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Honey-Soy Chicken Drumsticks, Thighs or Wings
By Alexandra Stafford
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Last Updated: 09/13/2025
This post may contain affiliate links. Please read my disclosure policy.
A family favorite for over 20 years, this low-effort, high-reward chicken takes about 5 minutes to assemble and emerges from the oven piping hot, meat falling off the bone, with sauce aplenty! Children and adults alike adore this chicken!
In the spirit of old-fashioned, unsubtle, crowd-pleasing recipes, I offer another oldie but goodie from The New New York Times Cookbook (Craig Claiborne, 1979), a recipe my mother pulled out for nearly every cocktail party she hosted and attended for at least two decades. The original recipe calls for wings, which people go gaga over, but the sauce and cooking method work just as well with drumsticks and thighs, if you’re looking for a super-easy dinner adored by children and adults alike.
While the chicken bakes for a fairly long time — an hour to an hour and 15 minutes — in the brief time it takes for your oven to preheat, your chicken can be prepped and smothered with the magic sauce, a mixture of honey, soy sauce, ketchup, garlic and oil, leaving you with an hour of freedom, perhaps to prepare a simple salad or side dish, perhaps to sit down with a good book and a nice cocktail.
As with the honey-baked chicken legs, it’s hard not to play caveman while eating these drummies — a fork and knife just can’t get the job done. What can I say? This is not gourmet cooking, and it’s not gourmet eating — you might just want to break out the moist towelettes for this one.
Honey Soy Chicken, Step by Step
First, gather your ingredients: honey, soy, garlic, ketchup, and oil.
Whisk the sauce ingredients together. And season your chicken with salt and pepper.
Pour the sauce over the chicken in your baking dish.
Bake for 1 hour and 15 minutes. Don’t be alarmed by the state of your pan…
… once the bubbling subsides, your chicken will surface...
…piping hot…
… meat falling off the bone.
Try not to curse my name during the post-dinner clean-up…
I promise: after a quick soak and a bit of elbow grease, just a few burnt edges will remain.
Notes: When we have visitors, I double up on the drumsticks:
Or use a combination of thighs and drumsticks:
Super Easy, Oven-Baked, Honey-Soy Chicken Drumsticks
- Total Time: 1 hours 20 minutes
- Yield: 6 to 8 1x
- Diet: Gluten Free
Description
Adapted from The New New York Times Cookbook (Craig Claiborne, 1979)
Notes:
- If making a small batch — 5 drumsticks or 4 thighs, etc. — halve the sauce recipe but keep the cooking time the same.
- I typically make it with 4 to 5 thighs and 4 to 5 drumsticks, but I’ve made it with as many as 8 thighs and 5 drumsticks in one 9×13-inch pan.
- Wings are perfect for a Super Bowl party or other gathering.
Ingredients
- 18 chicken wings or 10 drumsticks or 4 thighs and 5 drumsticks, etc.
- kosher salt and freshly ground pepper
- 2 tablespoons oil — peanut, canola, vegetable, olive, etc.
- 2 tablespoons ketchup
- 1/2 cup soy sauce
- 1 cup honey
- 2 to 3 cloves garlic, minced
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 400ºF. If using wings: wash and dry, cut off wing tips and place on a rimmed baking sheet. If using the larger quantity of drumsticks and/or thighs: wash and dry and place in a 9 x 13-inch pan; if using the smaller quantity, wash and dry and place in a 8×8-inch (or something similar) pan. Season lightly with salt (as soy is salty) and pepper to taste.
- Combine remaining ingredients and pour over chicken. Toss chicken (with your hands, if you don’t mind, or with tongs, if you do) and then arrange skin-side down in the baking pan. Place in the oven for 30 minutes. Remove pan, turn chicken over, and return to the oven for another 30 minutes, keeping an eye on the chicken to ensure it isn’t browning too quickly — turn the temperature down to 375ºF if it is.
