Sweet Mustard Baked Chicken
The sheer simplicity and deliciousness of this meal makes this sweet mustard baked chicken worth making over and over again!
I feel like I’ve been inundated with the best recipes lately. I mean, the best! Quick, simple meals that have seriously knocked my food-loving socks off.
I don’t know what I did to deserve this kind of recipe karma, but I’m soaking it up because heaven knows, a dry spell is probably coming. And man, I hate good recipe dry spells, don’t you?
This extremely simple (probably one of the easiest baked chicken dishes in my repertoire) sweet mustard baked chicken is one of those recipes I mentioned above that’s made me weep with delight.
I’m not going to lie – I was a bit skeptical at the amount of mustard, afraid it would overwhelm everything, but I was pleasantly surprised by the outcome (I shouldn’t have been so worried knowing it came from Sally, a trusted food source, and the one who delivered big time on the chocolate quinoa cake and Big Fat Greek tacos of yesterweek).
Now, don’t get me wrong…there’s mustard here. And you can definitely taste it in the baked chicken. It is called sweet mustard chicken after all.
But the spicy, bold mustard is toned down perfectly thanks to the pure maple syrup and hint of brown sugar and complimented by the touch of vinegar.
And can we talk about the fresh rosemary for a second? Oh my holy wonderful flavor of the universe. The fresh rosemary puts this dish into a whole new category of tastiness and I really, really, really encourage you to use it (don’t make me shout here!).
I served this with mashed potatoes and fresh green beans but it would be equally fantastic with a rice pilaf or simple vegetable side dish and a green salad. Lots of options.
For the sheer simplicity and deliciousness of this meal, we will be eating this very often and with great gusto.
One Year Ago: The Best Broccoli Salad
Two Years Ago: BLT Pita Pockets
Three Years Ago: Creamy Banana Pudding Trifle
Sweet Mustard Baked Chicken
Ingredients
- ¾ cup spicy brown mustard
- ¼ cup pure maple syrup
- 2 tablespoons packed light brown sugar
- 1 tablespoon plus 2 teaspoons red wine vinegar
- 4-6 boneless skinless chicken breasts (1 1/2 to 2 pounds)
- Salt and pepper
- Fresh rosemary for garnish
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 425 degrees F. Lightly coat a 9X13-inch pan with cooking spray.
- In small bowl or liquid measuring cup, whisk together the mustard, maple syrup, brown sugar and red wine vinegar. Set aside.
- Arrange the chicken in the prepared baking dish with the chicken pieces not touching – just a little space between each. (If you are using 6 chicken breasts instead of 4, you may want to use a smaller 8X8-inch or similar-sized pan for 2 of the chicken pieces). Liberally salt and pepper both sides of each chicken breast.
- Pour the sauce mixture over the chicken, lifting the chicken here and there to allow the sauce to spread underneath the chicken. Bake for 15 minutes. Remove the pan from the oven and carefully spoon some of the sauce from the bottom of the pan onto each chicken breast. Cook for 8-12 minutes more until the sauce is bubbly and the chicken is cooked through (will register 165 on an instant read thermometer). Don’t overbake! Just get that chicken perfectly nice and juicy.
- Remove from the oven and sprinkle with fresh rosemary. Serve immediately.
Notes
Recommended Products
Recipe Source: from Sally at Good Dinner Mom
Love this recipe! All of my kids who say they despise mustard really like it too!!! Another winner and I’ve made it for a long time and realized I should write a review since I always come back to it!
Ha! I saw that I posted a review of it already. It is that good!
Delicious and so easy to make! I had Dijon mustard on hand so I used that and it worked great. I think it would be good on pork chops too.
I LOVE this recipe so much!!! Thank you for always being a trusted source of deliciousness!!!
Thanks, Jennifer!
made this tonight using trader joes spicy brow mustard and did not love it. I think maybe the trader joes brand is too strong for this recipe. As a spicy mustard its great, but not in this I think. next time i think i would do part dijon or whole grain mustard.
