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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This looks so delicious!
I wanted to know can i substitute the thighs for breast?
Also I wanted to say for every recipe I have tried ( about 5 recipes so far), I kid you not, they have all come out “Damn Delicious” LOL. You are my go to when I need help deciding what to cook and know it will come out awesome. So I want to say thank you and keep up the excellent work dear.
Yes, chicken breasts can be substituted but you may have to adjust cooking time as needed to ensure that the chicken is completely cooked through.
im goin to try this on my smoker 🙂
do you think this is doable in a crockpot?? It sounds delicious! 🙂
Unfortunately, it is very difficult to give exact conversion information to translate a traditional stovetop recipe to be used in a slow cooker without further recipe testing. However, here is an article worth checking out on a possible conversion guide: http://www.thekitchn.com/5-tips-for-converting-recipes-to-the-slow-cooker-189343.
Has anyone tried without skin? In need of a recipe similar to this but must be skinless.
Made this for dinner tonight with some roasted garlic potatoes & roasted broccoli and it was finger lickin GOOD! I was a little hesitant b/c I normally don’t choose to cook with thigh meat but hot diggity I’m glad I did this time. 8 pieces of chicken went WAY too fast lol! Yum. This recipe is definitely going into the rotation- thanks!
I have to say first, I love your website. I made the crisp lemon butter chicken thighs with the parmesen coated asparagus and my own hacked mashed potatoes. I felt like a chef, and the pictures that resulted were even better! Now I’m doing this chicken! It’s actually a play on stewed chicken from the caribbean! I used burnt brow sugar and the girls crimping method and cut the cook time down! Great recipe!
Garlic crisping * (silly autocorrect)
i just happen to have leg/thigh pieces, can I use the leg too,just separate the pieces ? Don’t want to waste.
Yes, of course, but you may have to adjust cooking time, as needed.
I MADE THIS DISH TWICE IT WAS REALLY AWESOME THE SECOND TIME AROUND
I WANTED TO MAKE IT AGAIN TONIGHT, HOWEVER MY PROPANE ON MY OVEN RAN OUT
I HAD NO CHICKEN THIGHS EITHER!
SO I ENDED UP USING MY ELECTRIC SKILLET I USED BONELESS BREAST IN PLACE OF THE THIGHS. I CUT UP THE CHICKEN IN NUGGET SIZED PIECES BROWNED THEM IN BUTTER AS THE RECIPE SAYS, REMOVED FROM SKILLET AND PUT TOGETHER THE SAUCE AS DIRECTED THEN PLACED CHICKEN BACK INTO THE SKILLET SPOONED THE GARLIC BROWN SUGAR SAUCE OVER THE PIECES AS THEY COOKED
IT WAS REALLY GOOD DONE THIS WAY BUT NOT AS GOOD AS THE THIGHS AND OVEN METHOD. IT WAS CLOSE ENOUGH TO SATISFY MY DESIRE TO MAKE THE RECIPE!
I ALSO WANTED TO ADD THAT THIS IS A GREAT WEBSITE THE RECIPES ARE TASTY EASY TO PREPARE AND VERY PRECISE IN THE DIRECTION I ALSO APPRECIATE THAT CHUNGAH TAKES THE TIME OUT TO MAKE SURE ALL QUESTIONS ARE ANSWERED. SO MANY BLOGS MISS THAT PEOPLE WILL INQUIRE ABOUT RECIPES AND NOT RECEIVE AN ANSWER!
Can I do this with a whole chicken? Would I need to cover it? Help!! Making it tonight. Thanks!
Unfortunately without further recipe testing, I cannot answer with certainty if this recipe would work with a whole chicken. Please use your best judgment to ensure that the chicken is completely cooked through.
Oh my goodness. If I hadn’t had to share with my husband and daughter, I’d have eaten all 8 thighs by myself. This was wonderful! My (stainless steel) skillet wasn’t large enough to cook all 8 at the same time so I used a smaller pan for the last couple thighs – a cast iron. Oh my, what a difference! crispy and brown and gorgeous! I’m going to find a larger cast iron skillet now. I also need to buy way more chicken thighs!
