My Honey Lemon Chicken is perfect for weeknights! Chicken breast lightly coated in seasoned flour, pan fried until golden and served with a gorgeous honey lemon sauce. At just 320 calories a serve – with plenty of sauce – and on the table in 15 minutes, this is a fantastic back pocket recipe for busy days!
This rarely happens, and it usually only lasts 24 hours, but I can officially say: I’m cooked out. Between cooking for Easter both in real life and for RecipeTin Eats and client work, the amount of food that has come out of my pokey little kitchen over the past couple of weeks is extraordinary.
My freezer is jam packed, the homeless guy is getting 2 meals almost every day, and every friend I see gets sent home with food.
So today, it’s fitting that I share something super fast to make but, as always (!!), super tasty – this Chicken with Honey Lemon Sauce.
I start off by dusting the chicken with lightly seasoned flour which serves two purposes: 1) so the chicken forms a lovely golden brown crust; and 2) it helps thicken the sauce (via brown bits stuck on the pan mixed into the sauce and popping the chicken back into the sauce at the end).
The key to this recipe is the golden brown bits left in the pan from cooking the chicken. It’s gold and it should never be wasted. Whether you’re cooking fish or protein, swish a little liquid of some sort (broth/stock, wine, lemon juice, even water), bring it to a simmer to loosen the brown bits and use a spatular to scrape it off the bottom of the pan and into the liquid.
It’s free flavour and it’s the key to making this simple Honey Lemon Sauce so tasty even though there are so few ingredients in it.
This Honey Lemon Chicken is actually a really healthy meal too, at just 320 calories per serving. Serve it with a simple side salad and a couple of slices of bread to mop up the sauce, and you’ll have a complete meal for less than 500 calories.
Something to mop up the honey lemon sauce is key! It’s rude to lick the plate (in front of others, home alone is perfectly acceptable). So make sure you have some bread to wipe your plate clean!! – Nagi x
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Honey Lemon Chicken
Ingredients
Chicken
- 1 lb / 500g chicken breast (2 pieces)
- Salt and pepper
- 1/4 cup / 35 g flour (any)
Sauce
- 1 1/2 tbsp butter
- 1 tbsp olive oil
- 1 garlic clove, minced
- 3/4 cup / 185 ml chicken broth / stock
- 1/4 cup / 85g honey
- 1/4 cup / 60 ml lemon juice (fresh)
- 1 tsp soy sauce
- 2 tbsp water
To serve (optional)
- Lemon slices
- Finely chopped parsley
Instructions
- Slice each chicken breast horizontally to form 4 steaks in total. OPTIONAL (for more even cooking): Pound to even thickness about 1cm/ 2/5" thick.
- Sprinkle each side generously with salt and pepper.
- Place flour in shallow dish. Coat the chicken in the flour, shaking off excess.
- Mix 1 tsp of the flour (reserved from step 3) with the water. Set aside.
Cooking
- Place butter and oil in a skillet over medium high heat until butter is melted and hot. Add chicken and cook for 2 minutes or until golden brown. Turn and cook the other side until golden brown, then transfer onto a plate to rest.
- Add garlic into the skillet and stir for 20 seconds or until golden. Add chicken broth / stock and bring to simmer. Use a spatula to scrape the brown bits from the bottom of the pan into the liquid.
- Add honey, lemon juice, soy sauce and flour/water mixture (from step 4) into the skillet. Mix and bring to simmer for 2 to 3 minutes until thickened into a syrup. Add salt and pepper to taste.
- To serve, pour Sauce over the chicken and garnish with parsley and lemon slices if using. Alternatively, return the chicken to the pan for 30 seconds (to reheat), turning to coat in the sauce.
Recipe Notes:
Nutrition Information:
WATCH HOW TO MAKE IT
Honey Lemon Chicken recipe video! Note: The recipe is missing the soy sauce which is in the ingredients, returned to the recipe by popular demand by readers who loved the original recipe!
Nagi,
I totally agree with about being “cooked out” after all the preparations for Easter. Thank you for the recipe, it appears to be very easy and looks delicious. I’ll let you know my feedback after I make this dish.
I do hope you love it Gail! 🙂
This was beyond delicious and so simple! Would be easy to make for a large crowd. I didn’t change a thing and it was perfect! The addition of the soy sauce is genius – cuts the lemon’s acidity. Keep these awesome recipes coming!
Thank you so much for your feedback Cat, I am SO GLAD you enjoyed it!!! And YES I plan to keep recipes coming forever and ever….?
