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!
NO RUBBER! Found this recipe when looking for inspiration after purchasing some discounted chicken breast fillets. Best part is I think I can adapt the technique with other flavors, and “eyeball” ingredients in the future for more time savings. A delicious recipe AND a cooking lesson. My thanks!
This is the first time I’ve made chicken breast I actually enjoyed eating! Simple and delicious 🙂
So good and so easy peasy. It’s a keeper 😊
Made this tonight for the first time. My kids loved it! The flavour was exceptionally delicious. Can’t wait to put this in the regular dinner rotation. You’ve done it again Nagi! Thank you.
This recipe was so easy and absolutely delicious. I’m not the best cook and my poor family tolerates my meals most of the time but this time they all wanted seconds and cleaned their plates!
Made this tonight, first recipe from tineats. Followed the recipe exactly, watched the vid first – away I went. WINNER WINNER CHICKEN DINNER. This is a simple, tasty recipe that we both loved. Can’t wait to make it again soon. First recipe for yonks that actually looked like the pics on your website. Nagi, you are making us want to try new things from your website – we are both 67 and feel like we are new cooks. Thank you.
I made this recipe for my dad on Father’s Day, and it was awesome!! I paired it with the cucumber salad and white rice. I’m so glad I found this recipe!
just finished making this dish and it came out amazing. The taste is something different for me and I’m loving it. Thank you so much for another great recipe.
This is so easy and delicious. I doubled the recipe and had to use garlic powder instead of fresh garlic as I was out. Turned out great and was quick!
Absolutely delicious. So quick and easy to make and the grandkids ate every bite. Served it with brown rice and steamed vegies with the extra sauce drizzled over top. Definitely will make it again.
This recipe was a huge hit with the fam! We’ve got picky eaters and those whom just prefer different types of cuisine (Asian vs. American, etc.) Since I work full time, I’m also always looking for easy recipes I can throw together under 30 min and anything that allows me to cook healthier.
This one hit all of my
checkboxes – so delicious! Definitely going to be a go to for us from now on. Thanks!
I can’t believe I actually made chicken breast that arent dry and gross. Such a great and easy recipe. I thought I had to write of chicken breast forever because I could never get it right!! Thank you NAGI!!! xx
I wanted something quick and easy whilst away in our van.
This recipe was perfect as I had all the ingredients at hand.
It was absolutely delicious and I served it with a 90 second packet of long grain rice which I made a cheat’s fried rice. Hubby was very impressed.
DELICIOUS! My teenage son helped with this, complaining that he couldn’t cook, it was too much work, etc. I handled the chicken while he tackled the sauce. 5 min later he was amazed what little effort it took to get the sauce ready – and we were all amazed at how good it all turned out! Served it with rice and steamed broccoli. Fabulous! Thank you for sharing this recipe!
Excellent quick recipie . Sauce comes together easily and chicken turns out very moist. I used half hot honey half regular so tasty. Next time I may just use the hot.
I just found this recipe for chicken breast, oh my, this was so easy, fast and so very delicious. Definitely incorporating into monthly menu, thank you for sharing this scrumptious recipe
I’m rarely one to leave a comment but damn, this deserves one!
Super fast, flavorful and full of pantry staples! My kids ate it right up and I made a little extra (1 1/2 all wet ingredients) so we had some to pour over our rice and I’m glad we did because it was GONE! Excellent meal for a late start to dinner!
10/10
Just made this for dinner tonight and it was excellent! I should’ve simmered the chicken in the sauce a bit longer to take on more of the flavor, but I didn’t want to overcook it. I served it over jasmine rice and the taste and texture was perfect. Definitely a keeper! Thank you!
Honey Garlic Chicken breast, made it and it was delicious my husband loved it, will be making it with some pork chops next time.