- Remove the pan and turn the chicken over once more. I find that the chicken is usually done at this point, but my mother likes to cook hers for another 15 minutes, which is what the original recipe calls for, too, although the original recipe also calls for baking it at 375ºF for the entire time. It’s your call — you can’t mess it up. I suggest turning the oven down to 375ºF if you do bake it for an additional 15 minutes.
- If your sauce is not the thickness you like, but the chicken has completed its cooking, you can transfer the sauce to a small sauce pan and simmer it down on the stovetop till it thickens.
- Prep Time: 5 minutes
- Cook Time: 1 hours 15 minutes
- Category: Dinner
- Method: Oven
- Cuisine: Asian, American
This post may contain affiliate links. Please read my disclosure policy.
317 Comments on “Honey-Soy Chicken Drumsticks, Thighs or Wings”
Do you mind if we post your site to Pinterest?
Not at all. Pin away! Thanks.
I know what I am making for dinner tonight! This looks delicious and I have all of the ingredients on hand, thanks for sharing!
Yossy — I hope you like them! They couldn’t be easier to throw together.
I love how awesomely saucy these look! Just how a drumstick should be, I say. These look so good!
Thanks, Natasha…yes, these are all about the sauce 🙂
Made two pans of this tonight! One pan was with less honey since I thought it would be too sugary. The other pan was exactly as called for in the recipe. However, neither glazed at an hour’s cook time. Should I have left it in the oven longer? Super juicy and flavorful though!
San, glad to hear that the chicken was super juicy and flavorful, but am a little confused about it not being glazed after an hour in the oven, especially with the pan that had the complete amount of honey. What kind of pan were you using? I doubt this would make much of a difference, but I am a little curious. And you could have continued to cook them for another 15 minutes — my mother always does — which would helped to caramelize and concentrate the sauce a little further.
Look at that beautiful lacquer!
Couldn’t I use this glaze for chicken breasts too?
Anne — I don’t know how breasts would fare with this recipe. For one, I think they would be finished cooking way before the glaze starts caramelizing and thickening. I don’t know how to advise. Definitely use bone-in, skin-on breasts; and I would check them after 30 minutes. At this point, you could probably scoop the glaze out of the pan into a saucepan and let it reduce further stovetop? And then maybe pour the glaze over the breasts after five minutes or so? Wish I could offer some better guidance. I don’t cook with chicken breasts that often.
Chicken breasts come out too dry, in my opinion, for this recipe…and I can do breasts to perfection on the grille. Use wings, thighs and legs for this one, but i always do the wings in a separate pan as they will cook faster. Also, i prefer to cook longer until they are just about to fall off the bone! 1 1/2 hrs or more. Messy and delicious…serve with a water bowl to wash your hands.
If you are set on boneless breasts(with or without the skin), then pound out breasts to even thickness, grille almost until they are done on both sides, then put the glaze on …and don’t take your eyes off them, because this sauce will fire up due to high sugar content, turning once to get a little char on them. These are very quick on the grille.
Thanks for these suggestions Jb!
JB: To cook them for an 1 1/2 hrs, did you lower the temp?
These look so ridiculously delicious – I cannot wait to try them. I’ve got a backlog of your recipes that I want to make. Thank you for sharing them!
Valentina — You are so welcome! I hope you find success with a few of them 🙂
These look so fun. Made the curry/honey ones again last night (with rice and Madhur Jaffrey’s cabbage with fennel etc seeds recipe posted on Food 52–really nice combo). Will def try these next time we have chicken.
Lucy T — I have been making the Madhur Jaffrey cabbage recipe via Food52 too! It is indeed delicious, and I can’t believe I haven’t thought to pair it with the honey baked chicken legs — a perfect match!
I love the clean up detail. And I think my little one would love this.
Sandra — nothing makes me happier than when my children don’t ask for ketchup. This is one of those such recipes (although there is ketchup in the sauce…so maybe that’s cheating?).
I make a very similar recipe, maybe a bit less honey, but wow, it is indeed a crowd pleaser!