This dish was beyond delicious. My “happy-to-eat-anything” husband who says most things are just “good” was practically licking his plate last night…and I was right there with him. I could have literally kept eating if there was anything left. Yum!
WOO HOO! Love hearing that Nancy, thank you! PS Tell hubby there is NO shame in licking his plate!!!
Hi Nagi,
I made this tonight and the taste with heavenly. I can’t believe how a few common ingredients can transform a dish into something so delish! I didn’t want to waste the extra sauce so I blanched some green beans and swirled it into the sauce and served it with the chicken. It was divine!
I love your easy/fast recipes on your website! It’s the best recipe website I’ve come across, EVER!
Susan
Wow, thank you for your lovely message Susan!! I’m so glad you enjoyed this so much, I really love this simple sauce too. I use it on so many things! Fish, pork and like you, even veggies!
Hi Nagi,
Could I do this with Pork fillets 🙂 thanks
Hi Kris! You absolutely can 🙂 I added a note about this!
Oh so yum!!! Looks amazing as usual!
I’m going to add this to the Momma Gee Wizz collection of recipes – my new normal is seeing me jam a full week of work into 4 days, and I’m not getting home before 6.30pm at the earliest. Recipes like this one will make sure we’re not still waiting to eat at 9pm!
Momma Gee Whizz?? BA HA HA! I love that!!! Sounds like your working crazy hard, is the commute far??
Crazy hard work but having fun too, so that kind of balances things out. Work is a 45-minute bus ride from home, so I do get time to unwind before getting home, and time to try and organise our lives in the mornings on my way in. I look forward to the weekends though – I only work Monday to Thursday but I’m managing to squeeze in a full time workload into my part time days, so come Friday, I’m shattered. But I still manage to cook your delicious recipes and now have a new audience to expose the glorious food – my work colleagues often comment on the mouthwatering aromas of my lunches! I’m going to have to make sure this one goes to work with me. 🙂
You know, I actually enjoy taking the bus into city!! It’s my “down time”!!
There is something about chicken that makes me drool – it’s just SO DANG DELICIOUS!! 🙂 ANd your recipe isn’t making me drool any less!
Thanks hun!!! <3 N x
Nagi! I wish you had a restaurant so I can just enter and order all the goodies you make. I love lemon chicken, usually I have it with pasta on the side. I\m going crazy on your clicks right now 🙂
I made rice on the side with this, soaked up that sauce deliciously 🙂
*Snort!* YOU, my dear, should open a restaurant yourself!!!
Thanks Nagi! I made this for dinner last night, and the hubby didn’t even talk during dinner! He just made yummy noises! Simple, easy, and tasty! One of the many reasons I love your recipes! Keep up the good work! 5 stars. Easy, and very tasty!
I’m so glad Rhonda!!!! Hubby is lucky to have you to make such delish food for him!!! 🙂
Yes, he is lucky! I rarely cook anymore, but since subscribing and getting these recipes from you, I have been cooking more! I passed this recipe on to my Mom and several friends. Easy, simple recipes that use ingredients I already have! Winner, winner!! Thank you!
<3 N x
I am coming over, I need lots of leftovers as I am busy and exhausted playing cat nurse for a very sick cat 🙁 The chicken looks awesome, I am always amazed by the simplicity but awesomeness of this sauce.
Oh no!! What’s wrong with your cat?? 🙁
Cat, flooding, to keep up see here https://www.facebook.com/evelynebud
Just read it….I’m so sorry….. how is he???
What a great idea! Loving how the idea of lemon brightens up the dish!
Do check out my blog. Thanks!
http://www.ChefMood.wordpress.com
So glad you like the look of this!!
looks yummy!! will try this one soon 🙂 thank you for sharing your recipe!
Thank you Pony! I’m so glad you like the look of this!
So delicious! I took the entire weekend off cooking and dedicated it to eating, it was brilliant. I decided that I would start fresh today with quick and yummy eats so hit google looking for inspiration. Boom…. scored with your site, I know what’s for dinner at my place tonight, honey lemon chicken.
BA HA HA! I LOVE IT – a whole weekend dedicated to eating and no cooking! I really need to do that one weekend – SOON. 🙂
Hi Nagi, this looks wonderful – but I was wondering if it would freeze.
I try to meal plan (‘try’ being the operative word here) and would love to be able to pop a couple of portions in the freezer for later in the month.
I love the way you break down the nutrition values for your dishes but an indication about whether a dish was suitable for freezing would be very useful too.
