Maple Soy Glazed Chicken Thighs
These Maple Soy Glazed Chicken Thighs are a fast, easy, and delicious way to serve chicken thighs! The thick sweet and salty glaze will soon become a household favorite!
I don’t know about you, but we eat a lot of chicken in our house. We bake it, we herb it, we spice it, we grill it, we taco it, we burrito bowl it, we crock pot it, we make it into stock, and we even Phở it. You get the idea. Since it’s such a main part of our diets, we’re always looking for new, but easy ways to cook it on busy weeknights. This makes these Maple Soy Glazed Chicken Thighs one of our new favorite recipes!
Ingredients Needed
Not only is this recipe easy to make, but I bet you already have everything you need for the sauce in your pantry, already.
- Boneless Chicken Thighs – Definitely boneless. Adding a bone changes it completely. You could also use chicken tenders, too. We prefer the dark meat of the thighs.
- Maple Syrup – The real stuff! This is the NH maple syrup we always have in our pantry!
- Soy Sauce – Regular is what we prefer for this recipe, but you could also use a low sodium if you’re watching the salt in your diet.
- Hoisin – We love the depth and sweetness that this adds. Have you made your own, yet?
- Apple Cider Vinegar – White or even red would work fine for this too, although we love the milder flavor of apple cider vinegar. You could also use an unseasoned rice vinegar, too.
- Salt – To season the chicken before cooking.
- Olive Oil – To cook the chicken to start.
- Fresh Parsley – To finish with!
Easy to Make
Truly, you don’t get much easier than this, 1, 2, 3.
- Generously season the chicken.
- Prep the sauce.
- Cook!
This is one of those recipes when we need dinner on the table fast because from start to finish, this glazed chicken can be done in 20 minutes.
Cooking Tips
Now let me tell you, that glaze, that’s truly where it’s at. But you have to make sure you keep a few things in mind when cooking to get it just right.
Heat the oil in the pan. Make sure that you coat your pan with the full tablespoon of oil and heat it on medium-high heat. To ensure it’s coated, just lift the pan and give that oil and lil’ swirl.
Use a non-stick pan. This will help with the initial sear of the chicken and with making sure the glaze sticks more to the chicken than the pan.
Let the sauce cook down. When you first add the sauce to the pan, it will feel like a lot of liquid. But don’t worry, keep it at medium-high heat and it will cook down and glaze your chicken!
Don’t flip the chicken too much. To get that gorgeous glaze, we recommend starting adding the chicken first to the pan with the smooth (what would be skin side) up. After a few minutes give it a turn, then once more smooth side down while the glaze does its final cook down. That will ensure that your smooth side will get this beautiful glaze.
Let the glaze cook! Keep that heat up to medium-high so that the sauce boils. This is what will cook it down, evaporating the liquid until it’s a thick glaze. That’s what will cook your chicken as the sugars caramelize, start to stick to the bottom of the pan, and onto the chicken.
Enjoy!! These Maple Soy Glazed Chicken Thighs have that sweet soy glaze that is packed full of flavor!
Serve it With
- 10 Minute Garlic Kale
- Balsamic Spinach and Mushrooms
- 15 Minute Garlic Fried Noodles
- Crispy Rosemary Garlic Potatoes
- Butter Garlic Mushrooms
- 10 Minute Peanut Noodles
- Asian Sesame Ginger Slaw
- Miso Spinach and Mushroom Soba Noodles
Other Favorite Chicken Recipes
- 15 Minute Garlic Butter Chicken
- Cornell Chicken
- Crock Pot Balsamic Chicken
- Mediterranean Grilled Chicken Breasts
- Garlic Chicken Piccata
- Grilled Cilantro Lime Chicken
- Lemon Pepper Chicken
- Asian Grilled Chicken
This is one of our all-time favorites and a reader favorite! As always, please let me know if you make it and what you think! I love to hear from you on Facebook, Pinterest, and Instagram!
Maple Soy Glazed Chicken Thighs
Equipment
- large non stick skillet
Ingredients
Instructions
- Generously season chicken thighs with salt.
- Combine maple syrup, soy, hoisin, and apple cider vinegar in a small bowl or pyrek with pour spout and whisk with fork. Set aside.
- Heat olive oil in large skillet on medium high heat. Turn skillet so it's well oiled. Add chicken, smooth (or what would be skin) side up, to sear.
- Cook for 2-3 minutes before adding sauce and then flip chicken, smooth side down.
- Keep heat at medium-high and let sauce boil, cooking down. Cook for another 2-3 minutes before flipping to smooth side down.
- Keep cooking the glaze and chicken until most of the liquid has cooked off. Keep the chicken smooth side down so that the sauce carmalizes to the chicken.
- After another about 10 more minutres of cooking, or until the glaze has mostly cooked off and chicken has reached 165 degrees, remove from heat and serve immediately.
Loved this recipe! Restaurant quality and so easy to make. I served it with an asian slaw kit and steamed broccoli on the side. Healthy and delicious. Thank you so much!
I love to hear that, Dawn! Thank you so much for sharing – it sounds like you had an amazing dinner!
I think I’ve been using this recipe since 2016, when you first posted it. I hadn’t made it in a while, and when I pulled it up, I was a bit confused. The original recipe was a 2,2,2 with no hoisin. Over time, I have doubled the sauce for the same amount of meat. Tonight I added the extra tbsp of soy sauce, and it ended up too salty for me. My savvy husband was able to guide to a website that revealed I was correct in my thinking of 2,2,2 (Soy Sauce, Apple Cider Vinegar, Maple Syrup). Thank you for such a simple recipe!
I’m so glad Kristy posted that she remembered the original recipe didn’t use hoisin sauce. My recipe is printed from years ago and it’s the original… no hoisin sauce.
Tracy, what is the advantage of adding hoisin sauce? My son is allergic to peanuts and sesame which seems to be in most hoisin sauces.
Hi Katie! I love the umami it adds but you can of course omit it, especially for an allergy!
Superb recepie, so easy and so tasty , going to try a few more of your recepies!
Oh I love to hear that, Steve! Thanks so much for sharing!
I’ve been making this recipe for months now and I rarely leave reviews, but I LOVE this. It’s quick, easy, and soooo good. It’s perfect as written but sometimes I swap the soy sauce for Dijon mustard which quickly became my husband’s favorite 😊
MJ! Thank you SO much for leaving a reply!! That makes me so happy that you guys love it and what a GREAT idea to use Dijon!!
Hi! Thinking of trying these today – could they be done in a larger batch in the oven? Thanks.
Hi Jessica! I haven’t made them in the oven before but I don’t see why that wouldn’t work! I’d do 400 degrees for 20 mins, flipping at 10. Just make sure they’re fully cooked with an internal temp of 165 degrees. Also, I’d be concerned about excess sauce burning so I’d spray a baking sheet or dish with cooking spray or line with parchment and then would make the sauce, let the chicken marinate in it, then pull chicken out and line on baking sheet/dish. Cook for 10 mins then flip and maybe add sauce at the flip. Let me know how it goes!
The simplicity of these ingredients make a surprisingly delicious dish! Mine weren’t are pretty as yours – they didn’t caramelize or get as dark – but they sure tasted good. I served them with smashed sweet potatoes and salad. They were just as good cold!
I’m so glad you enjoyed them!! And that you like them cold too!! 😊
This was awesome! I made it once as posted with chicken thighs and once with thinly sliced and tenderized chicken breasts, adding lemon to the glaze. Both were a hit! My family loved the addition of the lemon in the glaze.
That’s so great to hear! What a great idea adding the lemon! Yum!!