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!
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 flour (Note 1)
- 3 1/2 tbsp (50g) unsalted butter (or 2 1/2 tbsp olive oil)
- 2 garlic cloves , minced
- 1 1/2 tbsp apple cider vinegar (or white or other clear vinegar)
- 1 tbsp soy sauce , light or all purpose (Note 2)
- 1/3 cup 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!
Perfect! Had everything on hand, made it for dinner…so good that it was requested for tonight’s dinner as well!
Love hearing that Debra!!! 🙂 N xx
I thought it was considered dangerous to your health to have cling wrap touch your food in the microwave???? Have I been following some kind of urban myth?
Hi Laura! I can imagine it’s not wise if it’s something oily like casserole topped with cheese because the cling wrap can melt, I’ve had holes melted into my cling wrap doing this and I was a bit concerned about accidentally eating bits of melted plastic! For steaming vegetables, it doesn’t get hot enough for cling wrap to melt 🙂
OMG .. I was looking for something quick an easy to make tonight, especially since I’m not feeling well, and your latest recipe came up!
How did you know? 🙂
Hope you made a speedy recovery Hedy! N x
This looks mouth-watering good! I dread scraping honey from the cups too! have to remember to spray it with oil next time. I was going to make something with chicken thighs but now I may have to try something similar to your recipe. Thanks for the inspiration!
Tip I picked up from a cooking show 🙂 Works great! N x
15 minute meals are awesome. And you’re right, honey is the worst to measure out. I hate measuring peanut butter too. It’s always a guesstimate! Any time I cook a meat with sauce, I always coat it in flour because, like you said, it really help the sauce cling on. I love the gooey factor of this honey garlic sauce!
I HEAR YOU!! PB is the worst! I’ve started weighing it, makes like so much easier!!
This looks absolutely divine and I love the tip of coating the chicken in flour first so the sauce sticks. I do love my sauce.
Thanks Marie!! 🙂 N x
Loved it! I saw this recipe this morning and had to try. It is delicious, so easy to make! Easy to follow instruction and video . Thank you!
That’s so great to hear Cheryl! So pleased you enjoyed this! N xx
dear nagi, can this recipe be adjusted to use bone in chicken pieces? or will the fact that they’ll take longer to cook put it off….
Hi NS! Just cook the chicken all the way through before adding the sauce ingredients. What I would do to speed up the cooking process is to add a splash of water into the skillet then put the lid on – using this technique, bone in thigh will cook on medium high heat in about 15 minutes 🙂 Once cooked, remove the lid and let the liquid simmer away, then when the pan is practically dry, add the sauce ingredients. 🙂
I made this for dinner tonight and my husband raved. I liked the slight crunch the flour coating gave to the chicken, but will up the soy sauce next time. I stuck with the recipe as written and the honey was a bit too dominant.
Hi Lara! So glad you both enjoyed it! Yes definitely add more soy sauce if you want a saltier flavour 🙂 N x
Hi Nagi. As usual a stellar meal! Quick, easy and delicious.
Hiiiiii Dorothy! It is so nice to see you around here again 🙂 Hugs to you and G! N x
WOW! WOW! and WOW!
So delicious, I had something else planed, but when I saw your recipe, I made a change in the menu.
It is soooo delicious. I rated this 10 stars out of 5.
Thank you,
Nicole Legault (Canada)
LOVE HEARING THAT! N xx
I luv your approach to food! Fairly new to your blog and your mom’s!
Have kept tons of recipes to “eventually” attempt 😉 when I have time.
Mahalo for your blog and videos!
Aloha,
Deanna
Aloha Deanna!!! So glad you found me and have found recipes you like!! Shout out if you have any cooking questions! N xx
Life of Dozer is BRILIANT as you said, interesting the way animals interact. At least he is getting plenty of workout. Chicken is YUMI! In summer chicken, fish is the only protein for me. Also am always coating with well seasoned flour but did not think of making sauce. GOOD ONE 99!!!! Thank you! Send us some SNOW…HA, HAAA. Be good.
You really want some SNOW??!! It’s cooooooolllld!!!!!
Yowee! I cannot wait to try this recipe! It’s fun to order this in a restaurant of course, but so perfect to make it at home rather than buying a box of frozen unidentifiable ingredients on the content list!
A friend sent me a box of oranges at Christmas this year and a jars of orange and lime flavored honeys came in the box! I see a wonderful use for them!!!
Thanks Nagi — and you gotta’ get Dozer in the movies!
Dozer in the movies! Can you imagine?? 😂
Yep…dinner right there. Thanks Nagi!
😘 N xx
I’ve been looking for a recipe that I can make for my Facebook Live and this is IT!!! I’m trying to show that you can make delicious dishes with simple ingredients and have them turn out fabulous. Of course, I’ll give my favorite Aussie blogger the credit. And Dozer is such a hoot!! I bet the fish love to tease him. Sending huge hugs!!
YESSS!!!! When are you doing it?? I wanna watch LIVE!!! N xx
I assume this is for four servings?
Yes! Sorry updating now! 🙂 N x
Winner, winner … chicken dinnner! Nagi, I just love you. You’ve kicked my home cheffing up so many notches. Making this for Valentine’s dinner tonight. My hubs will be so happy.
YOUR LUCKY HUBS!!!!!!
I will make this tonight ,looks so good. I want Dozers life and you to cook for me.
🙂 drop by any time, always got SO MUCH FOOD TO GIVE AWAY!!!
I definitely have all these ingredients in my pantry!
🙌🏻🙌🏻 N xx