Spicy Honey Chicken
This Spicy Honey Chicken is a dinner full of flavor, tender, and juicy. Grilled to perfection!
SPICY HONEY CHICKEN
Believe it or not I don’t sit around all day eating cookies and cake. Usually during the week we have grilled chicken or fish with veggies and then on the weekends I’m a little more flexible to what I will cook.
That’s my time to experiment and try new recipes and the only way I can stay under 500 pounds.
Lately, I’ve been trying REALLY hard to eat healthy. My friend Heidi knowing that had us over for dinner and fixed this chicken on top of a mango avocado salad with a citrus vinaigrette from Our Best Bites.
I liked it so much I made it again this week. It’s has a great blend of honey and spices that has a flavor party in your mouth.
I made it with the salad but it started raining when I tried taking a picture of it so here’s just the chicken…
OTHER RECIPES:
Spicy Honey Chicken
This Spicy Honey Chicken is full of flavor, tender, and juicy. Grilled to perfection!
Ingredients
- 8 boneless skinless chicken thighs, about 2lbs (you could use breasts as well but thighs stay more moist)
- 2 teaspoons vegetable oil
Rub:
- 2 teaspoons granulated garlic, (you can sub 1 teaspoon garlic powder here)
- 2 teaspoons chili powder
- 1/2 teaspoon onion powder
- 1/2 teaspoon coriander
- 1 teaspoon kosher salt
- 1 teaspoon cumin
- 1/2 teaspoon chipotle chili powder
Glaze:
- 1/2 cup Honey
- 1 Tablespoon Cider Vinegar
Instructions
- Combine the rub spices in bowl and mix well.
- Use kitchen shears to trim off any excess fat from the chicken pieces. Pat dry. Drizzle oil over chicken and rub in with your hands to lightly coat all the pieces. Then toss chicken with the spice rub to coat all sides well. Use your hands and get in there! Grill chicken for 3-5 minutes on each side, until cooked through.
- While chicken is cooking, warm honey in the microwave so it's not so thick. Add the vinegar and combine well. Reserve 2 Tablespoons of the honey glaze for later after the chicken has cooked to pour on right before serving. Take the rest and brush on chicken (both sides) in the final moments of grilling.
- I'm gonna warn you that this can make a hot mess, literally. It's sugar, and it's gonna drip. But the smelly smoke is worth it for a minute or two. Just leave your grill on for a few minutes after the chicken is done to burn off any excess glaze. It's totally worth it once you taste this stuff.
- If you don't have a bbq, try it on an indoor grill pan or use your broiler. Just be sure to open a window in case you burn your glaze!
Notes
Source: Our Best Bites
A hands down family favourite for years now. Found it on Pinterest and no matter who I make it for, they ALWAYS want the recipe.  It comes out perfectly every single time. I wouldn’t change a single thing about it. It’s perfect.Â
So happy to hear that!
I cheated a bit. I bought a Chipotle chili seasoning mix which is basically the same as the spices in the recipe. Then I basted it with the honey/vinegar mixture while it was cooking. It’s delicious and approved by my super picky 7 year old.
Great way of being efficient!
I just made this with chicken breast and rice!! It was sooo good!!!
Thank you!
I LOVE this recipe, my whole family loves it, my picky eater husband, son, parents, sister, everybody. I’ve made this at least 3 times now and I almost never have leftovers. Thank you for this recipe!
You’re welcome!
This is one of my go-to chicken recipes! It’s so yummy! I just throw everything in the crock pot on low and it turns out great! Thanks for the recipe!
You’re welcome!
I made this for the family tonight, and even my toddler was gobbling it down. It was a hit and will be on the list of things to make in the future. Thanks for the great recipe!
You’re welcome!
I’ve traveled in 47 countries and This is honestly the most insane chicken I’ve ever eaten. I want to thank you from the bottom of our happy little stomachs for this delight.
It also brought back pleasant memories of a chain restaurant from South Africa called Nando’s. It’s a good substitute to the flavour of their chicken but in my opinion better than theirs!!
Glad you enjoyed it!
Thanks for the awesome recipe! Mine came out just like the picture!
YUM!!! I’d love for you to share this at my Saturday Dishes Link Party! It’s a themed link up & this past weekend’s theme is Memorial Day & Grilling! Feel free to share other old or new posts that fit the theme as well if you have them! (:
http://lifeisfantasmic.blogspot.com/2014/05/saturday-dishes-memorial-day-grilling.html
He also has several attacks in which he will rain comets down.
C th k n mt s sn phm tiu biu nh sa ti tit trng 100%, sa
ti thanh trng, sa tit trng b sung vi cht ADM+ (dnh ring cho
tr em t 2 n 12 tui) vi nhiu la chn v hng v.
Please check out the other pages such as the Questions & Answers for other cheats
& hints for Surviving High School.
