There is no more simple chicken recipe than Roasted Sweet Tea Chicken Thighs. Marinated overnight in prepared sweet tea, the chicken is tender and slightly sweet, cooking up with perfectly crackling skin with oven-roasting.
This delicious recipe is sponsored by Lipton, a brand I’ve loved my whole life! All opinions are my own.
My family is small and all dwell above the mid-line of the United States. Our lineage has roots in California, New York, Washington D.C., and my Grandmother attended Sweet Briar College which is as far south as our habitation has traveled.
My husband’s paternal family hails from Alabama and I was never more clear about food being love than my first visit to meet them. We eloped, my husband and I, and had a native wedding ceremony in Fiji barefoot on the beach dressed in traditional native clothing. We sent everyone a word puzzle via express mail arriving the day prior to our departure so everyone knew we were flying off to get married.
Shortly after returning my new Sister-in-Law made arrangements to fly us down to Alabama in secret to surprise my in-laws who were visiting family at the time. Meeting the extended family was like being folded into a cozy blanket that had been warmed by the sun. Their openness was the epitome of Southern hospitality. And there was the food.
My husband’s Aunt Mayblane (pronounces ‘may-bleen’) insisted on cooking a traditional Southern meal including everyone’s favorite dishes. It was like Thanksgiving for the preparation and attention to detail. She pulled out a huge fryer for hush puppies and catfish. There was fried chicken, okra, cornbread and macaroni and cheese. The bounty of her enormous garden added fresh tomatoes, corn and pink-eye purple hull field peas to the mix. The sweet tea flowed and it really was a feast to behold.
Many of the dishes I had not tried before and was thrilled to have a chance to have them homemade. Mayblane was perhaps the warmest, most loving person I’d ever met and it is a memory I’ve carried with me ever since.
We too in our married life have lived north. California, Northern Virginia (outside Washington DC) and Colorado. Our families are spread far and wide, and we don’t get together nearly as often as we’d like to. Due to constraints of time and obligations, I have personally not been able to go back to Alabama to visit since my children were small.
Just as Mayblane showed her love through her food, we feel love through little glimpses of her food from afar. She’s been on my mind lately and though I am now gluten-free, don’t have a hush puppy fryer and fried chicken probably is a bit more than my waistline could manage right now, I have reimagined her gracious hospitality in my own spin of Roasted Sweet Tea Chicken Thighs.
It’s a simple recipe with only two ingredients (outside of the salt and pepper). Marinating the chicken thighs in prepared sweet tea tenderizes the chicken and oven-roasting produces the crackling skin of the chicken thighs we all love. I would serve it with traditional mashed potatoes and my latest favorite fall salad.
The power of food memories and associations are truly binding. We drink iced tea with dinner too which always makes me think of our family in the south, especially when having sweet tea.
Regardless of whether you have southern connections or not, I think you’ll love this Roasted Sweet Tea Chicken Thigh recipe. The preparation could not easier; combine the chicken and sweet tea in a gallon zipper plastic bag and allow it to marinate for 24 hours. That’s it!
Consider serving this with an Arnold Palmer drink!
Recipe
Roasted Sweet Tea Chicken Thighs
Ingredients
- 8 Chicken Thighs (bone in, skin on) (approximately 3-4 pounds if larger thighs)
- 4 cups Lipton prepared Sweet Tea (approximately 4 cups; enough to cover the chicken thighs)
- ¼ teaspoon Kosher Salt
- ¼ teaspoon Garlic Salt
- Freshly ground Black Pepper
Instructions
- Put the chicken thighs in a gallon plastic zipper bag and cover with prepared sweet tea. Seal, squeezing out as much air as possible. Tip: I either leave the bag in a mixing bowl in the refrigerator or double bag it to avoid potential spills.
- After 24 hours: Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Spray the bottom of a baking dish with non-stick spray. Remove the chicken thighs from the sweet tea, allowing excess liquid to drain off. Place chicken thighs in the prepared baking pan.
- Sprinkle the chicken thighs with the kosher salt, garlic salt and pepper and bake for 40-45 minutes. Internal temperature of the chicken thighs should be 165 degrees and the juices will run clear when fully cooked.
Theresa says
You are making me long for home down south. I spent many of my childhood years in Tennessee and sweet tea is our jam! I love how you used it as a marinade. The chicken looks so yummy!
Melisasource says
This sounds and looks delicious! I will have to try this for sure.
Susan says
Sounds wonderful. Except that I would need to make it with decaf tea, if such a thing exists in the ready-made state. Even though I lived in the south (Richmond, VA) for more than 20 years, the closest I got to sweet tea was having a couple of friends from Mississippi who drank it.
Brianne says
This looks so yummy! I love getting sweet tea down south, I’m going to try out this recipe!
Pam says
There was a restaurant in Gulf Shores that made sweet tea brined chicken. It’s so good now I can make something similar at home!
Toni Dash says
Really? I’m curious how they make it. Usually a brine implied salt which in turn hold moisture in the meat. I’ve never had anything like this so no ability to compare; would be interested in what you think if you make it Pam!
Crystal says
That does sound like a match made in heaven, sweet tea & chicken. I love sweet tea!
Kelly Hutchinson says
I love chicken thighs! They are so much more flavorful than a breast is. I would have never thought to add sweet tea to it! Genius!
Shell says
This sounds amazing! I just pinned it to try soon.
kristin says
This sounds so good. I’d love to go visit the south, the food sounds so good.
Stacie @ Divine Lifestyle says
That sound so good! I can’t believe I’ve lived in Georgia for so long, and never tried this. Chicken and sweat tea are southern jams!