I smiled when you mentioned ‘cursing your name’, because it’s true that at first the clean up seems impossible, but all that sugar dissolves easily. I leave the dish soaking overnight, and voila’ – smooth ride next day
Loved the photos, and I should add it to my Pinterest board, so I can make it exactly as you did
Sallybr — it’s amazing what a little soak will do! And there is something about these sweet-salty combos that everyone loves…it’s almost cheating.
I tried this with wings, and I think these are wonderful! You are right–this is very family friendly food. Even my aunt who is afraid of “ethnic” (anything that is not a chicken breast is ethnic) cuisine loves this. But this is a great dish for all those people with a fear of dark meat to embrace. It might even make some converts to the best part of the chicken. And if you like wings, then there is no reason not to like dark meat–they are sort of a hybrid.
Could you put heavy duty foil down first and line the pan w/out changing the texture of the chicken? This is how my family cooks chicken all the time. Mostly the chicken pan comes up clean once you throw away the foil.
Agnes — I have never tried this, but if you have had success with it, by all means give it a go! I have read that foil can alter the taste of foods, so I usually use parchment paper, but again, I don’t know if there is any truth to this notion.
I had the same result as San. They tasted absolutely delish, but the glaze never thickened after an hour. I used a disposable aluminum pan for ease of clean up. I didn’t feel that the taste was altered in any way by using this pan, but I am going to try it later this week using a glass dish and will report back with the results. This recipe is very good.
Tammy — I am happy to hear that you liked the flavor but am sorry to hear about the unthickened glaze. I will be curious to hear how the glass dish performs versus the disposable aluminum pan. Also, next time around, I think if after the hour the sauce still is not thickened, you should turn down the temp to 375 and bake for an additional 15 minutes or so. My mother always does the additional 15 minutes, and I have noticed that when I make this that the sauce really does transform in the last 10 minutes or so of baking, so maybe you just need to let yours go a little bit longer. Good luck with the second round! And thanks for writing in with your results.
Thank you so much for sharing this! My cooking time was less than an hour, and the drumsticks were tender and coated with glazy goodness. A hit with my two girls. This is going to be a repeat for us!!!
Peggy — so happy to hear this! This has become a repeat for us these past few weeks…kiddos like it as much as we do. Thanks for writing in!
These are on my list to make this week. My girls love anything with soy sauce! Do you think buckwheat honey would be too strong a flavor for this dish? I have a lot left over (from a honey cake recipe) and thought I might use it. Thanks for all these crowd-pleasing dishes from your family!
Wendy — Thank you for your nice comment! I haven’t used buckwheat honey, so I can’t say for sure, but my instinct is telling me that you should be fine. Soy is a strong flavor as well, and the chicken cooks for about an hour, so I feel like it all kind of melds together and not one flavor really dominates. I hope that makes sense. Good luck with it!
Made this, this past weekend and served it with steamed brown rice and seamed broccoli. The chicken was awesome! Can’t wait to make again! Thanks for the wonderful recipe.
Monique — those sides sound perfect with this chicken! I love the idea of mixing a little broccoli and a little brown rice with all of that yummy sauce. Great idea. Thanks for writing in!
Made this last night for dinner and it was a success!! Literally one of the best tasting chicken I’ve ever had. Even my picky mother loved it! Thanks so much for this recipe!
Wonderful to hear this, Angela!
Isn’t it funny how those recipes get around? I’ve been making your Suzanne Goin kale recipe and the Jaffrey cabbage more than any other veggie recipes this winter. Both addictive! Anyway, am back to say I finally made this chicken, last night. No surprise: it was delicious. Did it full-on and used wings, and my husband told me he loved it no fewer than seven times. Seven! So you are due a big thank-you.
We had it with a bit of this Cypriot grain salad, which balanced out the naughtiness of having chicken wings for dinner nicely. Just a bit of it, as the salad is sort of a meal in itself. Thought you might like the recipe: https://merci-mama.com/cypriot-grain-salad-best-salad-ever/
Lucy T — I love it. Yes, I don’t think this recipe is ever better received than when it is made with wings. SO good. I wished I had remembered it before the Super Bowl, not that I had a big night planned. So glad to hear that your husband approved.
