Honey and Soy Baked Chicken Thighs

I swung by the store after work yesterday to pick up a couple things and saw chicken thighs were to be had for $0.89/lb. A family pack of bone-in, skin-on thighs later, I had to figure out what I wanted to do with them.

Relying on a quick "thigh" search via Tastespotting, I came across a simple, beautiful recipe by Amy at She Wears Many Hats. And I'll tell you right now that her chicken looked a helluvalot better than mine would turn out. Let me show you...

Honey and Soy Baked Chicken Thighs

3 tbsp olive oil
3 tbsp soy sauce
5 tbsp honey
4 cloves of garlic; minced
1/2 tsp ground ginger
1/2 tsp fresh ground pepper
2.5 lbs chicken thighs

Preheat oven to 425°F.

Combine oil, soy sauce, honey, garlic, ginger and pepper in a large bowl.

Add the chicken to bowl, mixing well to coat each piece.

Line a baking sheet with foil, place chicken and sauce/marinade on sheet, and bake in a 425°F oven for 25 minutes with the skin side down. Cook chicken an additional 8 minutes.

Turn the chicken and cook another 7 minutes, or until internal temperature reaches 165°F, to crisp up the skin.

Ok, I did change a couple of things, primarily in the cooking dish and method. But I have a reason! Listen here. The original recipe said to:

1. preheat the oven
2. mix everything in a bag to marinate in the fridge
3. when ready to cook, dump everything into a baking dish; bake in the preheated oven

That tells me:

1. the oven is on and the chicken, once mixed into the honey-soy mixture, is ready to cook or
2. the oven was turned on prematurely and a marinating time is actually a good thing

The part I personally messed up on was to place skin-side down for the first 25 minutes (original recipe says skin-side up, which explains why I didn't turn the chicken when it came out of the oven the first time but did turn it to crisp the skin). And I used a foil-lined baking sheet instead of a dish.

If it's any salvation, I was able to determine that 40 minutes total cooking time was sufficient, shaving off 10 minutes. Doesn't that redeem me in any way?

The chicken tasted good even though the sugars were burnt on the skin. We wound up eating ours skinless, so the flavors were quite mild, but still tasty, reminiscent of the Honey-Soy Drums made months ago.

Cost:

• chicken thighs: $2.23
• everything else, SWAG: $1

Total: $3.23 or $1.08 for each of three 2-thigh servings.

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