Baked Boneless Chicken Thighs
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This sweet baked boneless chicken thighs recipe cooks up in less than 30 minutes! A chicken recipe that is loaded with flavor like sweetness, salty, and garlic! Learn how long to bake boneless chicken thighs for the juiciest and tender chicken dinner.
Baked Boneless Chicken Thighs
My family loves this chicken recipe, so I make it often! I love how easy and budget friendly it is. If we’re entertaining it still looks like a beautiful dish and the taste is incredible, but it’s a fraction of the price compared to chicken breast. They’re full of flavor too! By the way, if you go to the popular burrito bowl chain and get chicken, that’s chicken thighs, not chicken breast. I always make our baked chicken thighs boneless as bone-in chicken takes a bit longer to cook and it can be difficult for your guests to get the meat off the bone without using their hands.
How Long to Cook Boneless Chicken Thighs
This is really going to depend on how large or small your chicken thighs are. The larger they are the longer they’ll need to cook, smaller will cook up in less time. We usually cook for 20-25 minutes. Thighs cook up quickly at 425 degrees F, whereas a piece of meat or poultry with a bone will take a bit longer to cook. We’ve had a few emails asking us ” How Long to Cook bone in Chicken Thighs ?” and with bone-in chicken thighs, you’ll want to increase the cooking time to 35-40 minutes.
What Temperature to Cook Chicken Thighs Until
The USDA states that chicken breasts, drumsticks, thighs, and wings reach the safe minimum when the internal temperature reaches 165 degrees F. So make sure your boneless chicken thighs internal temperature is 165 degrees F.
Tip for Baking Boneless Chicken Thighs
Boneless chicken thighs are dark meat so they will definitely release a bit of fat while cooking. Also, since we’re using brown sugar it’s important to have something protecting your sheet pan. Baking boneless chicken thighs in the oven is a really easy way to prepare boneless chicken breasts. You’ll appreciate the ease of cooking and how much you can cook, great for meal planning or making a larger serving size.
Not in the mood for sweet? Sometimes I’ll make chimichurri chicken thighs but these brown sugar chicken thighs are a hit here.
AmazonBasics Silicone Baking Mat – 2 Pack
I’ve been making a ton of one sheet pan meals and I finally invest in silicone baking mats! They’re great for recipes like this baked boneless chicken thighs especially since I use brown sugar which can really stick to the baking.
When you use them there’s no need for oil! They’re non-stick, oven-safe silicone up to 480 degrees F. It fits the pan perfectly too 🙂
You can use this for making dinner or even baking cookies. I’ve been using it for chocolate as well!
I bought them and love that it’s a two pack. One for cooking dinner and the other one is for desserts and baking. 🙂
Baked Boneless Chicken Thighs are always a hit if they’re made right. Thighs are dark meat, and they’re so juicy. If you overcook it a little, you’ll be okay, whereas if you overcooked a chicken breast you’d be reaching for the water.
More boneless chicken thigh recipes
Whenever I make this my entire family gobbles it up. If you make these Baked Boneless Chicken Thighs, there will be no leftovers unless you make a big batch! Even when I make a large batch, we rarely have leftovers. The sticky sauce on top is so delicious, and it’s perfect with white rice and a green veggie.
This chicken has almost an Asian flavor my husband said, but it doesn’t have all the salt, just sugar. 😉
Baked Boneless Chicken Thighs Recipe
Baked Boneless Chicken Thighs (sweet)
Ingredients
- 8 boneless skinless chicken thighs
- 1/3 cup brown sugar
- 1 teaspoon garlic powder
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1/2-1 teaspoon parsley
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 425 degrees.
- Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper.
- In a small bowl mix the brown sugar, garlic, salt, and parsley.
- Place the chicken onto the lined cookie sheet and sprinkle with the sugar mixture.
- Put the chicken into the oven and cook for 20-25 minutes, or until done.
This is delicious…my only tip is…fix it and put it in the oven immediately after applying the topping. I was trying to be proactive and fix the chicken ahead of time and put it in the fridge with the topping already on it. Well, it sort of melted into the chicken in the refrigerator, and when I baked it, it tended to burn a bit. This is one of my favorite recipes…lesson learned. Hope to help others with this info. My fault.
Oh no, sorry that happened, Ellen! This is definitely a recipe where you want to sprinkle it onto the chicken right before you bake. 🙂 Glad you enjoyed the recipe!!
In love with this very simple recipe! So much flavor and juicy. I did food prep for my husband’s work lunches so I can’t wait for him to try it. I set it for 21 minutes and turned off the oven and accidently left in the for about another 5-7 minutes and they still came out juicy
So glad you like it, thanks!! It’s such an easy recipe and thighs are definitely okay to be a little overcooked without getting dry. 🙂
Delishous. I cut the recipe in half since I just cooked them for myself. I had leftovers so the next day I sauted some onions, chopped the chicken into chunks and threw them into a flour tortilla. Delishous again. Thank you for the recipe.
Thanks so much for commenting! 🙂 I’m so glad you enjoyed our recipe, Cindy!
Can I use aluminum foil to line the sheet or does it need to be parchment paper?
Yes, you could use aluminum foil if that’s what you use. 🙂
These are FANTASTIC! Everyone who got to try them (made them at lunch, so the entire family was not here) loved them. My son wanted to know what I did, so we are making them together tonight for dinner so everyone gets some. Will serve with buttered noodles and sauteed green beans.
