This is the sort of dinner that saves your bum on a busy night. You mix soy sauce and brown sugar in a bowl, tip chicken pieces and green beans onto a lined tray, pour the sauce over the lot and put it in the oven. That’s it until it comes out sticky.
Four ingredients plus pepper, and the oven does 45 minutes of the work while you do something else. The sugar and soy cook down into a glaze that clings to the chicken, and the beans go soft underneath and pick up all of it.
Mixed chicken pieces are what makes it cheap. Drumsticks and thighs on the bone cost a fraction of breast, and they’re the cuts that stay juicy through a long bake.
Why You’ll Love It
It’s four ingredients and one tray, so the washing up is a tray and a bowl. Chicken pieces on the bone are one of the cheapest ways to feed four people. It’s almost entirely hands-off, which matters on the nights when you’ve got nothing left. And it’s sticky and a bit sweet, which is usually the version of chicken that kids will actually eat without negotiating.
The Shortcut That Makes It Work
There’s no marinating and no browning. Plenty of sticky chicken recipes want the chicken sitting in the sauce for a few hours first, or browned in a pan before it goes in the oven. Here you mix three things in a bowl, pour, and bake. The 45 minutes in the oven does the same job the marinade would have, because the sauce reduces around the chicken as it cooks and ends up thicker and stickier than a marinade ever gets.
Handy Tips
Line the tray, and don’t skip it. Brown sugar and soy will weld themselves to bare metal and you’ll be scrubbing it all night. Give the pieces a bit of room rather than piling them on top of each other, or they steam instead of going sticky. Spoon the sauce back over the chicken about halfway through, which is the difference between a glaze on top and a glaze all over. If the beans look like they’re catching, push them under the chicken pieces for the last stretch.
Make It Your Way
This scales straight up for a crowd. Double everything across two trays rather than crowding one, and it cooks in the same time. You can also make it more of a full meal by adding halved baby potatoes to the tray at the start, though they’ll want the full 45 minutes and a bit of the sauce spooned over them too.
What To Serve With It
Plain steamed rice is the obvious one, because the sauce needs something to soak into. Noodles work just as well. If you want another vegetable, steamed broccoli or bok choy alongside is plenty.
Leftovers / How to Store It
Let it cool, then keep the chicken and beans in a container in the fridge for up to 3 days. The sauce thickens up in the cold and goes almost jammy, which is normal. Reheat it in the oven or an air fryer rather than the microwave if you can, since that keeps the skin from going soft. Pull the meat off the bones first and it makes a very good rice bowl the next day.
Other Recipes You’ll Love
Sticky Soy Chicken and Green Beans
Prep Time 10 minutes 
Cook Time
45 minutes 
Total Time 55 minutes 
Ingredients
Method
- Mix the soy sauce, brown sugar and lots of black pepper in a bowl and mix until the sugar starts to dissolve.
- Line your baking tray and place the green beans and the chicken pieces.
- Pour the soy mixture across the chicken so everything gets lovely and sticky.
- Bake the chicken at 200°C fan-forced for 40-45 minutes.
- Serve it hot.
Nutrition
Tried this recipe?
Let us know how it was!
Don’t Forget to Share
Tried my Sticky Soy Chicken and Green Beans recipe? I’d love to see how you used it. Snap a pic and tag me on Instagram @steph_cooks_stuff, I love seeing your creations.
FAQs
Can I use chicken breast instead of pieces?
You can, but it cooks a lot faster than pieces on the bone and it dries out if you give it the full time. Start checking at around 25 minutes. Thigh fillets are the better swap if you want something boneless.
Can I use frozen green beans?
Yes, and they don’t need thawing first. They’ll release a bit more water onto the tray, so the sauce may not go quite as thick.
Is the sauce very salty?
It’s a full cup of soy sauce, so yes, it’s on the salty side. That’s where the sticky glaze comes from, so it’s doing a job rather than just seasoning. Serve it with plain rice and don’t add any more salt at the table, and it balances out.
Unfortunately it wasn’t sticky at all and just extremely salty. I used premium soy sauce so not sure if this is a more salty product than normal soy sauce?
Premium soy isn’t really any saltier than standard, salt is just one of those things people land differently on. Try salt-reduced next time. The sauce thickens as it bakes down, so give it the full 45 minutes. Cheers Steph