Not whining – just an idea for the future perhaps. Yours is the only food blog I have ever subscribed to – and only recently. I love how you seem able to produce something special with the same basic ingredients that just sit and look at me from the fridge.
Many thanks
Hi Carol! I will add some freezing tips in the recipe 🙂 N x
This looks amazing! I can’t wait to try it!
Thank you so much Dora! I hope you do try it soon! N x
I just received the Honey Lemon Chicken recipe. Looks so good but I just started your recipe for Mexican Shredded Chicken for tonight’s dinner. Guess we’ll be eating chicken more than once this week!
Question: In the Mexican Shredded Chicken recipe, and other recipe’s I’ve received, you say to cook something in a non-stick pan and to use the brown bits that are generated, to flavor the sauce. I never have brown bits to savor when I use my non-stick teflon (Silverstone) pan. Is there another type of non-stick pan that I am unaware of that will generate the brown bits that you refer to?
Thanks.
Linda, that is such a great pick up, THANK YOU! I DON’T use a non stock for this recipe, the silver pan in the photos is a Scanpan that is not non stick. This recipe uses enough oil that you don’t need non stick.
For the Mexican Shredded Chicken, non stick is definitely better, with a non-non-stick fry pan (??!!), you would need more oil because breast is so lean. I use Circulon for my non stick pan and I’ve had it for almost 10 years. So the surface is still 95% non stick but a bit sticks. Thank you for picking this up, I will be much more careful describing the skillet I use for each recipe!! N x PS Even if brown bits down stick with your perfect non stick pan, the flavour will still be right in there because it will mingle with the butter left in the pan used to make the sauce and also it means that those brown bits that end up in my skillet and in my sauce are stuck on your chicken instead!
I’m not sure if my cookware qualifies as great for ‘brown bits’ either– most of my pots and pans are hardened aluminum and tend to be non-stick, but have no noticeable ‘non-stick’ coating. They seem to work well though. Nagi, would you recommend purchasing at least one cast iron skillet for use when browning is desired?
Hi Mike! I really love cast iron skillets because they retain SO MUCH heat. 🙂 Nothing better for searing a steak in my view – second only to the BBQ! My non stick pans don’t have a noticeable non stick coating anymore either, I’ve had them for almost a decade!!! You don’t need a skillet for browning though, any fry pan will work just fine!
Hi Linda, I’m Diana. If you look at the picture of the cooking chicken you will see a saute pan, not non-stick. I have both types but if I want the gold at the bottom of the pan I use my 18 ply pan so I can cook with heat high enough to get the crispy bits. Hope this helps. PS: It’s a great dish!
Thank you so much Diana for helping Linda out! You are right, I used my non non-stick pan 🙂 I updated the recipe!! N x
I really know how you feel!! It is a marathon that I believe you should train for just like in running!! This Easter wasn’t too bad for us since we’re not home but once we get home — the family is getting together to celebrate! Now, one of the reasons we don’t make desserts — we really aren’t too fond of them — is because there isn’t anyone there to eat it but Honey and I. We could freeze it all but my poor kids also want to watch their diet. This chicken is a version that I make — I haven’t been putting the flour on my recipe but I must admit it would give it a prettier color. Now get off of your feet and relax!!
I know I know! That’s why I don’t share too many desserts on here, because it is an effort to get rid of and it’s dangerous to have in the house!!! 🙂
Omg… this reminds me of one of my all-time favorite dishes growing up! My mom would make a lightly breaded chicken breast with lots of fresh lemon slices and tangy gravy. Except she didn’t use honey – nice touch to sweeten things up! Having something starchy is a definite must! We had white rice with every single meal, so I would drizzle the remaining gravy overtop… SO good! Gotta make this!
Btw, go take Dozer out and grab a glass on wine by the water – you deserve a break. 🙂
I swear, growing up, we had RICE or NOODLES with every single meal!!!
Since you have so much extra food, Nagi, we’ll all be right over!! This chicken dish sounds great and looks so easy for a fast dinner. It doesn’t take a lot of ingredients to make a fantastic meal!
Please come!! I also have a whole cheesecake I need to get rid of!
Another nice, quick meal recipe/method..
One thing I like about your recipes of this type is that they, for the most part, can be adapted to quick cook pork or fish also.. Simple and delicious… Win/Win..
Thank you… :o)
Ooh YES ROSS! Thank you for reminding me, I meant to pop that in my notes! I’ll add it now 🙂 N x