I read through this, and now I’m dying to try it. Though if I don’t have a skillet, what’s the next best thing to use?
Do you have an oven-safe pan?
THIS TURNED OUT PRETTY GOOD I WAS IN A HURRY SO IT MIGHT HAVE BEEN A BIT BETTER IF I TOOK MY TIME I USED THE THIGHS BUT THEY HAD NO BONE DODNT REALIZE THIS UNTIL AFTER I WENT TO COOK?
WAS WONDERING IF YOU THINK MAKING THE SAUCE AHEAD OF TIME THEN BASTING AND COOKING WOULD WORK OUT? I WOULD TO START THE SAUSE EARLIER MAYBE LET IT SIT IN SAUCE IN FRIDGE UNTIL DINNER HOUR
DO YOU THINK IT WOULD WORK OUT OK BY DOUNG THIS.
I actually haven’t tried making the sauce ahead of time but I would advise against it as the sauce may thicken up too much prior to cooking the chicken.
Thank you so much for the recipe! Made it tonight for my parent’s anniversary and it was delicious. I doubled the recipe and didn’t have skillet big enough to accommodate so I used a foil lined baking pan and clean-up was a breeze!!! Mine didn’t come out tasty enough without the sauce so I collected all the sauce-drippings and skimmed off most of the fat to get to the brown sugar, etc. and that made a world of difference poured over the chicken meat. Will definitely be making this for years to come!
I followed the recipe exactly and also ended up with a blackened thick mess in the bottom of the pan. Used a high quality pan so do not think that was the problem. We live in a high altitude area, so should I alter to take that into account? Jealous that so many said it is the best chicken ever and mine wasn’t!
What kind of pan did you use?
Can I try this with chicken wings?
I haven’t tried it myself but I don’t see why it wouldn’t work, although cooking time will have to be adjusted as needed.
This has turned out totally burnt both times I have cooked it. Even turned it down 15 degrees last time.
I’m not entirely sure why it’s getting burnt at 400 degrees F. It may be best to invest in an oven thermometer – it’s reliable enough to tell you what’s really going on inside your oven!
Have done that and that is why I cook it at 375. It tastes great but takes a day to clean the pan after cooking because of the thick burnt surface. Will keep keep tweaking.
It may be best to try using a different kind of baking dish then.
Hi! Thank you for posting this recipe, I’m making it tonight with boneless skinless chicken breasts. Should I make any modifications for cooking time? I will be using a medium skillet for stove top cooking and a glass baking dish for the oven. Your recommendations would be greatly appreciated! Based on the reviews I’m very excited to try this dish 🙂
Emily, you may have to adjust cooking time as needed – other than that, you should be good to go!
Hi Emily, I’m interested to learn how this turned out with skinless chicken breasts. I wanted to do the same thing (hubby won’t eat chicken skin) but it seemed like the skin is the best part of the dish! How was it??
Pinned this months ago and now I’m finally getting around to cooking this! Looking forward to making this Tuesday for my husband and son. Anyone have suggestions on side dishes that pair well?
This dish will really go well with anything, like these baked parmesan mushrooms, roasted vegetables, and/or garlic parmesan roasted potatoes.
Made this recipe last night with Boneless Skinless Thighs. I just adjusted the time since they are a lot thinner. They were FABULOUS! My husband gave it two huge thumbs up. Will definitely keep this recipe on the regular rotation. Served it with mashed potatoes and salad. That sauce made those mashed potatoes go out of bounds!
I tried this recipe tonight after finding it on Pinterest and I got an enthusiastic “do again!” from my family, which is high praise at our house. I used boneless skinless thighs because that is what I had and just added some chicken broth to make the sauce since there were less pan juices. It worked a charm! Thanks for the great recipe!
How much broth did you add? I’m thinking about doing this recipe with breasts instead! Thanks!