Baked Sweet and Sour Chicken Thighs

The orange marmalade sauce is one the kids are sure to love. Don't worry, even though this recipe calls for cayenne pepper, it is not spicy at all. Of course, you can always adjust the heat to your family's taste.

The beautiful yellow, orange, and red peppers baked next to these orange-glazed chicken thighs make for an absolutely stunning dish.

Serve this simple chicken recipe with some white rice, Rice Pilaf, or mashed potatoes. Or a nice dinner salad topped with some Simple Homemade Ranch Dressing. The kids will love it, and the recipe is easy enough for beginner cooks.

This recipe for chicken with orange marmalade sauce has been adapted from one I found in Food Network magazine years ago. I simplified the cooking process and made the clean-up a lot easier. Who needs more dirty dishes?

Recipe ingredients

• Chicken Thighs - Instead of bone-in, skin-on chicken thighs, you can use chicken breast, boneless, skinless chicken thighs, or boneless skinless chicken breasts. Just remember, all these variations will cook differently. Make sure you cook the chicken to at least 165 degrees F.
• Peppers - Using a combination of red, orange, and yellow peppers add so much beautiful color to this dish. Feel free also to add green bell pepper if you like.
• Green Onions - You will be using the white and most of the green parts of the green onions during baking. Save some of the green parts for topping off the dish before serving.
• Ginger - Fresh ginger is best, but minced ginger from the jar works just fine.
• Olive Oil - Olive oil is used on the peppers before baking.

Helpful hint

For easy clean-up, line the baking sheet with aluminum foil before cooking.

How to prepare this recipe

Preheat the oven.

Slice the peppers into strips. Cut the green onions into 1 ½ to 2-inch sections. Chop some of the green onion tops and set them aside to use later.

Place the peppers and green onions on a large baking sheet. Drizzle with olive oil and mix well.

Push the peppers and onions to the outer sides of the baking sheet. Place the chicken thighs on the baking pan and lightly sprinkle everything with salt.

Mix together the ingredients to make the orange sweet and sour sauce.

Use all of the orange sweet and sauce and generously cover the chicken thighs. They are now ready to bake.

Put the chicken in the oven and cook until the temperature reaches at least 165 degrees F. I will actually cook chicken thighs to 180 to 185 before removing them from the oven.

Side note - I moved the chicken and peppers to another pan for serving and photography purposes. Chicken thighs do leave a lot of grease in the pan. If you like ( I have done this), move the chicken and peppers to paper towels to lightly drain before moving to a serving dish.

Food Safety

• Cook chicken to a minimum internal temperature of 165 degrees F. per the USDA.
• Do not use the same utensils on cooked food that previously touched raw meat.
• Wash hands after touching raw meat.
• Don't leave food sitting out at room temperature for extended periods.
• Never leave cooking food unattended.

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Thank you for stopping by and checking out my family's favorite recipes.

These Baked Sweet and Sour Chicken Thighs smelled so amazing that even my cat had to check them out. (old photo, but I had to keep it)