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!
Having a delicious and amazing recipe i will made on home!
This recipe is a huge hit in my house. Do you have a variation for shrimp?
Can you make this ahead of time and keep in the oven on warm without drying out the chicken?
I used rice flour and the chicken browned up nicely. Delicious sauce-drizzled it over my rice as well.
This was so delicious! I am helping my son and daughter in law with their new baby. I didn’t know what to make. Asked google for yummy chicken this was first to appear. I was a bit nervous, it was a complete success. Plan to make again and for my hubby.
Thanks
This recipe was soooo good! I didn’t think chicken breast could be that juicy. And it was such an easy, fast recipe too! Thanks Nagi
This recipe was so good,oh it’s so yummy 😋,thank you
This was incredible. I was a bit worried about flavour, but boy it did not disappoint!! Thank you so much!
Wow! We really enjoyed this one! The sauce was perfect on the chicken. I can’t have gluten and the corn starch worked perfectly.
Easy, quick, oh so yum. Reheats beautifully without drying out. What more could you possibly want?!
This is always a hit at our house, so good and easy to make! We actually prefer chicken thighs for a really moist cut of meat and less expensive. Pork chops are also excellent. Thanks for the recipe, we love it!
Delicious! Used corn starch to lower the gluten but the soy sauce has gluten. My family loves this recipe!
MAJOR THANK YOU! My husband doesn’t like chicken…but….HOME RUN! He loved it. Easy to make and said – yes I could make a pork chop using this sauce. Easy; quick; had everything in the pantry.
Double Homer. :). xoxoxox
This is my go to when I’m tired and hungry I also added some red pepper flakes to spice things up a little
Absolutely delicious!! I could drink this sauce lol! Can’t wait to try it with Salmon and Shrimp! I followed recipe except I used HEAPING measurements! I also soaked my chicken breast in a kosher salt & water brine for for 2 hours. Enjoy!!
I can’t cook worth a darn but good golly this chicken made me feel like Gordon Ramsay!! 11/10 would serve to other people
super easy, straightforward. The guys all liked it. I wouldn’t change anything in the recipe.
I love this sauce. Although I think 1 and a half table spoon of vinegar is a bit strong I’d cut it to just one tbsp. I use it as a dip vs a sauce and makes my life so much easier when cooking chicken because it doesn’t matter if it gets cooked dry.
Have made this one a couple of times, it always goes down well. Quick to prepare, tasty, minimal ingredients. We’ve increased the sauce quantity so that it seeps into the rice/couscous/whatever side as well. Very flavoursome.
This recipe is great, simple and easy to make even, the picky eaters were please!
This recipe is great, simple and easy to make even, the picky eaters were please!
Yummy! Made this in a hurry and it was so good. Had mash potatoes with it. Just a really quick and easy week night meal. Thank you!