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!
Super good- added a tsp of Crushed Red Pepper and a tsp of grated fresh ginger. Definitely a keeper!!
So. Good. We decided next time to add some orange juice maybe, and some fresh ginger 🙂
I absolutely love hearing that Barb!! Thanks so much for letting me know – N x
Y.U.M!! Just had this for dinner. I doubled the sauce so we had extra for the rice. Delicious!
DELICIOUS ! Cooked this with pork chops and doubled the recipe . Followed it to the letter , (except for the meat ), and my family of 5 enjoyed it sooo much !It’s definitely. a keeper ! Thank you very much !
I LOVE hearing that Rita! Thanks so much for letting me know! N xx
So good! Made this for dinner last night. It really is a quick dish! One of our sides was carrots, so when they were cooked, I tossed them in with the chicken to get coated in the sauce. 😊 Yum!
I LOVE HEARING THAT!! *Sorry for shouting* 😂
Wow!!! So delicious and super easy, the chicken was so tender. I’m loving your recipes it’s so much better than getting takeout! I love trying your new recipes, it’s great to have more verity for dinner and the recipes are so easy to follow.
LOVE hearing that Sheree!!! So glad you enjoyed it! N x
I made this for dinner last night. So, so good. We’ll be having this again. And I’m stoked as I have leftovers for lunch. Woohoo!
LOVE hearing that Marie! So glad you enjoyed it!! N xx
It’s 1:00 p.m. here in Toronto. Just had this for lunch. Agree the sauce is the best ever. It’s a keeper.
WHOOT!!!!! So glad you enjoyed this, thanks for sharing your feedback! N xx
What an awesome recipe! Please do more of these, especially the quick veggies ones! I find I can always dear or panfry or bake a protein, but always struggle for a quick, easy and healthy veggie dish on the side 🙂
I hear you BC! I’ll try to remember! N xx PS Thinking of doing an entire post on Quick, Easy and Healthy Veggie side dishes with an A-Z index of veggies. Using techniques like I use in this one, and others like foil pack steaming in oven along side roasts etc. What do you think? 🙂 N xx
That sounds like an awesome idea!!! I’d refer back to that on a daily basis..
okay you’re basically a genius. i don’t know how i ended up on your site but i’m so glad i did. this was SO good!! i kinda burned one side of the first batch of chicken because it was on really high heat (i actually like the burned flavour so i didn’t mind too much). but besides that little hiccup, this was sooo good! i’m going to try and make 1 recipe a week from your site. so excited 🙂
– your new fan from Toronto, Canada
Love hearing that! So glad you enjoyed this Kayyayy! N xx
Hi Nagi
Wow, what flavour. The skillet didn’t need much washing up………we scraped the bottom of the skillet to get all the sauce.
Super easy, but it came out a little too sweet for me. If I make it again, I’m going to cut back on the honey a bit and up the garlic and soy sauce.
Hi!!! Glad you found this so quick to make and definitely yes cut back on the honey if you wish! 🙂 N x
Thank you so much for this recipe!
My 2 year old picky eater LOVED every bite! She finished her plate in 10 minutes! (*This has never happened before…)
And I also want to say thank you for all your other recipes. I’ve been making them for the past few months (no knead cinnamon rolls, soups, cordon bleu, etc.) All of which were instant hits! They’re all idiot-proof! And everything is so simple, but detailed. So well-written! For someone with absolutely no background in cooking, and who only started cooking when my daughter started eating solid food, I’ve actually been able to follow the recipes with relative ease. Now, I get to make a few dishes my family loves, as if I’ve been cooking for years!
Thank you so much!
Love,
The Mom of the Pickiest-Picky Eater from the Philippines!
WHOOT! Best compliments always come from the young ones! 🤣
I want to make this but only have dark soya sauce and only live in a small town so cant get any, would it work if I just used half the amount?
Hi Debra! Yep, try halving the dark soy sauce and you may need to add a pinch of salt too 🙂 N x
I LOVE this chicken. Normally, I eat dark meat since my husband dislikes dry chicken. However, last night the chicken came out so moist it was fabulous to be treated to such a succulent flavorful chicken breast. BTW, I didn’t cut chicken breasts horizontially…followed your directions other wise exactly. PERFECTION! Thanks
That’s terrific to hear Lyn! PS I hear you re: dark vs white meat 🙂 N xx
OOOOH YUMMMMMM. JUST HAD THIS FOR DINNER. SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO GOOD. EVEN MY CHICKEN HATING HUSBAND LOVED IT! THANKS NAGI.
BA HA HA! That’s just about the highest praise ever!!! 🤣
Very, very easy to make! And although I didn’t eat any (this time) my husband said it was Amazing! And he is a harsh critic lol
Thankyou Nagi, I can’t wait to explore & try more of your recipes 👍😊 They all look so Amazing & really easy to understand plus the videos are just great & very helpful.
I’m so glad you find the videos useful Cathy! It was a big leap to start having them in every post but I really thought they would make a difference 🙂 N xx
Made this for dinner tonight. Served over brown rice with a side of broccoli. It was delicious and we were practically slurping the sauce. I think next time I’ll just use chicken tenderloins. Cutting the chicken was the hardest part of this recipe. 😀
Thanks for sharing!!
Tenderloins! Why didn’t I think of that?? 🙂 N xx
Oh my – honey and garlic. Perfection! Just like that dog!!!
“That dog” is so flawed – and I love him just the way he is! 😂
Absolutely delicious, made with honey but will try with maple syrup to compare next time. Dinner on table in 15 mins and with wow factor too. Love your recipes Nagi!
Thanks Jo! This is beautiful with maple syrup, but then again, I am a massive fan of maple! N xx