Baked Honey Glazed Chicken Recipe
This post may contain affiliate links. Read my disclosure policy.
These sticky honey glazed chicken drumsticks are finger-lickin’ good!! The honey-soy glaze make the drumsticks so flavorful and completely irresistible. These are amazing served with steamy white rice and vegetables. We LOVE chicken drumsticks in our house – chicken legs are inexpensive and easily feed a crowd.
These baked chicken drumsticks literally show up on the menu every other Sunday! This recipe makes a big batch of chicken legs and you can cut down the recipe for a smaller crew, but I personally always make the big pack of drumsticks and if we’re lucky enough to have leftovers, they make for a great quick lunch the next day.
Ingredients for Honey Glazed Chicken:
5 lbs chicken drumsticks
3/4 cup honey
1/2 cup soy sauce*
1/4 cup orange juice
2 Tbsp dijon mustard
4 large garlic cloves, minced or finely grated
1 Tbsp ginger, peeled and finely grated
Sesame seeds and chives for garnish, optional
*if using low sodium soy sauce, add 1 1/2 tsp salt to the recipe. Use gluten free soy sauce like Tamari to make this gluten free.
How To Make Honey Glazed Chicken Drumsticks:
1. In a small bowl, whisk together all marinade ingredients: 3/4 cup honey, 1/2 cup soy sauce, 1/4 cup orange juice, 2 Tbsp dijon mustard, 4 grated garlic cloves and 1 Tbsp grated ginger. Reserve 2/3 cup of marinade and refrigerate.
2. Place drumsticks in a large ziploc bag or food saver bag** pour remaining marinade over chicken, remove as much air from the bag as you can and seal. Refrigerate 6 hours or overnight, turning the bag a few times while marinating to disperse the marinade for best flavor.
**We are in love with our food saver – we use it to seal all kinds of bags – chips, cereal, anything inside a plastic bag really! (p.s. this is not a paid promotion, we just love this time and money-saving tool). Read more about why we think every household should have one.
3. Preheat oven to 400˚F. Place rack in center of oven. Line a rimmed baking sheet or large roasting pan with parchment***,
***Tip: Trim parchment paper to fit the pan and go up the sides but not hang over the edge (easier cleanup without the paper scorching). Make sure you line that pan or you’ll be scrubbing the caramelized honey from the pan.
4. Arrange chicken skin-side up, so chicken pieces are not touching. Add enough of the marinade to just coat the bottom of the baking pan and discard anything left in the bag. Bake at 400˚F for 25 minutes. Turn chicken over skin-side down and bake additional 20 minutes. If you want your chicken skin caramelized at the end, remove drumsticks from the oven and turn them over again (skin-side-up), and broil on high for 3-4 minutes or until skins are browned.
5. While chicken is baking, pour reserved 2/3 cup marinade into a small saucepan. Bring to a boil then reduce heat and simmer 7 minutes or until thickened and syrupy. Remove from heat and brush over baked chicken drumsticks. Garnish with sesame seeds and chopped chives if desired.
Mmmm the glaze makes the drumsticks completely irresistible!
⬇️ Print-Friendly Honey Glazed Chicken Recipe:
Baked Honey Glazed Chicken Recipe
Ingredients
- 5 lbs chicken drumsticks
- 3/4 cup honey
- 1/2 cup soy sauce*
- 1/4 cup orange juice
- 2 Tbsp dijon mustard
- 4 large garlic cloves, minced or finely grated
- 1 Tbsp ginger, peeled and finely grated
- Sesame seeds and chives for garnish, optional
Instructions
-
In a small bowl, whisk together all marinade ingredients: 3/4 cup honey, 1/2 cup soy sauce, 1/4 cup orange juice, 2 Tbsp dijon mustard, 4 grated garlic cloves and 1 Tbsp grated ginger. Reserve 2/3 cup of marinade and refrigerate.
-
Place drumsticks in a large ziploc bag or food saver bag, pour remaining marinade over chicken, remove as much air from the bag as you can and seal. Refrigerate 6 hours or overnight, turning the bag a few times while marinating to disperse the marinade for best flavor.
-
Preheat oven to 400˚F. Place rack in center of oven. Line a rimmed baking sheet or large roasting pan with parchment***,
-
Arrange chicken skin-side up, so chicken pieces are not touching. Add enough of the marinade to just coat the bottom of the baking pan and discard anything left in the bag. Bake at 400˚F for 25 minutes. Turn chicken over skin-side down and bake additional 20 minutes. If you want your chicken skin caramelized at the end, remove drumsticks from the oven and turn them over again (skin-side-up), and broil on high for 3-4 minutes or until skins are browned.
