Honey Garlic Chicken Breast

Honey Garlic Chicken is an epic 12 minute chicken breast recipe with a magic 5 ingredient Honey Garlic Sauce! This is a terrific back pocket quick dinner idea for busy nights that’s made with pantry staples. It’s quite amazing how so few ingredients can transform into such a tasty sauce for chicken!

BONUS: This can be made with any protein – beef, pork, lamb, shrimp/prawns, even tofu!

Honey Garlic Chicken Breast

This sauce for chicken breast is a variation of my Honey Garlic Salmon which has been popular with readers for many years.

If I were ever to do a summary of my top 5 Most Used Sauces, Honey Garlic Sauce would probably be right at the top of the list. I love it because it requires so few ingredients that are pantry staples, and when simmered with a seared protein in a skillet so it becomes all bubbly and syrupy…. oh WOW.

It’s just DA BOMB!!! ( <– Who talks like that at my age???! I do. Only in extenuating circumstances. Excitement over crazy delicious secret-weapon sauce falls under this category. 😎)

Terrific quick chicken breast recipe

Though I personally have a preference for chicken thighs over chicken breast (better flavour, juicier!), I find myself putting chicken breast in my shopping trolley week after week.

Thus over the years, I’ve built up a wide variety of quick and easy chicken breast recipes – and this Honey Garlic Chicken is one of my favourite quick dinners that I find myself making over and over again.

What you need

See? I told you that you’d have everything! 😉

How to make Honey Garlic Chicken Breast

• Split chicken breast in half – so 2 breasts makes 4 pieces;
• Dust chicken with flour (gives the chicken a slight crust so the sauce clings to it better!)
• Sear chicken, add butter, garlic, vinegar, soy sauce, honey.
• Simmer until the sauce thickens. Turn chicken to coat in the amazing honey garlic sauce.

And THAT’S IT!

Notice how the sauce is clinging to the surface? That’s because we dusted the chicken with flour so when it’s pan fried, it creates a crust.

What to serve with Honey Garlic Chicken Breast

There’s enough sauce to drizzle over veggies and soak into rice or whatever you serve it with. The flavour is strong enough such that you don’t need loads – a bit goes a long way!

It’s pictured above with Cauliflower Rice (tossed with a squeeze of lemon, parsley, salt and pepper) with Cucumber Salad on the side.

Even though it’s got soy sauce in the Honey Garlic Sauce, this doesn’t taste specifically Asian-y. But it’s versatile enough that it will go just as well with Fried Rice as it will with a Macaroni Salad or even Mac and Cheese. Yes really! Try it once and you’ll understand (it only takes 12 minutes, you’ve got the time!!) – Nagi x

Honey Garlic Chicken breast recipe
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Honey Garlic Chicken Breast

Author: Nagi

Prep: 4 mins

Cook: 8 mins

Total: 12 mins

Mains

Western

4.98 from 196 votes

Servings4

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Recipe video above. An incredible quick and easy way to serve up chicken breast - seared then simmered in the most amazing honey garlic sauce. Don't be deceived by the short ingredient list! It's absolutely worth the extra step of dusting the chicken with flour because it creates a crust for the sauce to cling to. BONUS: See notes for how to make this with any protein - beef, pork, lamb, prawns/shrimp, tofu!

Ingredients

• 500g / 1 lb chicken breast , boneless and skinless (2 pieces)
• Salt and pepper
• 1/4 cup (60g) flour (Note 1)
• 3.5 tbsp (50g) unsalted butter (or 2 1/2 tbsp olive oil)
• 2 garlic cloves , minced
• 1.5 tbsp apple cider vinegar (or white or other clear vinegar)
• 1 tbsp soy sauce , light or all purpose (Note 2)
• 1/3 cup (90g) honey (or maple syrup)

