Sticky Chicken

An easy chicken recipe the whole family will love.

Tangy Chicken

Anyone who has followed me for a while knows how much I love chicken. For years I’ve been saying that I was a real “cheap date” because I’d rather have chicken than steak.

This sticky chicken recipe is one of the reasons I love chicken so much. This is really tasty and it uses ingredients you probably have on hand.

The flavor of the marinade gets deep into the chicken. You will be able to taste it’s fine and tangy flavor all the way down to the bone. That’s achieved with a very simple step that I’m going to recommend for any chicken that has to marinate.

Sticky Chicken Uses Simple Ingredients

As I mentioned before, this chicken recipe uses very basic ingredients that you likely have on hand already.

The only one you may have to buy would be the whole-grain mustard. I would imagine that you could just substitute plain old Dijon mustard for it, but the whole-grain variety has a much better flavor. I think you’ll like it so much that it will become a staple too.

Otherwise everything else is pretty common. I’m sure most folks have ketchup, honey and everything else right on their shelves.

Marinate: The Longer The Better

While the original recipe gives a minimum time of 30 minutes to let the chicken sit, the longer you leave it in the marinade, the better it will taste.

Right now I am going to recommend prepping this the day before. Pop it in the fridge and let it sit until you cook it the next day. You will not be sorry.

Now, the secret to getting the flavor throughout the meat is not only the longer period of marinating. This sticky chicken uses parts that are skin-on. In order to let the flavor migrate through the whole piece is to make shallow slashes in the skin. The cuts should be less than 1/4-inch deep. They must go through the skin and a little bit down into the meat itself. This is something I haven’t done before, but it’s something I intend to do from now on when I marinate any skin-on poultry.

The Recipe

Print Recipe

Sticky Chicken

Marinate this chicken overnight for fullest flavor

Prep Time15 mins

Cook Time35 mins

Marinate8 hrs

Total Time8 hrs 50 mins

Course: Main, Main Course

Cuisine: American

Keyword: chicken, chicken recipe, easy recipe

Servings: 6

Calories: 331kcal

Ingredients

• 6 whole chicken legs or combination of thighs and drums

Marinade:

• 6 tbs ketchup
• 2 tbs tomato paste
• 2 tbs whole-grain dijon mustard
• 3 tbs Worcestershire sauce
• 2 tbs honey
• 1 clove garlic crushed

Instructions

• Mix all marinade ingredients in a small bowl.
• Take a sharp knife and make a couple of shallow slits on the top of the chicken legs (on the skin side). Place chicken in a large zipper freezer bag and pour in the marinade. Massage bag so marinade evenly coats chicken. Refrigerate at least 4 hours, but preferably overnight.
• Preheat oven to 425 degrees F (400 if using a convection oven). Line a large baking sheet with parchment paper.
• Place chicken on prepared pan, skin side up, and spoon remaining marinade evenly over chicken.
• Bake for 30-35 minutes, until chicken is brown (it will singe around the edges, that’s what you want) and the juices run clear—165 degrees internally.