“Baked chicken? You really want that for dinner? But it’s soooo boring!” That’s my first thought anytime my Thai Hubby requests baked chicken for the dinner menu for next week. But he loves it because it’s protein packed and easy to take for his work lunch.
So my goal was to create a Thai baked chicken recipe that was tender, wasn’t boring, still full of flavor and fun.
It took lots of recipe testing, and research, but after giving my Thai Hubby this version he said, “Wow! That’s the best baked chicken you’ve made our whole marriage!” And that’s saying something cuz I’ve made a lot of baked chicken over the last 12 years, and now I get to share it with you dear!
How to Make Tender Baked Chicken Breast
Part of the goal was to make sure that the chicken was tender too. Because so many baked chicken recipes are dry as can be. Tricky goal!!!
I found this awesome idea at Gimme Some Oven about brining the chicken breast first (love her recipes!!), and it’s crazy how moist and tender the chicken was! And it only took 15 minutes!!
What’s the difference between brining and marinating?
I didn’t really know the difference between brining and marinating. They both make it tender, but how?
Brining breaks down the chicken on a cellular level, whoa, and that means all the way inside the breast it will be tender and keep the moisture in there, and marinating is giving flavor and tenderizing just the outside, so that’s good too, but both is even better!
If you only have time for one, I’d chose brining since it’s only 15 minutes, and makes it super tender all the way through.
Then I marinated the chicken in a typical Thai marinade like I use on my beloved Thai Roasted Turkey: Thai oyster sauce, garlic, cilantro stems, white pepper with a bonus twist of adding a Thai Sweet and Spicy Sauce because I thought it would add to the pretty, fun, give it some zing factor.
And it did!
Most Thai recipes aren’t hands off, which is fine, but during busy week nights it’s so nice when I can throw some rice in the rice cooker, and have my Thai Sweet and Spicy Chicken Breasts and some veggies baking in the oven while I’m helping my kiddos with their homework or getting all the things ready to take the kiddos to dance and soccer.
I hope it makes your week nights less cray cray to! Try it today, and share it with me on Instagram @thaifoodie! I’d love to see your version and where you are eating it!
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Thai Sweet and Spicy Baked Chicken Recipe
- Total Time: 50 minutes
- Yield: 6 1x
Description
Ready to discover the secret of how to make tender, flavorful chicken breast with a Thai spicy, sweet sauce that my Thai Hubby adores? Yay for quick, easy flavor packed baked chicken night!
Ingredients
1/2 cup-2/3 cup (if you like it extra spicy and saucey like us, do the 2/3 cup, if ya don’t do the 1/2 cup) Thai sweet chili sauce
1/4 cup Thai oyster sauce
2 tbsp minced cilantro stems
2 tsp white pepper powder
3 garlic cloves minced
6 chicken breasts
Handful of roughly chopped fresh cilantro
Optional:
A few cups of veggies that need to be used up (we like broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage, carrots, etc.)
A few tbsp of olive oil
Salt and pepper to taste
Instructions
Optional: If you want it extra tender, brine the chicken! In a large bowl, mix 4 cups of warm water with 1/4 cup of salt until dissolved, and add chicken. 15 minutes is all it takes, but feel free to do up to 6 hours.
After brining, rinse chicken throughly.
Mix all the marinade ingredients in a large bowl, and add chicken. Mix until all the chicken has marinade on it. Marinate the chicken for 20 minutes to overnight. But if you don’t have time to marinate, I feel ya! No worries, it will still taste yummy!
Preheat oven to 450 degrees.
Place chicken on a large baking sheet. Add a few tablespoons of olive oil to veggies and salt and pepper to taste until all are moist to the touch, and sprinkle around the chicken.
Bake chicken for 18-20 minutes or so until your cooking thermometer shows they are cooked to 165 degrees Fahrenheit. I like to put my oven on broil the last 4 minutes or so to make the tops a little crispy looking, but do whatever you prefer.
Before cutting it, let chicken rest about 15 minutes to let all the juices settle.
We like to serve it with the veggies and jasmine rice, and save the sauce that’s on the pan to put over the chicken and rice. Yum!!!
Enjoy!
Notes
I haven’t tried this with chicken thighs, but give it a try! I’m sure it would be even more amazing since thighs are so juicy and flavorful already!
- Prep Time: 30
- Cook Time: 20
- Category: Sheet Pan
- Method: Oven Roasted
- Cuisine: Thai
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