Baked Honey Mustard Chicken – super easy!

Tender chicken breasts roasted in sweet and tangy honey mustard sauce, with a hint of rosemary – this recipe is perfect for an easy dinner, whether you’re serving family or guests.

Honey and mustard is a very popular combination. I love honey mustard vinaigrette; it’s perfect on almost any kind of salad. During grilling season, I often use this tasty honey mustard marinade for chicken. Creamy honey mustard dressing is always my dipping choice for chicken tenders.

Easy Honey Mustard Chicken Recipe

The sauce is amazing. Make sure you serve the extra sauce on the side, it’s pure gold. Honey provides a golden sweetness, a perfect counterpoint to zesty mustard, especially whole grain mustard with all those little round mustard seeds. Adding rosemary to this duo adds just a bit of herbal flavor, a treat for the taste buds.

This recipe is virtually fail-proof. Baked honey mustard chicken is pretty much guaranteed to turn out great every time. And everyone loves it! There’s no chopping or sautéing, no last minute prep. I love to make this baked chicken when I have guests because I can put it in the oven and pretty much forget about it.

You can make a lot. It’s easy to double or even triple the recipe if you’re having a crowd. It freezes well, too. Timing isn’t a big deal, either. If you happen to get behind in dinner prep, a little extra time in the oven isn’t going to make big difference here.

Ingredient Notes

• Boneless skinless chicken breasts – You’ll need about 2 pounds but this recipe can easily be doubled if you want to serve a crowd.
• Whole grain mustard – Look for the kind that has whole mustard seeds in it.
• Dijon mustard – Creamy Dijon rounds out the sauce.
• Honey – Sun-warmed amber nectar adds perfect sweetness.
• Olive oil – Just 2 teaspoons are all that’s needed.
• Rosemary – Dried is fine but fresh is great if you have it.
• Seasoning: Nothing fancy here, just garlic powder, salt, pepper.

How to make Honey Mustard Chicken

It doesn’t get much easier than this recipe.

Make the sauce. Mix the honey, both types of mustard, oil, rosemary, and seasonings in a small dish or measuring cup until combined.

Season the chicken. Put the chicken in a baking dish and sprinkle with salt and pepper. This ensures the chicken is well seasoned before even adding sauce.

Add sauce to the chicken and bake. Pour the sauce over the chicken, cover the pan with foil, and bake. Covering with foil for the first portion of the baking time allows the chicken to fully cook through and keeps the sauce from burning.

Baste with the sauce. After 20 minutes, remove the foil. Take a minute to spoon some of that yummy sauce on top of the chicken before returning it to the oven, no foil this time. The sauce will thicken slightly and the chicken will finish cooking.

Serve. When the chicken is done, serve it with the extra sauce. It’s irresistible!

Serving Suggestions

Oven sides: During winter months, don’t you love to have a nice casserole or roast in the oven? It warms up the house and smells so good. Put this chicken in the oven and potatoes to bake, or maybe a pan of diced sweet potatoes or crispy roasted potatoes. A whole roasted cauliflower or roasted cauliflower florets are an easy side, too. Roasted root vegetables are a perfect accompaniment to this saucy chicken, too. Try roasted whole carrots or roasted beets. There will be plenty of the honey mustard sauce to flavor those as well as the chicken.

Salads: Serve an easy arugula salad or sautéed Brussels sprouts and you’ve got yourself a bang-up dinner with very little work involved.

Recipe Variations

• Chicken: Substitute boneless skinless chicken thighs or use bone in chicken thighs or breasts, with the skin removed. Chicken tenders are good, too. Since they take less time to cook, you can make them in a skillet on the stove. Adjust the amount of sauce if you’re cooking a smaller amount of chicken. There is plenty of sauce so if you happen to have a somewhat larger amount of chicken, you probably won’t need to adjust the ingredients.
• Mustard: Experiment with different types of mustard (and there are lots to choose from!).
• Garlic: Increase or omit the garlic powder, or use fresh garlic.
• Replace the rosemary with thyme or sage.
• Like hot honey? Try hot honey chicken sheet pan dinner with Brussels sprouts and sweet potatoes.
• Rather have plain roasted chicken? Try roasted bone-in chicken breasts. They are juicy, economical, and so versatile.
• Looking for a faster chicken recipe? We love this cranberry chicken!

Make-Ahead Ideas

To make ahead, simply prepare the dish for baking, cover, and refrigerate up to 8 hours until ready to bake. Take chicken out of the refrigerator to warm up a bit while the oven preheats.

Storage & Reheating Tips

Refrigerate/Freeze: Leftover honey mustard chicken is really great. Because of the sauce, it doesn’t dry out in the fridge. I like to sometimes dice it or thinly slice it when storing, because then it really soaks up the sauce. Store tightly covered for up to 3 days in the fridge or a month in the freezer.

Reheat: Put chicken and sauce in a baking dish and heat for 15 minutes at 350°F or until heated through. Honey mustard chicken can be easily be reheated in a skillet on the stove over medium-low heat, too. We don’t recommend the microwave for reheating chicken as it tends to dry it out and make it tough.

Leftover Love

Make a pulled chicken sandwich. Shred leftover chicken and heat it with leftover sauce. Serve on a bun.