That Cypriot grain salad is making my mouth water. Thanks so much for sharing the recipe. My mother brought me a bag of freekah ages ago, and I have been meaning to try it. My aunt is coming to town this weekend and insists on cooking…I think I’ll point her this way.
PS: The cabbage from my CSA just keeps on coming, so I don’t think the Jaffrey recipe will be disappearing anytime soon 🙂
I made them. They’re mouthwateringly awesome. Three cheers for a de-vine recipe.
Janning — wonderful to hear this!
This was sooo good! My husband loves it! It is a definite do again and again in our house
Angela — wonderful to hear this! This is a do again and again in our house, too 🙂
Husband and all three boys loved it! Thank you!!!!
Natalie — nothing makes me happier than to hear this. Thanks for writing in!
I wonder if the few people who had issue with the sauce thickening had rinsed their chicken before hand and had too much residual water left on the pieces. This could do it by inadvertently adding water to the sauce lengthening the reducing time. If that’s the case, they just need to be thoroughly dried next time prior to adding the sauce to them. Anyway, just a thought! I’m planning on making this tomorrow and look forward to it!
Lauren — great point. I hadn’t thought about that. It is so true how important it is to really dry meat to get good browning when searing and, in this case, to make sure the sauce thickens properly. Thanks so much for writing in. Hope you like the chicken!
I changed a little bit on this recipe. I cooked this in the crockpot on low on 8 hours. I used dried garlic and added a little garlic powder. So yummy.. thanks
Jennifer — wonderful to hear this! Did you use bone-in chicken pieces? I think others would like to know your method. It’s always good to have a few crockpot recipes on hand.
This was delicious! I used a crock pot liner to line the pan and it made clean up a breeze!
Perfection! I took this dish along for a shared lunch at work and it was a real crowd pleaser. Thanks for saving my day!
Sandra — wonderful to hear this!
could this recipe be done the same with chicken breasts? i have a few people in my family who aren’t a fan of chicken on the bone.
Stephany — I don’t know how breasts would fare with this recipe. For one, I think they would be finished cooking way before the glaze starts caramelizing and thickening. I don’t know how to advise. Definitely use bone-in, skin-on breasts; and I would check them after 30 minutes. At this point, you could probably scoop the glaze out of the pan into a saucepan and let it reduce further stovetop? And then maybe pour the glaze over the breasts (and I suppose remove the meat from the bone for the people who don’t like meat on the bone?) after five minutes or so? Wish I could offer some better guidance.
Halved the recipe and made it with 4 thighs (cooking for one). My intention was to have leftovers. They were delicious, needless to say there are no leftovers. I added a little Sriracha sauce. Next time I will add more Sriracha for a spicy kick. Thinking the messy pan was worth it!! Thank you for this quick, easy and yummy recipe.
Kelly, you are so welcome! I am so happy to hear all of this. I love the addition of Sriracha…right up my alley!
Made this tonight and it was great! I used boneless chicken breasts and cooked at 350 for about an hour (flipped them once). The sauce was not thick so I then took the chicken out and mixed some cornstarch with water and added it to the sauce in the baking pan…stirred until it thickened…added chicken back in and cooked for about 5 more minutes. It still wasn’t as thick as yours but it tasted so great. The chicken was tender and moist. Thanks!
Wow, I am impressed! Nice call on thickening up the sauce with cornstarch. So happy the chicken was moist and tender. Thanks for writing in!
Did this per instructions. Did NOT wash per current thinking so it was definitely dry. Although the liquid reduced, it was still like water after an hour. Have to do the corn starch method. It’ll still taste good in any case.
That’s my experience.
Len, that’s too bad. I still have never done the corn starch method, and if you ever feel like giving it another go, the sauce tends to thicken up quickly at the tail end of cooking, so I think if you had let the chicken in for another 10 to 15 minutes, the sauce would have thickened up, and I think you’ll find that with bone-in, skin-on dark meat, the meat would not be overcooked, so leaving it in for a few extra minutes wouldn’t ruin the dish. Just a thought!