Aww, thank you so much for the comment and so glad you enjoyed! My daughter loves making them with me and they’re her favorite too! Hope you guys have fun making and enjoying them! 🙂
WOW!
Thank you!!
I followed the recipe exactly, but make the mistake of walking away from the kitchen. Unfortunately, when the buzzer went off after 20 minutes, the brown sugar was hopelessly burnt and blackened all over the chicken and lined pan. I sprinkled the brown sugar on just before popping in the oven. What did I do wrong??
Oh no, Mary! I’m so sorry. We make this recipe at least once a week, so my thought is your oven may cook hotter than others. I’ve had this happen in my previous house. Because of that, I use an oven thermometer to make sure that my oven temperature is always accurate, especially with me sharing recipes. 🙂
If it’s accurate you may have had super tiny chicken thighs, but I don’t think that was it. It seems like the oven cooks hotter than most. I would try 400 degrees F or 375 and see how that goes if you can’t get a thermometer. Higher temperature would definitely cause the brown sugar to burn much more quickly. Ours usually doesn’t burn as you can see in the video and picture it’s more caramelized.
Please let me know if you have anymore more issues, we definitely want to make sure you can enjoy this delicious baked chicken thigh recipe, it’s our favorite! 🙂
Made this exactly as directed and they were delicious. The grandchildren and the rest of the family devoured them.
So glad you guys enjoyed! Thanks for letting us know 🙂
Quick. Easy and tasty. Will make again.
So glad you enjoyed!
I have 2 questions-
1- Does the juice and sugar get all over when cooking with a regular cookie sheet??
2- if using a baking dish, do we need to put something in pan like oil or spray so it doesn’t stick? (I have a temptations pan)
Hi Monique!
Yes, it does spread onto the pan which is why we recommend using parchment paper or a silicone liner. The chicken thighs have their own “grease” so you shouldn’t need to add any fats or oils. Hope that helps! 🙂
I thought this would be too sweet but we loved it!
Yay! Isn’t it delicious?!
Can I use chicken breasts with this recipe? MY hubby isn’t a fan of the thighs:( I loved it with the thighs though.
Hi Jess! I recommend thinly slicing the chicken breast. We’ve also used on drumsticks too!
This was fantastic!! I did make a bit of small changes. I did not have parsley on hand and I like paprika in/on my chicken so I added a teaspoon of paprika and I didn’t have parchment paper so I used a rack that I lightly sprayed with olive oil. I loved it my husband did as well and he usually wants to drown his in barbecue saice but he said I’ll try it without and saud OMG this is so good!!! This will be a regular recipe from your table to ours.
Oooh, love the paprika addition! So glad you guys enjoyed!!
Can I use the air fryer for this instead of using the oven? How long for boneless and skinless chicken thigh? Thanks.
It could get a bit messy and sticky from the brown sugar, which is why we do it in the oven. This is how we cook chicken thighs in the air fryer though 🙂 https://www.courtneyssweets.com/air-fryer-chicken-thighs/
Just made this and was hesitant to try it but than ended up almost licking my plate! SO GOOD. Question, have you tried making this on the grill? I would think at 425 on the grill with foil it would work same way. Let me know if you have, would love to have an alt option for summer cooking
So glad you enjoyed it! I would think with tinfoil you could totally grill it, but we haven’t tried since the oven is so easy. Grilled would be fantastic!
I made this using swerve brown sugar, will definitely make again!
I see you mentioned to use Garlic. I do love garlic myself, I was just curious what type of garlic are we talking about?
Garlic Powder,
Garlic Salt,
Minced Garlic, or
Garlic Cloves
The recipe calls for garlic powder
Delish… oh so good. And very very quick. Thank you Courtney , will be on the lookout for more of your recipes.❤🙂
Aww, thank you so much, glad you enjoyed it! 🙂
Omg I did not expect this to be THIS GOOD. I normally do something different with boneless skinless thighs and wanted to try something new. I used turbadino brown sugar and followed the recipe. I used a porcelain baking dish uncovered at 425 preheated and baked for 25 minutes. I turned off the stove and let it sit for 10 minutes and made stove top stuffing. My husband took one bite and said “Whoa!”. Definitely keeping this recipe. I was afraid it would be too sweet but it surprisingly was just right and made a nice glaze!
We’re so glad you guys enjoyed our recipe! It’s definitely one of those recipes that surprise you in such a good way! It’s still one of my top favorite ways to make chicken thighs, so so good!
This looks great! Will dried parsley work?
Yes! We use dried or fresh 🙂
Thank you, undoubtedly this is the best recipe. It’s quick and easy to make, and my family loved it. Thanks for the recipe.
Is this recipe good for meal prepping? or will it not taste or reheat the same?
It’s usually good the second day, but we haven’t had it after. Always the best the first day of course.
My wife is the cook of the house, but she’s been sick. I made this tonight and she was so impressed and happy. She said it’s her new favorite! Delicious and so easy! Thank you!
I’m so glad to hear that you made this for your wife and that she loved it! What a thoughtful way to take care of her while she’s feeling under the weather. Wishing her a speedy recovery, and I’m thrilled this recipe could bring some joy to your table!