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
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Split chicken breast in half – so 2 breasts makes 4 pieces;
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Dust chicken with flour (gives the chicken a slight crust so the sauce clings to it better!)
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Sear chicken, add butter, garlic, vinegar, soy sauce, honey.
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Simmer until the sauce thickens. Turn chicken to coat in the amazing honey garlic sauce.
And THAT’S IT!
Want to BBQ it? Use this Grilled Honey Soy Chicken recipe instead.
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
WATCH HOW TO MAKE IT
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Honey Garlic Chicken Breast
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:
Nutrition Information:
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
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!
My children never want take out chines again! This is the third recipe I’ve cooked and none have failed and this one was outstanding. Did it with the oven cook veg and rice which is also fantastic, think I’m going to work through all your recipes! Thank you so much. Nigel R
Just wonderful! Loved the fact that it used everything I already had in my pantry. I doubled the recipe, and we’re looking forward to leftovers today. I’m excited to try your other recipes.
Winner winner chicken dinner! We brined the chicken overnight for moisture (water + 1tbsp salt in the fridge), and patted the raw chicken dry before the dry rub and flour to get a decent crust. We did about 60g of honey and I found it to be the perfect sweetness. Seriously a banger and we’ll definitely be making this again.
Easy and delicious! My family prefers over orange chicken. Now in our family dinner rotation.
Delicious. Quick and easy. Thankyou
Ooh the sauce is so good! Thinking of making the sauce for a dipping sauce for fried chicken.
I cooked it to my mother and she loved it, me too, thanks Nagi.
So quick and easy but super delicious. I have made twice in a week and can’t wait to try more of your recipes. Love the videos and tips.
Just made this and OMG so easy and so good. It’s definitely a keeper.
You know it’s good when you look over to see your husband licking his plate at the end of a meal lol. Thanks for another wonderful recipe.
Absolutely delicious and so easy to make! Very hard to please all of my 5 children but We all loved it! My daughter turned 10 today and she chose this recipe! Great choice 👌🏻 A new family fav! Thanks for sharing xx
Hi,
You say “click on the heart, to save the recipe” Where is the hart on this page that I need to click? I have lots of recipes I want to save but can never see a heart on the recipe page!
Hi Stuart, It’s at the bottom right of the page where the flying hearts usually pop out from 🙂
Only used light olive oil to cook this simple dish with and it still turned out superb. Will definitely make it again but with a little less honey for less sweetness and calories.
Really really good dish! Family loved it.
How much oil should I use? Most of the leftover sauce was just 80% oil and unusable.
OMG, I saved this recipe a while back. I needed something quick last night and thought of you recipe, my husband and I fell in love with it the chicken was so tender and moist. It as become one of my go to for a quick weeknight dinner.
Thank you so much for sharing.
Wahoo!!! That’s great Marie!! N x
Great dish, sauce is amazing and really compliments the chicken. Made it twice already and will again this weekend when brother and sister in law visits. Thanks