This one may need to go into one of those Recipes the World Forgot posts. I don’t even know how I stumbled upon it, but I’m so glad I did. Easy and delicious! Perfect for a quick weeknight meal. I served the chicken with some roasted Brussels sprouts. Rice is a must- have in order to soak up that yummy sauce! Even my picky eaters did well with this meal; I’ll definitely make it again. Thanks, Mel! I feel as if I’m always saying the same thing in my comments, but really — your recipes are the best!
I love seeing your comments, Arlene – thank you so much!
If using thin-sliced chicken breasts, would you adjust the cooking time? Thank you!
You could probably cut 2-3 minutes off the baking time.
Delicious. Family favourite.
I had to bookmark this because I remembered the recipe but forgot where I found it… I’m so glad I found it… it’s delicious and even my picky little ones liked it… it’s easy and a great recipe! Thanks.
I tired the recipe today and had three different responses to the chicken. My husband thought it was awesome; I thought it was good. My 12 year old thought it was too sweet. Half way through the cooking process, the sauce started to burn, so I turned down the temperature. Also, there really wasn’t enough sauce to take from the bottom and pour over the chicken. I went to Good Dinner Mom website and saw that after the 15 minute time, she lowered the temperature to 400 degrees, so that is what I am going to do next time. I will also double the sauce portion so I can spoon it over the chicken breasts and have it over white rice. I didn’t use the rosemary as a garnish because my husband doesn’t like it, but I am going to use it on my portion next time and see if it will kick it up a notch. Thank you!
My sweet husband made this for me tonight and it was so good! It was served over rice and I couldn’t stop myself from devouring all the rice with this delicious sauce over it, thanks for a yummy dinner!
2 things: This was the easiest chicken I have made in forever. My household devoured it and I thank you. My house is a wreck but dinner was a success. Many thanks. #2: When I clicked on the link to share it on facebook, it brought up a slightly porno picture with some questionable descriptions, though it still showed the header as this chicken recipe. Being a G rated individual, I couldn’t share it through the link, but I can obviously do it the old fashioned cut and paste way. P.S. So maybe I had 3 things: I fed the missionaries here in Germany your ridiculously famous and delicious sweet and sour chicken and they loved it so much that they a. requested the recipe and b. ate it for breakfast the next morning. Can’t beat 19 year old boys, right? Love your website and use it to feed my wee family of 6 almost every night. Thanks again!
Mel, thank you for this recipe. It was amazing! I was skeptical to try it, thought it would be kind of OK. This is so much better than it would seem to be from reading the recipe.
I’ve made this chicken twice since finding the recipe 2 weeks ago, we love it and it’s going in our ‘rotation’! Thank you!
I wonder if it would be a good freezer meal…
This chicken is amazing. I have made it several times in the past 2 months and it turns out delicious every time. The sauce is so good on rice or mashed potatoes too. The entire family likes it.
Enjoying leftovers of this for lunch right now. Loved it with a southwest spicy mustard variety. Thanks Mel!
I’ve tried different iterations of mustard oven baked chicken before. I tried one with Dijon…it was okay, but this is waaay better.
Made it tonight, and it’s a keeper!
Ooooh, I loved this! My husband did too, he said it was good to go into a rotation–Which is great because it is ridiculously easy! For others wondering…I didn’t have the EXACT ingredients on hand and it turned out delicious. I used store brand Dijon Mustard, and homemade maple syrup (just the water, white sugar, maple flavoring kind), and I didn’t have fresh rosemary on hand either but it was great without it. So yummy. Thanks for posting!
This sounds yummy…I love easy chicken recipes. I could make chicken every night and be completely content!
I made this tonight with Dijon (it was what I had), and it turned out fantastic. Thanks for another great recipe.
Made this using pork chops that I browned. Put it in the slow cooker… Oh…My…Gosh…Yummy! Thanks for the recipe!