-
While chicken is baking, pour reserved 2/3 cup marinade into a small saucepan. Bring to a boil then reduce heat and simmer 7 minutes or until thickened and syrupy. Remove from heat and brush over baked chicken drumsticks. Garnish with sesame seeds and chives.
Recipe Notes
*if using low sodium soy sauce, add 1 1/2 tsp salt to the recipe. Use gluten free soy sauce like Tamari to make this gluten free.
***Tip: Trim parchment paper to fit the pan and go up the sides but not hang over the edge (easier cleanup without paper scorching). Make sure you line that pan or you'll be scrubbing the caramelized honey from the pan.
If you make this recipe, I’d love to see pics of your creations on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter! Hashtag them #natashaskitchen
Is your mouth watering yet? I’m craving these all over again! Enjoy this yummy honey glazed chicken recipe, my friends!!
Natasha Kravchuk
Hi! I'm Natasha Kravchuk. Here you'll find delicious, trusted recipes with easy step-by-step photos and videos. 
We had these tonight along with your potatoes. My hubby loved them both regardless of my lack of cooking skills. I’m definitely going to do this one again but probably without the ginger. I’m discovering that I don’t like the taste of it. I just hope that doesn’t alter the overall goodness.
Thank you for the wonderful feedback! So glad they were a hit. I think they’ll still be delicious without the ginger if you prefer. 🙂
I want to make this for a party but would like to make it the day before. Does it reheat well?
Hello Judy, I imagine that will work! You can add the sauce after the chicken drumsticks are done baking or on the day that you will serve it.
I watch most of all your cooking recipes and I have added most in my iPad for future recipes when I am cooking something. Thanks a lot Natasha’s Kitchen. Love your cooking.
That’s perfect! I hope you love every recipe that you will try, thanks for sharing.
Do you have directions on how to make these wings in the Air Fryer?
Hi Barbara, I haven’t tried that yet to advise. I imagine it would but you would have to do an experiment on the timing etc.. Please share with us how it goes if you try that!
Hi Natasha any possibility of using lemon instead of orange?
HI Michelle, I haven’t tested this with lemon but it would change the flavor profile. I’m not sure how that would meld with the rest of the ingredients.
Dear Natasha,
Thank you for sharing the excellent recipe. I have cooked this for my family and it is a real success.
You are very welcome. I am so glad your family loved it and I hope you love all the recipes that you will try!
Oh. My. Wow! Was this a hit and a half! I served this with garlic bread and corn salad and my whole family LOVED it! I doubled the quantity to 30 pieces of chicken (for a family of 8) which included thigh pieces and it still turned out amazing! Thank you SO MUCH for this recipe.
You’re welcome! I’m so glad you enjoyed this! Thank you for that great review!
Have made this before and we loved it can I use chicken thighs instead
That should work too
Hi, if I’m only making half the amount of drumsticks, do I put them in the oven the same amount of time? Thanks.
Hi Joanne, yes it should still take that amount of time to cook through although you can check it towards the end to make sure they are not over cooked.
Really wanna try this but I want to know if it was baked covered or uncovered?
We baked this uncovered. I hope you love this recipe.
You can try injecting the marinade into the meat. If you want it more flavored.
That’s a great idea. Thank you so much for sharing that with me.
Thanks Natasha for your recipe, will be trying out tonight.
Can i keep the balance sauce in the fridge for next marinating or will it turn bad?
Hi Shannon, if the sauce has touched chicken, I would discard any leftover sauce.
Thank you for your advice
I marinate overnight but the inside near the bone didn’t get the flavor. Any advice? My family still enjoyed and find it delicious esp the skin lol..thank you again for you recipe.
Hi Shannon, with skin-on chicken, it is difficult to get the flavor penetrating all the way through and that is expected even with marinating overnight.
Noted, thank you
These were excellent! I let ALL of the water drain off the chicken, then I marinated them overnight (important!). These were a huge hit for my New Year’s dinner with my family. Thanks sooo much for this recipe Natasha. So glad I found your website.
I’m so happy to hear that! Thank you for sharing your great review, Juanita!
I would l look love to have the adjustments and tips for using boneless, skinless chicken breasts or fillets.
Not a great cook, so I seek out talented cooks for best results.
Love your videos!
Hi Camille, I haven’t tested that but that may work. Here’s what one of my readers wrote for reference: “I made this using boneless Chicken breast tenders and Boneless Chicken thighs. Everybody at my Party wouldnt stop raving about the Chicken. My Friend Sai gave me the link to this recipe. Only thing i did was add more garlic to my recipe.” I hope this is helpful!
Hi! I’m new to cooking, so sorry if this question sounds dumb! When you say you add orange juice to this recipe, is it freshly squeezed orange juice, or would any random store-bought orange juice work?
I’m really excited to try this recipe!
Great question, Em. We used juice from a fresh Orange. I have in the recipe photos for reference. I hope that helps.
