Sticky Guinness Chicken
Want some finger lickin' good sticky chicken? This Guinness Chicken has your name on it! Chicken thighs are first seared light brown then cooked in an easy to make sticky sauce made with your favorite Irish beer. It's my newest favorite chicken recipe!

Sticky Guinness Chicken for the win!
Those mega glazed covered chicken thighs are one of the best things ever. Sweet, sticky, and full of our fav Irish beer. St. Patrick's Day is just around the corner and pouring Guinness into just about everything seems like the right thing to do.
Why you need this Sticky Guinness Chicken:
- Sticky sauce is everything.
- Beer. Yes, beer.
- It's a little like Guinness BBQ sauce which is extra awesome because summer is still a ways off and I'm big time craving smoky, delicious, grilled flavored anything.
- Quick and easy dinner calling your name over here! 35 mins, start to finish. With a bunch of hands off time so you can throw some potatoes in a pot and some salad in a bowl.
- Sticky sauce mention #2. You guys, it's just too good not to mention again.

Your Sticky Guinness Chicken Game Plan
1. Boil the Guinness, ketchup, honey, balsamic, Dijon, and garlic until it starts to thicken.
2. Brown the chicken while the sauce is boiling.
3. Pour the sticky Guinness sauce over the chicken and let it bubble away until it is nice and thick and the chicken is cooked.
4. EAT!
Do you see how easy that was?

If you can't get enough Guinness recipes, make sure to check out these:
- One Bowl Guinness Chocolate Cake with Irish Whiskey Frosting
- Chocolate Guinness Crock Pot Beef Stew
- Guinness Spiked Irish Chili
And don't forget about these St. Patty's Day recipes!
- Shamrock Sugar Cookies with All-Natural Green Frosting
- Whole Wheat Irish Soda Bread
- Cheesy Irish Cheddar Cauliflower

Sticky chicken recipes:
- Sweet and Sticky Mango Chutney Chicken
- Sticky Thai Peanut Chicken Wings
- Double Happiness Sticky Chinese 5-Spice Chicken
- Sweet and Sticky Pistachio Honey Chicken
- Sticky Harissa Honey Glazed Chicken
- Baked Sesame Orange Chicken

Sticky Guinness Chicken
If you love this recipe as much as we do, let us know with a 5-star rating!
Ingredients
- 1 cup Guinness
- ¼ cup each: ketchup and honey
- 2 tablespoons balsamic
- 2 teaspoons Dijon mustard
- 2 cloves garlic, minced
- 1 teaspoon oil
- 8 boneless skinless chicken thighs
Instructions
- Add the Guinness, ketchup, honey, balsamic, Dijon, and garlic to a small pot and bring to a boil over high heat. Reduce the heat and simmer for 15 minutes, or until it starts to thicken.1 cup Guinness, ¼ cup each: ketchup and honey, 2 tablespoons balsamic, 2 teaspoons Dijon mustard, 2 cloves garlic
- While the sauce is simmering, start the chicken. Heat the oil in a large frying pan over medium-high heat. Add the chicken to the pan and brown it on both sides, about 10 minutes total. Drain the fat from the pan.1 teaspoon oil, 8 boneless skinless chicken thighs
- Pour the slightly thickened Guinness sauce over the chicken and continue to cook the chicken, uncovered, turning it over a few times so the sauce coats both sides, for about 15-20 minutes, or until the sauce reduces and is thick and sticky.
Very successful St. Patrickās Day dish! took a little longer than the estimate provided, because the sauce needed more time to thicken.Ā
Can I substitute maple syrup for honey? Iām low on honey and funds! Lol
That should work just fine!
Will try to cook this recipe on this coming new year but im planning to replace the chicken with port. Any changes to suggest from the standard recipe, please let me know asap. Thank you.
Hi Rosbe. I would sear the pork chops first. Then remove them from the pan, make the glaze, then add the chops back into the pan. Basically, follow the recipe for our honey garlic pork chops but use the sauce ingredients with this Guinness chicken recipe. I hope that helps!
Hi Kristen, I wld love to make this Guiness with chicken wings instead of the thighs. Does the recipe need any additions and/or deletions. Ty!
Chicken wings do need to be cooked differently. Here’s what I would do. Start with this recipe here: https://www.theendlessmeal.com/sweet-and-sticky-honey-garlic-chicken-wings/
But instead of making the honey garlic sauce, make the sticky Guinness sauce and pour it over the chicken when the wings recipe says to add the honey garlic sauce. You may have more sauce than you need but you can decide how much to use. š
Hi, how long would the sauce keep please in an air tight jar? Iād love to make some and send it down for my dad (he lives in the south of England and Iām in the north of Scotland) so it would be in transit for a couple of days.
Thanks in advance ?
I’ve never tried making and storing the sauce, so I can’t say for sure. The ingredients are similar to a bbq sauce though, and that would last for about 2 weeks in the fridge. If you’re concerned, you could always can it in a water bath, and then you’ll know it’s shelf-stable for a long time!
Hoping you can tell me how much of the alcohol will burn out of this sauce. Ā This looks delicious but I donāt want to make it and feed it to the family with my toddler unless the alcohol will be removed during the cooking process. Ā Thank you in advance for any help you are able to provide me with.
Alcohol generally burns off when cooking. It a recipe that I serve to my toddler, if that helps!
Delicious, quick and easy
So happy to hear that the recipe was a hit!
I, too, had some difficulty getting the sauce to thicken while simmering in the pot. However, once we poured it over the chicken on higher heat it did reduce down and thicken a bit. It never got to “sticky,” but I am going to blame that on my error somewhere. We used chicken breasts instead of thighs, and due to the high heat cooking with the sauce some parts of it looked burned, but the taste was still wonderful. I may need to experiment some more in my skill with this recipe, but it’s still a wonderful recipe! We may add 1 tbsp of brown sugar to the sauce next time (just for preference). Half the fun of cooking is the experimentation! Thanks for providing such a great recipe for us to use up some Guinness.
I’m so happy you liked the recipe! My guess is the chicken breasts are what caused the sauce to not thicken as much. The often release more liquid than thighs when cooking. š
Made this recipe exactly as it and it was a hige hit. The sweet glaze was amazing. Everyone wanted more!
So happy you liked it!!
Mine didnāt get thick no matter how long I boiled it before or with the chicken. What did I do wrong or what can I do to thicken it next time. Husband loved the taste but it was more like thin soup than a thick sauce.
How long did you boil it for? Once the liquid evaporated (from boiling it) then it has to thicken. If a sauce is taking longer than I think it should I’ll sometimes increase then heat so it rapid boils and then it’s usually only a minute or two till it thickens.
Hello, my sauce also didn’t thicken on first attempt. I ended up the next time pre-baking the chicken with salt pepper and cornstarch coating. Then dipping the chic in the sauce and baking a little further. It has a great taste!
Did she cook with a lid on, that can make a big difference.
That’s a great point! The lid needs to be off for the sauce to thicken.
Love this Recipe I did it with chicken breast and I love
I’m so happy you liked the recipe! Good call on the chicken breasts, too!
Thought I would try making this tonight, I only have skin on and bone in thighs. Will this still work?
If you want the chicken smothered in the sauce, I would pull the skin off the chicken as it won’t be nice and crispy since the chicken cooks in the sauce. Bone in is totally ok!
The other thing you could do is crisp the skin in the pan first then pour the sauce into the pan being careful not to get any on the skin. Then cook the chicken without turning it so the skin stays crispy.
Both ways would work!