Balsamic Chicken is a baked chicken dinner that’s incredible quick to prepare: just mix balsamic vinegar, soy sauce, honey, sugar and garlic, pour it over chicken and pop it in the oven. And out comes this glorious chicken that’s savoury, tangy, sweet and very, very sticky!
Quick baked chicken recipes are mid week life savers and this balsamic chicken is a back-pocket gem along with simple Honey Mustard Chicken, Juicy Baked Breasts and country-style Baked Thighs.
Sticky Balsamic Chicken
This is a baked chicken recipe for busy weeknights, lazy Sundays, and every other day in between.
When it’s this effortless to make something so lip smackingly good with ingredients that are basic pantry essentials, frozen meals and home delivery aren’t even a passing thought. No matter how nuts your household is at dinner time, no matter how tired you are, no matter how irritating and incompetent your boss is, how bad the commute home was, how miserable the weather is – you got this.💪🏼
2 minutes to make the sauce (and that includes reaching / taking lid off / measuring).
Pour over chicken and bake.
No marinating required – the glaze is so sticky and has enough flavour that you don’t need to marinate. Though you can if you want. I don’t. Don’t think I ever have. This is a quick-unplanned-on-the-fly type recipe, in my books. 🙂
And this is what comes out of the oven.
This baked chicken recipe is effortless – high returns for very little effort!
This Balsamic Chicken is so sticky. You just want to grab it with your hands and suck your fingers clean. Frankly, I’m all for that. I am a huge fan of eating with hands, I just always wonder where that line is where eating with hands becomes unacceptable!
The sugar and honey in the glaze balances out the tartness of the balsamic
When I wrote out this recipe for this Baked Balsamic Chicken with the intention of posting it, I did hesitate for a moment at the amount of honey and sugar in the balsamic glaze. But it needs it. Not only because it’s what makes the sauce reduce down into a sticky glaze, but also because balsamic vinegar is very tangy and needs a decent amount of sweetness to offset it.
Even my anti-overly-sweet-things mother, who happened to be over when I was shooting this (she does tend to drop by at rather convenient times i.e. when there’s a massive pile of washing up to do), declared that it’s not too sweet because of the tanginess of the balsamic.
She really liked it. She hoovered down a drumstick incredibly fast [for a woman of her age😂] then reached for another before I smacked her hand away. I wasn’t finishing photographing!!!! This stuff is hard to photograph – they have a tendency to look like black blobs of coal!!! – Nagi x
More simple baked bone-in chicken thigh recipes
Honey Mustard Chicken – also this version with Potatoes and crispy bacon!
And more popular chicken recipes
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BALSAMIC CHICKEN
WATCH HOW TO MAKE IT
Baked Balsamic Chicken recipe video!
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Baked Balsamic Chicken
Ingredients
- 1 kg / 2 lb chicken thighs (5 pieces, bone in, skin on), or drumsticks or wings (any combination) (Note 1)
Sauce:
- 1/4 cup (65 ml) balsamic vinegar
- 2 1/2 tbsp / 50 ml soy sauce , all purpose or light (not dark soy sauce)
- 1/4 cup (85 g / 65 ml) honey
- 1/4 cup (45g) brown sugar , loosely packed (Note 2)
- 2 garlic cloves, minced (or 1 1/2 tsp garlic paste from jar)
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 180C/350F.
- Line a baking dish with foil and baking / parchment paper.
- Mix together Sauce in a bowl.
- Place chicken in baking dish, skin side down for thighs and wings. Make sure the pan is big enough so the chicken is squished up next to each other (sauce may not reduce enough), but not so large that there is more than 4″/10 cm between every piece of chicken (sauce may reduce too much).
- Pour over Sauce. Bake 30 minutes. Turn chicken over, spoon over sauce.
- Bake 20 minutes or until chicken is cooked through. The Sauce should have thickened.
- Stand for 5 minutes, then spoon Sauce over chicken and serve.
Recipe Notes:
Nutrition Information:
LIFE OF DOZER
Superb display of canine athleticism and sheer determination to ….. well, to be the first to reach a blue rubber duck. 😂
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This sauce is delicious! Mine cooked down too much however, so next time I will pour only half over the chicken for the first 30 minutes and then pour the rest over for the last 20 minutes. A simple and delicious recipe!
I didn’t squish them and it still didn’t reduce and get sticky. Tastes ok though
This is very tasty! Mine however doesn’t thicken (until completely cool). Plenty of space around the 6 pieces.