Instructions

• Cut the breasts in half horizontally to create 4 steaks in total. Sprinkle each side with salt and pepper.
• Place flour in a shallow dish. Coat chicken in flour and shake off excess.
• Melt most of the butter in a large skillet over high heat - hold back about 1 tsp for later.
• Place chicken in skillet and cook for 2 - 3 minutes until golden. Turn and cook the other side for 1 minute.
• Turn heat down slightly to medium high.
• Make a bit of room in the pan and add garlic and top with remaining dab of butter. Stir garlic briefly once butter melts.
• Add vinegar, soy sauce and honey. Stir / shake pan to combine. Bring sauce to simmer, then simmer for 1 minute or until slightly thickened.
• Turn chicken to coat in sauce. If the sauce gets too thick, add a touch of water and stir.
• Remove from stove immediately. Place chicken on plates and drizzle over remaining sauce.

Recipe Notes:

1. Gluten free - use cornflour / cornstarch instead. It won't brown quite as evenly but once covered in sauce, you won't know the difference.

2. Soy Sauce - Light or all purpose soy sauce is suitable for this recipe. I don't recommend using Dark Soy Sauce (flavour will dominate, bottle label will say if it is Dark Soy Sauce).

3. Other proteins: This sauce is ideal to use for any protein that is suitable for searing in a pan. Use chops, steaks, cutlets! Follow the recipe as written, including dusting the protein with flour. Just adjust the cook time - the trick is to add the garlic and other sauce ingredients before it is fully cooked through, so the meat finishes cooking as the sauce reduces down into a syrupy consistency.

Tofu - Use FIRM tofu. Cut "steaks" about 0.75cm / 1/4" thick. Pat dry, spray or rub with oil, sprinkle with salt and pepper, THEN lightly coat with flour. Coat base of skillet with oil over medium high heat, then cook tofu 1 min each side until crispy, then remove onto paper towels. Then make the sauce in a small saucepan or skillet using just 2 tbsp (30g) butter (instead of 3.5 tbsp), following recipe from Step 5. Serve with crispy tofu!

Prawns/shrimp - use large prawns (thaw, drain well and pat dry if using frozen). Lightly coat prawns with flour per recipe and sear for 1 minute on the first side, then just 30 seconds on the other side before proceeding with Step 5.

Fish - cook per recipe for chicken breast. This sauce is very, very good with fish! This is a good sauce for economical fish because it's a strong flavoured sauce. For expensive fish, I think it's better to let the flavour of the fish come through and serve with an elegant sauce like this Lemon Butter Sauce.

4. Nutrition per serving, assuming you scrape every drop of Sauce from the pan, and why wouldn't you? 🙂

Nutrition Information:

Serving: 166gCalories: 323kcal (16%)Carbohydrates: 23g (8%)Protein: 28g (56%)Fat: 13g (20%)Saturated Fat: 7g (44%)Cholesterol: 107mg (36%)Sodium: 400mg (17%)Potassium: 486mg (14%)Sugar: 21g (23%)Vitamin A: 350IU (7%)Vitamin C: 2mg (2%)Calcium: 12mg (1%)Iron: 1mg (6%)

Keywords: Baked Chicken Breast, chicken breast recipe, honey chicken, Honey Garlic Chicken, sauce for chicken

Did you make this recipe?I love hearing how you went with my recipes! Tag me on Instagram at @RecipeTinEats.

Honey Garlic Chicken breast recipe originally published February 2018, it has since been improved with new photos and video but no change to recipe (I wouldn’t dare, readers love it as it is!).

More quick and easy chicken breast recipes

Creamy Lemon Chicken Breast

Sun Dried Tomato, Spinach & Cheese Baked Stuffed Chicken Breast

Oven Baked Chicken Breast

Foolproof Poached Chicken Breast with Ginger Shallot Sauce

Chicken Cordon Bleu

Crispy Parmesan Crusted Chicken Breast

Life of Dozer

The fish down at the beach taunt Dozer endlessly, splashing around and leaping out of the water. Sometimes he’ll be in the water swimming non stop chasing fish for an hour! It’s brilliant – no effort required on my part!