Juicy Char Siu Chicken Thighs are baked in the oven and our favorite chicken thigh dinner for busy weeknights. You can also use this chicken thigh marinade for the grill/ BBQ. Save to your Chinese Chicken Recipes or homemade Chinese food board now.
Ingredients
You will need a few simple ingredients, such as:
- chicken thighs (bone-in, skin on): I use dark meat as they are less likely to overcook. (Bone-in thighs are also juicier.) Technically you can use the same marinade for chicken breasts and just adjust the cooking time, but chicken breasts are drier with less flavor.
For the Char Siu Sauce:
- Light Brown Sugar and Honey: maltose is traditional but not widely available so I've used a combination of honey and light brown sugar to make everyone's life easier. (Don't use dark brown sugar- we don't want char siu that tastes like molasses!)
- Hoisin Sauce
- Shaoxing Wine: Dry sherry is an acceptable subsitute
- Light Soy Sauce: don't mix this up with sweet soy or dark soy
- Fresh garlic: I have not tried substituting with dried garlic powder.
- Sesame Oil
- Salt: although the light soy provides some salt, we need a pinch of salt to further accentuate the flavor.
Serve with a bowl of brown or white rice and these char siu side dishes.
Expert Tips
- Expert Tip #1: I highly recommend glazing the chicken (either during baking or with the boiled glaze after the chicken is cooked- see the recipe card for details.) If not, the chicken looks quite bare.
Char Siu Chicken Thighs
Juicy Char Siu Chicken Thighs are baked in the oven and our favorite chicken thigh dinner for busy weeknights. You can also use this chicken thigh marinade for the grill/ BBQ. Save to your Chinese Chicken Recipes or homemade Chinese food board now.
Equipment
- 1 Knife and cutting board
- 1 Airtight container to marinade the chicken
- 1 Wire grill and baking sheet ideally of the same size as the grill will be placed on the baking sheet
- 1 parchment paper to line the baking sheet
Ingredients
Char Siu Marinade Sauce
- 3 garlic cloves peeled, minced.
- 2 Tablespoons hoisin sauce Substitute: oyster sauce
- 2 Tablespoons light brown sugar Do not use dark brown sugar
- 1½ Tablespoons shaoxing wine Substite: dry sherry
- 1 Tablespoon honey Don't use your best honey as the heat will decrease the nutrients.
- 3 teaspoons light soy sauce
- 1½ teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon sesame oil
- 2-3 Tablespoons water Optional. If your honey is very thick. (You may also need to add a bit of water when boiling the glaze later.)
Instructions
- Mix the sauce together well. Ideally marinade the chicken thighs in the fridge overnight. Make sure all the chicken is coated with the sauce.
- 20 minutes before you want to cook, take the chicken out of the fridge and allow it to return to room temperature. (If you have not marinated your chicken the night before, you need to do it now. The flavor won't have had time to really enter the meat though.) At the same time, heat up your oven to 200C fan/ 425F.
- Place the chicken thighs on a wire grill set over a lined baking tray. (Makes it easier to wash up later.) Bake the chicken thighs for 30-35 minutes, till the international temperature is 165F. (The exact time will vary depending on the size of your chicken- once mine were done in 25 minutes, because the chicken was underfed!)
- Whilst the chicken is in the oven, carefully bring the marinade to the boil for 5-10 minutes. (You may need to lower the temperature as the sauce is quite thick.) We want to thoroughly cook the sauce because we will be using it to glaze the (cooked) chicken thighs later.
- If you're feeling hard working, glaze the chicken thighs every 10 minutes (whilst in the oven. (I usually just wait for the chicken to finish cooking, glaze with the (cooked) sauce, and serve with white rice and green veg.
- Serve with rice and vegetables.
Notes
Storage: Store leftovers in the fridge for 2 days in an airtight container.
Note: the nutritional information is an estimate automatically calculated using the WPRM recipe maker and I am not responsible for its veracity.
Nutrition
Calories: 315kcalCarbohydrates: 60gProtein: 4gFat: 5gSaturated Fat: 1gPolyunsaturated Fat: 2gMonounsaturated Fat: 2gCholesterol: 1mgSodium: 5023mgPotassium: 162mgFiber: 1gSugar: 50gVitamin A: 3IUVitamin C: 3mgCalcium: 56mgIron: 1mg
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