External links are opened as blank tabs in new browser window in Chrome

As unfulvio said, the issue is with google-chrome.desktop, and it is missing the %U argument .

Open file: $HOME/.local/share/applications/google-chrome.desktop

Find the line:

Exec=/opt/google/chrome/chrome

Add a space and %U:

Exec=/opt/google/chrome/chrome %U

Then save the file.

I think I solved by removing this .desktop entry:

rm $HOME/.local/share/applications/google-chrome.desktop

which had the erroneous name New Tab - Google Chrome and was responsible for the new window/tab behavior described in my original question

I had to recreate the app icon after that, though