I adapted the recipe to bake in the oven and did wings for a small finger food party I had, best wings I ever had and the other ladies loved them too! Thank you sooo much.
Sounds gooooood!
How can I make it a little less spicy?
You could definitely cut back on the chili powder to make it less spicy.
Made this for supper last night, and it was delicious. Had to make it in the oven because its too cold to be grilling, but will definitely have to try grilling once its warm enough.
Glad you liked it!
this is straight out of cooking light. they should be credited with the recipe.
@Amy,
Shoot! I credited Our Best Bites because that’s where I got it. What issue of Cooking Light? I would love to credit the original source as well.
I just made this and it’s one of the best grilled chicken dishes I’ve ever had. Thank you!
do you know if I can use normal chipotle instead of the ´powder??? i havent seen chipotle poder down here in mexico..
I’m not sure. Do you mean liquid chipotle? It should be fine.
I made this today and it was delicious! I baked it because I live in a small apartment without a barbecue or a broiler, but it was just fine baked. To those who bake it, I recommend putting a foil sheet on the pan first, because cleaning off that sauce would be a nightmare without it! Mmm my husband and I shamelessly rubbed our fingers in the foil after cooking the chicken and licked up the sauce!
These were delicious. My husband loved the honey glaze.
I can’t stop thinking about them, even though I burned them (even before adding the honey glaze).
Next time I will grill them on foil to prevent the burning. We have a charcoal grill so it’s hard to control the heat sometimes.
We are going to try this recipe on ribs tonight!
Finding your site the same day I joined fatsecret to lose weight has been counter-productive but not all in vain. 🙂 Thanks!
Soo goodddd! thank you.
Made this tonight! Along with the mango salad and citrus vinaigrette. SO, SO GOOD! Absolutely fabulous. Will make this again and again! Thank you so much!
I was wondering, could you leave out the coriander? I have everything else needed except that.
Hailey,
Sure. I don’t think it would affect the taste that much.
This looks great! Can you put aluminum foil on the grill so it won’t make such a mess? ( Just got a new grill)
Sure! You won’t get those pretty grill marks but it should still work.
Um…this was delicious! Thank you so much for sharing. This is definitely a new favorite.
This was so delicious!!!! I did a google search for images of boneless chicken thighs and came across your image that looked oh so appealing. We grilled it up last night and had a spinach/fruit salad to go with it, it was a BIG hit in our house. Thanks for sharing!
Could I cook this on an indoor George Foreman grill? Would it come out just as good?
Sure! Why not? I think an outdoor grill has a different taste but it would still be good.
Never mind, questioned answered, just read above! LOL
Could you bake this? My husband is the man of the grill and I try not to experiment when he isn’t home hehe but I was curious if you could bake this in a pan with the glaze and rub on it? LOOKS SO YUMMY!
This was the most amazing chicken recipe I’ve ever made. Thank you!
sorry to ask, do you by any chance know such things as calories, fat. i am going to make it
without the skin…
thanks for great recipe.
I don’t know the calories and fat. Sorry!
Made this for dinner today, it was amazing! I used breasts and served three chicken over green salad with avocado and red onion. My husband had declared this it’s his new favorite chicken recipe.
Oh good!
I just made this, and it was the best chicken I have ever had, EVER! Even my super picky children raved on it and made me promise to make it again. I did it under the broiler, and it turned out perfect. Parchment paper helped with the mess. Thanks for this recipe! It’s my first visit to your blog, but I’ll be back!
This was very good. I used chicken breasts and cooked it at 350F in the oven for 30 minutes then took them out and put the glaze on for 10 minutes.
@RachAnn,
I think this would turn out in the oven on broil. Your glaze might burn on the actual pan though. Best case scenerio would be a grill pan or even placing an oven safe rack over a cookie sheet cooking the chicken on the rack. Good luck!
I want to make this so bad! How do you think it would turn out just baked in the oven? No access to a bbq and I’m nervous to broil it! If anyone can burn a house down, it’d be me!
I used chicken breasts and cooked it at 350F in the oven for 30 minutes then took them out and put the glaze and back in the oven for another 10 minutes. No smoke at all.
I made this last night for dinner and it was so good! I put the chicken breast on a healthy portion of arugula and drizzled the remaining honey/cider over top for dressing (make sure the you don’t double dip when basting the raw chicken if you do this)! Thanks for the great recipe, it will be a staple in our house.
This was delicious!!! Thanks so much for sharing it! We only put 1/2 tsp of chipotle chili powder and no regular chili powder and it was a little spicy already! Very good though!! Yum!
Family loved this! Will definitely make this again!
Best grilled chicken! Absolutely loved it! Even my boyfriend who hates any type of grilled chicken loved it and said I should make it again! 🙂
I’ve been making this since I saw it for the first time last year and it’s my favorite chicken recipe, ever. I keep this spice rub on hand all the time.
