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
Hungry for more? Subscribe to my newsletter and follow along on Facebook, Pinterest and Instagram for all of the latest updates.
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!
Yum, Yum, Yum. Made it for the first time tonight and everyone loved it. I did use chicken thighs, as I didn’t have breast and I served it with the dump fried rice, that’s another winner. Both were so easy and delicious! Thanks Nagi.
Thank you!! We love it. I will make this many more times.
Delicious! Thank you, I’ll definitely be making this again 🥰
My 16 year old daughter found this recipe and I’m so glad she did! I used coconut flour to make it gluten free. Delicious!
I love this recipe and so does my family it is now in the rotation lol
Thank you for not having a bunch of pop up ads. Instant turn off.
Is there a substitute I can use if I don’t have soy sauce? I thought I did and I don’t. Will it make a huge difference if I don’t use it all together?
I used Worchester sauce and it still turned out pretty good!
Do you have to cut the chicken in half?
The purpose of cutting the chicken in half horizontally is so you have a thinner piece of chicken that will cook more quickly without drying out. Also it will not become hard and rubbery on the outside while you are trying to make sure the middle gets cooked which could happen if you have really thick pieces.
Most commercially raised raised chicken breasts are up to 1.5″ thick! If you leave them that thickness, they will burn before the inside gets cooked. Not good eats…
Hi Nagi! I’m wondering if I can mske this in the oven? With a busy 2 yr old it can be easier to throw things in the oven and take it out when it’s ready. If not, do you have a honey garlic recipe for oven cooked chicken breast? Love the one you have for salmon and I use it all the time!
You’ve done it again! Absolutely delicious, and I’m not ashamed to say I used my finger to get every bit of sauce off my plate!
Hi! Will this work with precooked chicken breasts or will they be too dry? I was going to make it tomorrow night with chicken I’m defrosting in the fridge, but found out we can’t be home. So I’m thinking if I bake chicken without the sauce, I could make the sauce and reheat the next day in a pan?
I don’t trust leaving raw chicken in my fridge too long because my fridge is… not great.
This was 🔥 we had it tonight I will be serving this again soon my kids will love it, thank you for this recipe
Delicious!!!! Made it this evening with shrimp and used seasoned rice vinegar instead of apple cider vinegar. My family loves it! My picky 13 year old ate 2 plates full and said the sauce is legit!
This is my new favorite, really good 😍
Made this twice. Wasn’t satisfied with how it came out the first time (sauce didn’t thicken and cider vinegar flavor was too strong) so I made some alterations that improves it IMHO.
Replace butter/olive oil with toasted sesame oil.
Cut cider vinegar in half.
Add one TSP of chili paste or 1/2 TSP of red pepper flakes.
Remove chicken from pan before adding garlic and sauce. Add the sauce after heating the garlic and remove it from the heat. Take out a few TBS’ of the sauce and mix with 1/2 TSP corn starch. Add back to sauce, put sauce back on the heat and stir it in thoroughly. Add chicken to sauce and bring to a boil. Turn off heat and turn chicken over.
There’s a lot of variation you can make to this recipe. Next time I’m going to substitute the garlic for ginger root.
Does that add more punch to the flavor? It’s good but missing something.
I like the idea of adding sesame oil and ginger to amp up the Asian elements! Will also try adding a bit of cornstarch slurry to thicken up the sauce.
Absolutely delicious and tender! So flavorful. My daughter doesn’t usually like chicken breast, but she loved this meal. Thank you!
Excellent as a taste preferance only I used OJ instead of vinegar
I’m so glad I made this recipe, and so are my family. These are phenomenal! I followed the recipe to a T and it turned out perfect. I used white vinegar since I do not like apple cider vinegar. This recipe is now rotated into my dinner recipes to make a lot lol. Thanks for this amazing recipe!
Thank u so muchh I suck at cooking and this helped a lot! thank you <3
Outstanding !!! Easy, quick, and delicious. We love trying new recipes and this one is a keeper.
Omg!! Unbelievable!! I had some chicken breast which needed to be made ASAP. I had found this recipe and gave it a try. I swear even while making this dish I said to myself that this is not going to be THAT delicious because it’s very few ingredients and too less time. After I was done making the dish I realised I was wrong. This dish is MY NEW FAVOURITE. I’m really amazed. I’m writing this comment while munching on a piece of chicken. Finger licking good!!