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!
oh this is sooo good
Made this tonight with the garlic kale rice. Talk about an explosion of flavor with such minimal ingredients. delish! I doubled the sauce and added a little red pepper flake. The chicken finished in the sauce but it wasn’t thickening up so I used a cornstarch slurry and that was perfect. Hubs took his first bite on the way to sit down and said “oh yeah, babe.” That is always a great sign! Next time I will add some more red pepper flake to it. Great recipe!
I made this honey garlic chicken breast tonight. Everyone in family enjoyed. Made as per recipe, but cooked a bit longer. Some of my chicken thicker and some thinner, just put thicker pieces in first and in hottest part of frying pan – all were cooked well and tender. Probably cooked bit longer than recipe. Served on bed of rice then broccoli then chicken breast, sauce drizzled over and around all. Will make again. Very quick and easy, and had everything on hand. Thank you Nagi 😊
I can’t believe how easy and quick this was to make and it is GOOOOOOOD! We had it with noodles and peas which I added to the pan and cooked for a minute at the end. Even my 5 year old picky eater said he liked it. Winner, winner, chicken dinner 🤤
Super easy and so tasty. I will defo make again and have with couscous and pea shoot salad or a fried rice.
Has anyone turned this into a stir fry?
Did this tonight with pork chops sliced thin. After browning the meat, I removed from pan and threw in veggie mix (thaw if frozen). Once veggies are sautéed, added meat back and butter with garlic. I doubled the sauce and tossed it. Delicious! Really great weeknight meal
I just made this with chopped up chook boneless thighs, and it was deeeelish! I added chili sauce as well.
Absolutely love this honey garlic chicken recipe! My husband raved over it as well. Good thing I made enough for a meal tomorrow night.
Thank you for this wonderful dinner idea. Schedules are hectic sometimes, so it’s tough trying to cook a meal in the evenings. This was quick and easy and most of all, delicious. Those flavors were so good! The teen loved it too! We were so pleased and will likely have this again. Now I’m ready to try more of your recipes. I know they will be a hit!
Just made this for the first time, it was so easy and so, so good. It will be a regular meal for my family and friends for sure. I have made your Brisket recipe, I’m not a big beef fan but this is on of my favorite meals also. Thank you.
OMG Nagi, your recipes never fail to impress!
I just made this chicken dish and it’s just fabulous. I’m already dreaming about using this sauce and method with tofu,
prawns, pork, everything!
Thanks 😀
So so good!
Hello! great recipe, first time I cook something I want to eat lol. how would you go about heating this chicken for later use?
I am not a great cook but this was foolproof. Super easy. Pantry ingredients. FAST.
Tip – have your sides ready.
Love this recipe! I’ve never been able to pan fry chicken breast this perfectly. This recipe is a gem! Thank you Nagi 😀
Me and my daughter were looking for a quick chicken recipe with great reviews and decided to make this one, and we were so glad we did!! The flavors are so good, not to sweet not to garlicky…just perfect!! We will be making this again with rice this time, but great even on its own with mashed potatoes or roasted potatoes!
His was a HUGE hit!!! Definitely will be a regular. Might anyone have an idea on how to maybe do his for a large group using the oven? This would be perfect for an upcoming family event. Thanks!
This was so good! I ended up adding an additional tablespoon of soy sauce to make it a touch more savory but that’s just personal taste. Topped it with chili crunch on rice and steamed green beans. Better and cheaper than takeout
Made this tonight. There were no leftovers
Absolutely love this recipe 🥰
2nd time serving this to my partner and it’s truly chef-approved! Paired this with your fried rice recipe, Nagi. So so good! The honey garlic sauce was spot on. Huge thanks for this! x