One word : GONE!! this is the first chicken recipe where my 5 kids groaned when I said it was all gone!! I usually have to force them to eat their chicken – so, thank you!
@enHeritage,
Here’s the link to the salad from Our Best Bites:
http://www.ourbestbites.com/2009/05/spicy-honey-chicken-salad/
Hello..how is that salad made please?
AWESOME!! We are so addicted to this chicken. Thank you for sharing! I keep extra rub mix in my pantry so we can make this often!!
@Anonymous,
You could pan sear it on the stove or bake it. You want the crispy edges so broiling is usually as hot as your oven gets (around 500 degrees). Your marinade might burn that hot so I might try 425 degrees for about 20 minutes on a foil lined pan because honey is a mess!
Would you be able to bake it? Or if you use your broiler what does the oven have to be on? Or will could you cook it on stove top?
That was awesome! Husband was licking his chops all through the meal saying “WOW!” Thanks. Now off to compliment Our Best Bites.
@Rachael Neal,
I don’t know. Shoot. I’m not sure if it would change the taste too much. Sorry. I would have to try it.
Silly question, but do you think I could substitute molasses or brown sugar for the honey? I don’t have any honey in the house and I REALLY want to make this for dinner. 🙂
Cillia,
Yes! You pour most of the glaze on in the last minutes of cooking but the final 2 tablespoons are for when you’ve removed the chicken from the grill and are ready to serve. Pour it on before you serve the chicken.
What do you do with the 2T of honey put aside? Do you glaze them all at the end?…Grilling now 🙂 Smells delish!
@Erin,
Yes, that means 1 tablespoon cider vinegar. I’ll change it in the recipe to make it clearer.
Is ‘cider’ referring to apple cider vinegar?
Yes, that’s what it’s referring to. Sorry if it’s confusing.
What is 1T (cider vinegar)? Does that stand for 1 tablespoon?
@Jen,
Granulated garlic is just a coarse version of garlic powder. You can substitute garlic powder for granulated garlic. Just use half the amount- so use 1 teaspoon of garlic powder in this recipe as a substitute.
Just found this on pinterest! Question for ya…..and its a stupid one…..what is granulated garlic? Is it garlic powder? Garlic salt? Sorry for my stupidity 🙂
Love it!
My goodness…this is simply wonderful and the spices and honey makes it have a sweet and spicy taste at the same time. I liked that they are baked too. I made them the other night there were no leftovers!
Made this tonight and it was delicious! Perfect sweet, spicy, and tangy flavor. It worked great over my kale salad.
We just ate this for dinner! Delicious! Thank you for the recipe 🙂
I can’t wait to try this one! Thank you!!
Making this for dinner tonight! Looks awesome!
Wow! That was delicious and so simple to make. I love that now I have all the ingredients in the house and I can make it anytime! (I found chipotle chili pepper – different name than the chipotle chili powder called for.) Mouth watering smells from the second you put it on the grill.
Yummmmmy! Just made this tonight and it was delish! I love the tangyness of the vinegar mixed with the sweetness of the honey. Great combo. Since I was cooking this inside with a grill pan I waited until it cooled off a bit before drizzling the glaze so it wouldn’t smoke up the house to bad. It worked perfectly:-) Thank you!
This is the best chicken EVER! My son literally kept saying “mmmm, so good” over and over while eating it. Thank you for sharing this recipe!
I just happened to have some chicken thighs in the freezer, wondering what the heck I going to do with them…now I know!! Thanks for sharing!!! Your blog is wonderful!!!
Had it tonight for dinner…spicier that we were expecting, but VERY yummy! Thanks for the recipe!
Wow, these look delicious. I think I’ll make these some time during the week!
Ooh this looks good. I’m going to have to try that out with the salad too!
have a great weekend.
How do you know that the chipotle chili powder in my store? hahaha j/k. This chicken looks absolutely amazing. I’m bookmarking this recipe.
this looks killer!! thanks for the recipe! i made a recipe card at my blog if you want to come snag it….just copy and paste to your pictures! then print off.
Oh, wow! This looks great! I’m always looking for a new recipe for chicken! I’m definitely going to try this!
I wish I could sit around the house all day cooking and eating…
I wish we could sit around eating cookies!
This is so good! I think I will make it again too, although my chicken looks nothing like yours. Just to clarify, yours is way prettier!! I can’t believe people can come up with this kind of stuff, it is amazing.
yummmmmm!!!
It looks so yummy! I shouldn’t look at your blog late at night when I’m thinking about a midnight snack. It makes my tummy want food even more… and my stuff isn’t nearly as exciting as yours. I have so much I need to try still. The picture alone makes my mouth water! I think I can smell it… are you next door?
Why comment if you didn’t even make it?