Honey Garlic Chicken

Honey Garlic Chicken is an epic 12 minute dinner with a 5 ingredient Sauce made using pantry staples. Juicy seared chicken breast smothered in the most incredible Honey Garlic Sauce, this is a brilliant back pocket recipe for busy nights!

Another addition to my 15 Minute Meals collection! This Honey Garlic Chicken is long overdue. The Sauce in this is a variation of my Honey Garlic Salmon which I first shared way back when I started this website, and similar to the dipping sauce for the ever popular Truly Crispy Baked Wings (no false promises here, these truly come out like they were fried!).

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.😎)

One of the reasons I think you will grow to love this recipe as much as I do is how forgiving it is. Though the recipe reads with measurements of a tablespoon of this and that, this is one where approximation works just fine. OK, so if you accidentally pour in half a bottle of soy sauce, then it will be a tad salty. 😂 But as long as it’s roughly the amount called for in the recipe, it’s going to be delish, and also it’s easy to adjust the sauce right at the end if you think the balance is out.

So unlike many recipes where I measure out the sauce ingredients before I turn on the stove, for this one I just put the bottles on the bench and measure the ingredients out straight into the pan. With the honey, I don’t even bother doing that – I squeeze it straight into the pan.

I hate measuring honey out in cups. It’s so irritating to scrape it all out neatly – the only way is to use a rubber spatula. Or spray the cup with oil, then the honey will slip right out.

Or just be lazy like me and squeeze straight into the pan. 😇

The chicken in this recipe is dusted with flour before searing, and while it is an optional step, I really do encourage you to do this if you can muster the effort. I’ve tried it with and without, and for a sauce this good, it’s worth doing it because the flour creates a crust that the sauce can cling to, so the chicken is smothered with the sauce. If you just sear plain chicken, the sauce just sort of slips off – which is fine, you can scoop it up with each bite. But it’s even better when the sauce is clinging to the chicken!

There’s enough Honey Garlic Sauce to squidge your veggies into as well as drizzling over your rice or mopping up with a bread roll. For a super quick meal, rinse some broccolini or other similar shaped vegetables under the tap, shake off excess water but don’t dry, wrap in cling wrap and microwave for 1 1/2 minutes. Remove using tea towels and unwrap carefully – don’t leave it in the microwave because it will keep cooking.

My anti-cooking grandmother taught me this lazy veggie steaming trick. I know it’s not exactly environmentally friendly, but this no-washing-up perfectly steamed vegetables method is used frequently in the RecipeTin kitchen! – Nagi x

4.97 from 33 votes

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Honey Garlic Chicken Breast

Prep Time

4 mins

Cook Time

8 mins

Total Time

12 mins

 

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. Recipe VIDEO below.

Servings: 4

Calories: 377 kcal

Author: Nagi

Ingredients

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

Instructions

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

9. Turn chicken to coat in sauce. If the sauce gets too thick, add a touch of water and stir.

10. Remove from stove immediately. Place chicken on plates and drizzle over remaining sauce.

Recipe Notes

1. Make this gluten free by using cornflour / cornstarch instead. It won't brown quite as evenly but once covered in sauce, you won't know the difference.

2. Light or all purpose soy sauce is suitable for this recipe. I don't recommend using Dark Soy Sauce (flavour will dominate).

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

 WATCH HOW TO MAKE IT

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. 😎