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!
There will be no leftovers tonight. 10/10
I increased the recipe and fed 3 familys. All of them, myself included, thought this was one of the best chicken recipes ever. The flavor was outstanding! The only change I made was replacing apple cider vinegar with rice wine vinegar because that is what I had in the house.
This is fantastic and easy to make. Everyone in my family loves it.
Just unbelievably excellent…a requested dinner at least once a week by my picky son! You make me look like a STAR to my family! Thank YOU NAGI
10/10 no alterations. Sooo good!
Oh my goodness, I made this tonight. It was absolutely delicious! I will definitely be making this again and again. So tasty!
So easy and Yummy!
Ahhhh Nagi, you’ve done it again!!
A quick, tasty, easy mid week meal that hits the spot
I tried this recipe for a week night dinner. It was easy, quick, and quite tasty. Will make again!
Tried this tonight and it turned out amazing, my wife and I don’t like chicken breast but ended up with some so we’re very happy with the outcome.
I made the honey soy chicken breast for myself as I am batching this week. I promoted it so well I have to now make it for my wife. It was delicious.
I made this recipe with 5 chicken breasts! I sliced them the way she says. I used my widest pot to sear them. I increased all of the ingredients. The only one I did not increase the same way was the olive oil. (My brother is lactose intolerant. The ghee was in the fridge and too hard to use.). I grilled the chicken in batches and the put them in a warm oven. When I had finished searing them all. I put the sauce in and then the chicken. Probably should have done that the other way but I wanted to scrape up all those delicious pieces Dutch to the pot! I turn all of them every so often. And when the sauce was thick they were done! My family all loved them! I served them with mashes potatoes and peas. I highly recommend this recipe. And obviously you can make it for a crowd. My family consists of 3 big hungry men and me!
This is a firm favourite with everyone I’ve cooked it for. Friend’s kids love it. Cooking it again tonight!!!
OHHH my gosh Nagi, this was amazing!! I haven’t cooked much chicken before ,but this was so good for a beginner and i didn’t need to buy anything I wouldn’t normally use as well. 10/10 no drama, will definitely make again:)
I made this tonight! I didn’t have any white vinegar so I used balsamic vinegar instead. It turned out delicious! I’ll have to use white vinegar next time to see what difference it makes. Thank you for the recipe! It was so easy to make! And healthy when combined with fruits and veggies! 🥗
Changed it up a little bit so it probably came out different than the original but it was still delicious & simple. Diced the chicken & added a little bit of fresh squeezed lemon.
We loved this and it was so fast and simple. I might add some red pepper flakes the next time, but it is good the way it is.
Found this recipe today and tried it. LOVED IT!!!!
Oh my goodness, Nagi does it again. The question we ask every day is “Nagi, what’s for dinner?”. And she never fails us. This was so quick and easy and tasted out of this world
Saturdays are my night to cook, so I thought that I’d give this a try. I still had a bottle of Mike’s Hot Honey so I used that instead of regular honey. The end result has a nice and well balanced flavor profile that starts off sweet, then you get the black pepper, and finishes off with little bit of heat that has a very nice aftertaste. I will suggest adding a small amount of regular honey for those who don’t have a heat tolerance. This one is a keeper for sure.