I read a few of the comments and noticed that pouring the sauce over chicken didn’t go so well??? So not sure if I’d be able to transfer it to a baking dish for baking?
It should be fine to transfer the chicken to an oven-safe baking dish.