Do you think I could cook and then freeze this dish?
Hi Anne, I haven’t tested that to advise. If you experiment, let me know how you liked the recipe
I made this and it came out delish even though I didn’t have time to marinate the meat as instructed. I added a touch of maple syrup, used honey mustard in lieu of Dijon mustard. Sprinkled with sesame seeds and cilantro. Can’t wait to make this again the right way. I can only imagine how much more delish this will be:).
Thank you so much for sharing that with me Tish! Thank you for that great feedback!
I am going to try your recipe and tried to make chicken lollipop wrapped in bacon for appetizer if you have any appetizer recipe I would appreciate it if you can send it to me I would like to try them
Hi Valeda, you can find our favorite appetizers via this link here.
This was very delicious! I also drizzled some of the sauce on my salad and added the ginger and sesame seeds as garnish for the salad as well!
I’m so glad you enjoyed it!
These drumsticks look good I can’t wait to make them, but is it ok if I leave the mustard out or do you know what I can substitute for the mustard?
Hi T! I honestly haven’t experimented with anything else so it is difficult to make a recommendation without testing first. The only drumsticks that I have without mustard are my Mom’s chicken drumsticks
Made the honey chicken last night. Super delish. Wish I had used parchment paper as recommended but I was out. Still soaking the pan!
Really quite tasty meal. I garnish’s swith cilantro and scallions and drizzled the rice with sesame oil.
I have had great results with many of Natasha’s recipes!! So happy to have found her blog.
Hi Nikki, I’m so happy you loved the recipe!! Yes it’s definitely way easier to use the parchment paper for easy cleanup 🙂 I’ve been through the scrubbing torture so I line whenever I can 🙂
I recently tried MIKE’S HOT HONEY in a home cooking kit and it was fabulous. I bet it would be great in this recipe to replace the regular honey.
This looks wonderful! I can’t eat mustard as I am highly allergic to it. Do you have any idea what I could substitute? I always leave the mustard out of anything I make, but 2 tablespoons must add some significant flavor to it.
Hi Carol, I honestly haven’t experimented with anything else so it is difficult to make a recommendation without testing first. The only drumsticks that I have without mustard are my Mom’s chicken drumsticks 🙂
Ooh! Just looked at your Mom’s recipe! That looks wonderful! Thanks so much! I’ll be trying that recipe on Saturday!
I’m so glad you’re excited about it. I hope you love it 🙂
Hi Natasha, can I make this recipe with chicken thighs? Also we are only 2 people I need to cut the recipe to 2lbs the most and it is always hard to calculate the right amounts of ingredients.
Thank, Judith
Hi Judith! 🙂 You can definitely cut the recipe down to 2 lbs. In that case, I would do half of the marinade ingredients and just cut the rest of the recipe in half to keep it easier. We are working on adding a feature to all of our recipes where you will be able to scale the ingredients based on how many servings you want and the whole recipe ingredients list (not the instructions because that would be too complicated to do), scales down when you hover over the serving size. You can explore this feature on our most recent 35 posts. It is one post at a time so it takes some to time and we haven’t gotten to this one yet. Thanks for your patience! 🙂
Delicious all your recipe
Thank you Luz, I’m glad you’re enjoying them!
Would love to try this, but not a fan of ginger. Is there something else I could use, or would leaving it out alter the taste?
Hi Debra, we have always made this recipe with ginger and although it doesn’t have a prominent ginger flavor in the final dish, it does add great flavor to the chicken glaze. If you experiment without ginger, let me know how you like it 🙂
@Debra if you arent a fan of ginger you can try Garlic, Cilantro, Lemons, Thyme, Rosemary, a spicier mix. Pretty much anything will work. i used pickled ginger and garlic
Hi Natasha,
I do wanted to try this recipe. My only concern is what if I only have 1 to 2 hours to marinate and not 6 hours. Would you know if the taste would still be the same?
Michelle, it will tastes good after 2 hours of marinating but the marinate won’t penetrate all the way.
I have made these in my crockpot by cooking them on low for 3 hours when I knew I wouldn’t have enough time to cook them in the oven before dinner. They turned out even better than when I made them in the oven! I have made this recipe several times in the oven, after marinating drumsticks close to 24 hrs, but my husband unfortunately has found the chicken a little too dry. They were very juicy and tender in the crockpot! The skin seemed pretty crispy too though I’m sure the oven does that job better.
That is great to know and thank you for sharing the details of how you slow cooked them. You’re awesome! 🙂
how about if i wanna make this recipe a lil bit spicy? can i add chili powder or do you have any suggestion?
I just read that marinating too long (it would be over 12 hrs) tends to the dry meat out…I am going to also try your slow cooker method..thanks!!
Hi Row, I think it depends on the kind of meat and marinade you are using. We haven’t had an issue with this recipe.