How much soy sauce is preferable? 2 1/tt2 Tablespoons or 50 mL? (50mL= 3 Tablespoons + 1 teaspoon). I tried 45 mL (3 Tablespoons) last time and it was good but still not thickened. Also I’ve been using granulated garlic. Does that make the sauce thinner?
My husband only likes white meat, so I threw caution to the winds like the rebel I am and used a small split chicken breast along with a pack of thighs. Still came out great!
I’ve made this several times and it is delicious! It’s one of my favorite ways to devour chicken!
I wonder if when you wrote how to place the chicken (“Make sure the pan is big enough so the chicken *is* squished up next to each other (sauce may not reduce enough”)) did you actually mean to make sure that it is *not* squished up. Is there supposed to be a small amount of space between each piece?
OMG! I made this for a quick dinner tonight. It was amazing even with slightly runny sauce (my fault for overloading the tray). This will be my go to party food now! Thanks Nagi
Having troubles with the sauce not thickening and the chicken getting over cooked? Use a large cookie sheet with non-stick aluminum and cook at 335 for 25 and 10 min if chicken is completely thawed (instead of 50 which gives tough chicken).
Nagi said the chicken can safely be 4 inches apart! I know the sauce doesn’t look like much, but the chicken skin and thighs release a surprising amount of liquid.
I tried this and it was good. used only one tbs of the soy sauce and used coconut aminos instead for less salt. we served it with wild rice and mixed veggies. Someone posted about doing it in a cast iron and i will try that next, as that sounds like a good idea. Mine was squished together and my sauce didn’t thicken but that was okay with me, next time i think i’ll add diced potatoes to it when i want a more liquidy sauce to fill out the recipe a bit more. I did cut an onion into large rings and sit them at the bottom of the pan before laying the chicken and it was a very nice addition.
Thanks for those tips, Liz! Enjoy! N x
So good! I made a tray of balsamic roasted veggies with it and put it all over white rice with feta on top. Sent the recipe to many friends.
My chicken never got sticky, but no matter it was still delicious
Make sure the pan size is right…that’s critical here (see Note 4). N x
I followed the instruction to a tee and it tasted like chicken broth. I dried my chicken before putting it the container and I got an aluminum pan for roasting a Turkey so it was huge. Don’t know what I did wrong but it went to trash.
Hi Sumara, not sure what you mean exactly since there is no broth in this recipe? What exactly went wrong? N x
Dang good! I poured the sauce over a cold salad and ate the chicken sliced on top. So yummy!
Hi, I was positive this would be too sweet, but I surely was wrong! I cut the brown sugar back very slightly, but followed the recipe otherwise. Baked the chicken in a a cast iron skillet and it was truly outstanding! Sticky, syrupy, full of flavor, and delicious! Served with pilaf and pickled cucumbers, A definite keeper.
Fantastic! Another amazing Nagi recipe ♡. I used large drumsticks & removed skin. Then I save the bones, rinse the sauce off & throw them in a slow cooker, cover with water and leave on low for the day. I then add some gelatin disolved in hot water, the drumstick skins and leave for about an hr. When it cools it becomes a jelly treat for our family doggie
Nagi,
This was absolutely delicious. End result was exactly like your photos. Tasty, tangy, sticky, delicious. Served with mashed yukons and green beans.
Hi Nagi, in step 4 you say “ so the chicken is squished up next to each other” but I assume you mean “ so the chicken is NOT squished up next to each other” right? Just doesn’t make much sense otherwise.
Looks great though – this is dinner tonight 🙂
I reckon you’re right Mike because I ‘squished’ my chicken and the sauce did not thicken up.
I love this scrumptious recipe. I make it once a week. Thank you Nagi.
I’m so glad you love it Cathy!!! N x
Yo Nagi… gonna try this right now… just curious. In this sentence, did you leave out the word “not” before “squished”…. eg is it supposed to say make sure the pan is big enough so they are NOT squished up next to each other? Or do you want them to be squished up to each other? Thank you… this looks great.
“Make sure the pan is big enough so the chicken is squished up next to each other”
Made this last night for my husband and we both loved it. The flavors were right on! Thank you for another great recipe!
Thank you Nagi, another fab and simple recipe.
I had to turn up the heat for the last 20 minutes to reduce the sauce and crisp the chicken thighs.
Served this with sauteed potatoes, with red onion, green and red peppers. Yummy
Sounds like you nailed it Sue! N x
could you do this in the slow cooker?
Hi Barbara, unfortunately not as you want the sauce to caramelise and go sticky – N x