I wanted to love this I did. It is SO EASY to make. I didn’t hate it, but I didn’t love it. Maybe I just don’t like mustard all that much. It just tasted like chicken with mustard on it…imagine that;-). P.S. I am using your recipes all weekend long because I have a visitor this weekend (YAY)!
You did it again, Mel! Another one for the “tried it…loved it” board!
This looks great!!!…..think I can sub Dijon mustard for spicy brown?? Just realized I’m out of spicy brown. Not sure how that would turn out. :-/
Hi Lauren – personally I think the Dijon mustard flavor would be too strong but that’s probably because I don’t love Dijon mustard in super huge doses. However, if you like Dijon a lot, it might be worth a try.
Sorry to ask, but what brand of spicy mustard did you use? Your sauce looks really good.
Teresa – I think the spicy brown mustard I have is Brown’s brand.
I’m glad you made it. I like mustard dressing a lot. It will be interesting to try a mustard baked chicken.
This was so easy, fast and devoured! Thanks for sharing recipes that are appealing and have ingredients that I have on hand.
Chicken was very tender but did not care for the strong mustard flavor. Just did not look as appetizing coming out of oven as I hoped. Thanks for recipe but not sure will make again:). Sure love your snicker doodle bars though!!
I just made this for dinner and it was delicious! You are such an excellent blogger and cook and wife and mom and far away friend and . . . .
We loved this. Super easy and way delish.
This is absolutely delicious! We actually grilled the chicken and used this as a glaze during the last part of the cooking time. I only made 1/4 of the sauce and still had plenty leftover doing it this way. I did forget the rosemary (and I even have it growing outside my back door!)–will definitely try it next time as I think it would take it to a whole new level!
Thanks for a great recipe!
Looks mighty good! Your blog is wonderful. Makes me want to try harder.
I couldn’t resist. I made this for dinner tonight. It was delicious. I’ll definitely be adding it to my fav chicken dishes. Thanks!
Man, I wish that was on my counter all ready for dinner tonight! scrumptious!
I think the brown sugar needs to be added to the instructions.
Thanks, Sally – I fixed it!
Can I sub that kind of mustard for any other kind.
You could certainly experiment, I haven’t subbed out the mustard for another kind.
That looks like dinner one night very soon.
Can you just come live with me and cook all my dinners? Or would that be weird…??
This sort of looks like the “man pleasing chicken” recipe I have seen floating around. I did try that recipe with the boneless chicken thighs and it was good, but I never made it again. I am going to try your version, which is slightly different, and see what happens. Yours looks much better. Thanks.
I had the same skeptic notion the first time I tried this. I thought the mustard would overpower and it would not be impressive. I mean, it’s too easy to impress, right? Wrong. I can’t count how many times my family requests this now.
Mel, I just love reading all your recipes and trying so many of them! Your recipe “stories” are the best. Love you.
That looks like my kind of chicken dish. Mustard and I are best friends. Can’t wait to give it a try.
That’s how I feel about your recipes Mel. I only recently discovered your site via Janssen’s excellent blog, Everyday Reading. She linked to your Blueberry and Coconut Cake recipe and no matter how hard I tried (I was going to watch my sugar intake starting September 1st ), I couldn’t get the cake out of my head. Finally I decided that resistance was futile and baked the cake. It was so good that I began questioning why I ever wanted to give up sugar in the first place ;)! And then I came across your Sweet & Sour Chicken! Best version ever, so thank you for sharing. Like you, I’m always searching for the ultimate version of a dish and am a big fan of ATK, so I have a feeling I’m going to come back to your site for more, a lot more 🙂 ! That reminds me – I’ve got to say a big thanks to Janssen!
Any chance that the vinegar can be left out and it still taste good?
Yes, I discovered a recipe very similar to this about 6 months ago. My whole family, even my pickiest eaters, love it. I use boneless, skinless chicken thighs and equal amounts of mustard and maple syrup (no brown sugar). Because I use frozen chicken, it cooks longer and the sauce gets kind of caramelly.
Sometimes simple is best. This chicken looks delicious!