By:Nagi
1,304 Comments
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 isa 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 circ*mstances. 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 Salador 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
Author: Nagi
Prep: 4 minutes mins
Cook: 8 minutes mins
Total: 12 minutes mins
Mains
Western
4.97 from 576 votes
Servings4
Tap or hover to scale
Recipe video above. 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.BONUS: See notes for how to make this with any protein – beef, pork, lamb, prawns/shrimp, tofu!
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:
1. Gluten free– use cornflour / cornstarch instead. It won’t brown quite as evenly but once covered in sauce, you won’t know the difference.
2. Soy Sauce – Light or all purpose soy sauce is suitable for this recipe. I don’t recommend using Dark Soy Sauce (flavour will dominate, bottle label will say if it is Dark Soy Sauce).
3. Other proteins:This sauce is ideal to use for any protein that is suitable for searing in a pan. Use chops, steaks, cutlets! Follow the recipe as written, including dusting the protein with flour. Just adjust the cook time – the trick is to add the garlic and other sauce ingredients before it is fully cooked through, so the meat finishes cooking as the sauce reduces down into a syrupy consistency.
Tofu –Use FIRM tofu. Cut “steaks” about 0.75cm / 1/4″ thick. Pat dry, spray or rub with oil, sprinkle with salt and pepper, THEN lightly coat with flour. Coat base of skillet with oil over medium high heat, then cook tofu 1 min each side until crispy, then remove onto paper towels. Then make the sauce in a small saucepan or skillet using just 2 tbsp (30g) butter (instead of 3.5 tbsp), following recipe from Step 5. Serve with crispy tofu!
Prawns/shrimp – use large prawns (thaw, drain well and pat dry if using frozen). Lightly coat prawns with flour per recipe and sear for 1 minute on the first side, then just 30 seconds on the other side before proceeding with Step 5.
Fish – cook per recipe for chicken breast. This sauce is very, very good with fish! This is a good sauce for economical fish because it’s a strong flavoured sauce. For expensive fish, I think it’s better to let the flavour of the fish come through and serve with an elegant sauce like this Lemon Butter Sauce.
4. Nutrition per serving, assuming you scrape every drop of Sauce from the pan, and why wouldn’t you? 🙂
Nutrition Information:
Serving: 166gCalories: 323cal (16%)Carbohydrates: 23g (8%)Protein: 28g (56%)Fat: 13g (20%)Saturated Fat: 7g (44%)Cholesterol: 107mg (36%)Sodium: 400mg (17%)Potassium: 486mg (14%)Sugar: 21g (23%)Vitamin A: 350IU (7%)Vitamin C: 2mg (2%)Calcium: 12mg (1%)Iron: 1mg (6%)
Keywords: Baked Chicken Breast, chicken breast recipe, honey chicken, Honey Garlic Chicken, sauce for chicken
Did you make this recipe?I love hearing how you went with my recipes! Tag me on Instagram at @recipe_tin.
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 chickenbreast recipes
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Hi, I'm Nagi!
I believe you can make great food with everyday ingredients even if you’re short on time and cost conscious. You just need to cook clever and get creative!
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1,304 Comments
Debbie B says
Made this last night. It was delicious. Will definitely make it again! Thanks for sharing.Reply
- Haley says
I was blown away by this recipe. You’re right, such a simple ingredients list but such incredible flavor. I know you said this isn’t specifically Asian-y, but I feel this definitely replaces Chinese takeout for me – at least the chicken dishes I get with the sweeter sauces, like sesame chicken. This is way better! With jasmine rice, mmm… Now I need to make it battered and deep fried for something extra special with the sauce on occasion.Reply
- Haley says
Came back to add an update: I’ve made this recipe a few times since my first comment, and the first time I made it the chicken breast was very thick and didn’t cook through in the pan, so I removed it and cut it into pieces. Since then I’ve diced the chicken in advance and coated with flour, used a sieve to shake off the excess. It makes the dish so similar to a take out meal but so much better, with little crispy bits on the chicken pieces. Combined with jasmine rice and some steamed veggies, holy heck – amazing! Think I’m a bit addicted and also bought her cookbook which I love! I’ve also made this recipe with pork chops and loved it.Reply
- Christina says
Quick and amazing. My six year old devours this and he is soooo picky. Will make this every week probably!Reply
- Anna Phaire says
This was divine. I’ll make it again.Reply
- Nikki Arney says
This chicken is amazing! My whole family eats this when I cook it. I serve it with Jasmin rice and use the sauce with that too. I always double up the sauce.Reply
- pat says
loved the honey garlic chicken. sauce was amazingReply
- Debbie Flores says
So I had my doubts that a recipe with so few ingredients would be so good – but having tried many recipes from this website and reading the dozer stories, I thought I would try it! I made it with chicken and then tofu because it was sooooo good! Thank you for sharing!
