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!
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
I made this tonight in no time and it was so delicious! I want it to be known, this is where I go for all of my meals 90% of the time and I always makes something new and it is always so good! Nagi is the best! I also want to say, I hope Dozer is healing well. He has been in my thoughts and prayers 🙏 ❤️
Best chicken recipe ever! Can’t believe I haven’t found this earlier
Amazing! I made this with pork and my husband ate every bit of it. He just kept saying “this is amazing” and the best part is that it’s so easy to make. Thank you!
O. M. G absolutely delicious! I’ve just finished making and devouring this, but I made it with pork chops instead, served with boiled rice and carrots and broccoli and it went down a treat! So much so I want to eat the other half I saved. Yum yum thank you, Nagi. I’ll definitely be making it again soon. Oh and my teen daughter liked the sauce so I’m sure she will enjoy it aswell.
This was really good and easy to make, I swapped out the chicken for boneless Porkchops and the sauce works really well with them. Paired with some white rice this was a quick and delicious meal
Made this last night and my family loved it. My son, who is an aspiring chef said it tasted like it had come from a restaurant. Thank you for the easy and delicious recipe!
Thank you for this recipe! I have a ton of chicken breast and a picky husband and daughter. They both ate this up. I did add more spices to my husband’s and my portions because we like spice, but now I know how to prepare chicken breast without a ton of work. You’re the best. ❤️
I chose this recipe because I needed a chicken recipe without some overnight marinade. I made wild rice to eat with it. It was amazing! I did end up eating it until 11:30 pm because I started late but it was a great meal and my dad and sister loved it too.
I swapped out chicken breasts for chicken nibbles and gave them a double coating of 00 flour. The result? A wonderfully crispy exterior on the chicken, and the flavor was absolutely delicious—finger-licking good!
I’ve cooked your dish tonight and I found it very tasty!!
I followed your instructions and the results were exactly as expected!! It will definitely become a staple!! Thank you for this simple recipe. Noni
I don’t usually comment on recipes (good or bad), but I HAD to leave a note about this one.
I’m always nervous about chicken recipes because they either all taste the same, or come out dry, but this one was absolutely delicious!
Thank you for this new quick and easy dinner option!
Used this recipe tonight for diner and it was excellent.
This was quick and easy and my husband loves it. I’m happy.
I made the Honey Garlic Chicken Breast as the recipe directed and it was delicious. My sauce took a wee bit to thicken up, but it totally did. Thank you for a great dish! Next time I make it, I’m thinking of adding some toasted sesame seeds at the end.
Great idea! I’m going to add toasted sesame seeds next time. Thank you for sharing that.
Made this last night. It was delicious. Will definitely make it again! Thanks for sharing.
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.
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.
I made this for the 2nd time tonight and my husband and I enjoyed it just as much as the first time. Thank you for sharing such an easy delicious recipe.
Quick and amazing. My six year old devours this and he is soooo picky. Will make this every week probably!
This was divine. I’ll make it again.
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.
loved the honey garlic chicken. sauce was amazing