I made this using boneless Chicken breast tenders and Boneless Chicken thighs. Everybody at my Party wouldnt stop raving about the Chicken. My Friend Sai gave me the link to this recipe. Only thing i did was add more garlic to my recipe.
Awesome!! I’m happy to hear the recipe is a HIT! Thanks for sharing your excellent review Jenniffer!
For the Baked Honey Glazed Chicken recipe , do u brush the heated sauce onto the chicken while it is baking or after it is done?
Eileen, I add the sauce after chicken drumsticks are done baking.
Natasha, your recipes are really really good, but the honey glazed drumsticks are on a whole different level. My family absolutely loved them. Thank you!!
You’re welcome! I’m glad to hear your family enjoys the recipe as much as mine does! Thanks for sharing Ronit!
I have made this many times it became a family favorite very quick! I do not have Orange Juice but I do have Pineapple hoping it turns out just as good this time around!
I’m glad the whole family enjoys the recipe! Please let me know how it turns out with the pineapple juice Sara!
Turned out great with the pineapple juice. Husband didn’t even know I had made the change. Thank you again for sharing!
My pleasure Sara! I’m glad to hear that! Thanks for sharing 🙂
These are SO good!! So moist and juicy! And so easy to make! Thank you for sharing this recipe! 😁
You’re welcome Julie! I’m glad to hear how much you enjoy the recipe! Thanks for sharing your fantastic review!
Low sodium soy
NATASH, I ATE SOMETHING LIKE THIS AT A MEXICON RESTRANT AND THAY USE CHICKEN BREAST.I WAS WONDERING IF I CAN USE CHICKEN BREAST WOULD IT WORK ALSO.
Hi Deloris, I haven’t tried this with chicken breast. I think the marinade would work flavor-wise but you will have to make adjustments for baking time, especially if chicken breasts are very large or small – they vary in size quite a bit.
Natasha how long would you bake chicken breast from Costco ?
Hi Natalie, I haven’t tried this recipe with chicken breast only because it would dry out by the time the sauce caramelized this way. Without testing it, I really can’t guess. Sorry I can’t be more helpful!
Natasha what happens if I skip the orange since I don’t have any on hand.?
Hi Inna, it does add an extra layer of flavor and a little acidity to help balance the flavors and make the chicken more tender. The recipe should still work without it but it’s nice if you can get it 🙂
Natasha, how necessary is the parchment paper? Really want to try this recipe because it sounds so delicious but I’m w/o the paper.
Hi Dee, it will work without parchment – you might try some heavy duty foil instead. The paper is just used to prevent ALOT of scrubbing. The honey in the recipe caramelizes and can stick to the pan badly.
I made this today and it turned out pretty good 🙂 but I have a question. The meat closer to the bone didn’t have that much of the sauce flavor in it… it felt like it was missing something maybe some salt or seasoning. The outside was really juicy and full of flavor. I also marinated it overnight about 15 hours. Do you think if I marinated it longer it would have had more flavor inside? I also used organic chicken drumsticks maybe that had something to do with it?
Hi Vicky, did you possibly use low-sodium soy sauce? You could add a little salt to the recipe if you prefer it to be a little saltier. Also, it helps to turn the bag occasionally while it is marinating to help distribute the marinade a little better. 15 hours should be plenty of marinating time.
Natasha if I forgot to reserve marinade, do you think it’s ok if I boil the marinade that chicken was marinating in and use that or is that gross?
Hi Lulu, even if you omitted the glaze at the end, you will still have enough glaze in the baking pan to take a brush and glaze it onto the chicken. That’s probably what I would do 🙂
Sounds yummy! My family prefers thighs. Can I make this using them in place of the legs?
Hi Nikki, I think that would work fine. I would recommend skin-on chicken thighs. If using boneless, they might be done a little sooner.
Thanks Natasha!
This looks delicious! I love simple one pan meals like this one and I love how brown and caramel-like this must get. On the menu for next week!
It is so EASY and delicious! Please let me know what you think Lindsay! 🙂
Looks good, Its making me get hungry now. Next on my menu. What if I don’t have on hand ginger can I just skip it? Thanks for the good recipes. Be blessed.😃💐
Hi Olga, it will still work without the ginger. You might add an extra garlic clove or two 🙂
Yum! This chicken looks super =)
Thank you Sara!! 🙂
The finished product with the glaze, sesame seeds, and chopped chives is giving me life! Makes me want to crack my screen. I’ll be trying this soonest.
Would this work with chicken wings?
Ha! I’m happy to hear that! 🙂 I think it would work fine with chicken wings – let me know if you test that out! I might just have to do that next! 😉
These drumsticks with some basmati rice…. no words! Hmmmm…
Mmmm yes! My favorite combination!! 🙂