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- Rhona says
Can you freeze leftovers ?
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- Jeanmi says
I come back to this recipe often when I need a quick and tasty mid-week dish. So good! Brilliant that you have the other proteins as well, I love the tofu version!Reply
- Jhamna says
I made this recipe tonight and it was delicious! I did the chicken the cucumber salad and the cauliflower rice. Thank you so much for sharing it with us.
Reply
- Wesley says
I don’t usually leave reviews unless I feel like I have something of value to add, and I always make Nagi’s recipes exactly as written and love them! Seriously, this blog is my short-notice dinner lifeline.Anyways, tonight I started making this around 11 PM after an evening of cramming. Only, once the chicken was cooking in the pan, I realized I had like, maybe a tablespoon and a half of honey, so I rushed to the pantry to grab either maple syrup or golden syrup… Which I turned out to be out of 🥲 So I used brown sugar to make up the difference. Then I opened the fridge and discovered that someone had used the last of the soy sauce, so I didn’t have that either 😅A quick emergency google led me to using one teaspoon of white miso paste and one teaspoon of balsamic vinegar (both appear as suggested substitutions and I couldn’t decide which to go with, so I combined them).
Lo and behold, it’s still delicious!! I can’t necessarily say whether it’s *as good* as the recipe as written, but what I can tell you from my harrowing journey is that it’s forgiving 😂 So if you’re reading this recipe and thinking “dang, I’m out of ____”, all might not be lost!
Anyways, thank you for the recipe as always, and next time I’ll come to the kitchen actually prepared 😂
Reply
- Lisa Borisoff says
This was SO delicious and so so easy! We had 2 couples come over and I prepped everything in advance, including flouring the chicken and measuring all the ingredients into a measuring cup, so I just had to throw the chicken in then everything else as directed and everyone loved it! I mean they really loved it! Can’t wait to make it again for others.Reply
- Nag says
OMG HELLOOOO! What an AMAZING recipe! I used chicken tenders and my never-eats-anything daughter ASKED FOR SECONDS! I’m so utterly grateful for your sharing this gem of a recipe. Thankyou!Reply
- Nash k says
Oh my goodness, this was absolutely incredible! Husband kept raving throughout the meal and we stuffed ourselves. Definitely will be on regular rotation! There were some things I did differently based on personal preference. I doubled the quantity of the sauce except the honey as we don’t like sauces that are too sweet and also sprinkled in some spicy freshly ground pepper flakes in the sauce for an extra kick. It was a winner!
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- Lori Strusis says
Made for an alternative at a New Year’s eve dinner. Did cut down the honey but it was a hit. Could you use arrowroot for GF substitute.
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- Crystal says
Delicious. I look for quick recipes and always ending up picking things too involved. This was fast and simple. I doubled the sauce because we’re saucy here, and served it with roast cubed sweet potato and a side salad. I’m absolutely going to make this again.Reply
- Kristina says
I’m sorry but wouldn’t make this again. Sauce was very thin and liquidy and looked nothing like the picture. and yes I followed this recipe to a T. The flour came right off after cooking the chicken also. I think the flour was an unnecessary step. Extremely overphotoshopped photo. The sauce was basically a honey sauce and nothing else. Will be trying another honey garlic chicken sauce next time.
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- lin says
I’ve made this recipe many times now and it’s great. I used this sauce on Brussels sprouts and it is fantastic.
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- Jack says
I substituted chicken nibbles for breasts and double dipped them in 00 flour. Great crispy coating on the chicken and they tasted finger licking goood!!Reply
- Chele says
Husband asked for seconds. (That is not a thing in my household. 🙂 Thanks so much for the awesome recipe!Reply
