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!
I always get nervous trying new recipes because I have a picky audience. This was delicious and will go right into our rotation of favorites. We had this with roasted zucchini, tomatoes and corn and brown rice. So good and easy enough that I can do it on a week night! Night time I might add a pinch of red pepper flakes and sesame seeds! Thanks! I’m a new fan!
Glad you enjoyed it Erin!! Thanks for letting me know! N x
This recipe was delicious, FAST, and easy to follow especially because of the video! I like everything saucy so I doubled the sauce recipe. I will be cooking this again in the future.
That’s great to hear DJ!! Thanks for letting me know you enjoyed it! N x
Love moist chicken… Will try this this week! Thank you!
Hope you tried it… and LOVED IT Judy! 🙂 N x
Hi ,
I made this last night. It was too good. The way u describe it , makes it so easy!
I have become a fan of yours!
Thanks and Regards
Poonam
Wonderful to hear Poonam! Thank you for letting me know you enjoyed this – N x
Helloo
Is it really enough with 5minutes in total to get chicken breast ‘ well done’???
Thxxx love ur recipes😘😘
The chicken breasts were cut in half to make them thinner.
You’re right Nagi – it is definitely DA BOMB! So delicious! I inhaled it! Thank you! X
Wonderful! So glad you enjoyed this Danielle, thanks for letting me know! N x
I just made this for lunch and it was soooo good. I used maple sirup instead of honey and eyeballed soy sauce and white balsamic vinegar. I didn’t dredge the chicken in flower because I like my sauces a bit runnier (and to be honest I forgot about it too), but the sauce still thickened and coated the meat nicely. It was so delicious. Juicy meat, great sweet and savoury sauce. This will be my new go-to recipe whenever I want something quick and healthy. Will also try this with salmon or other fish. As as side, I had steamed kohlrabi with parsley. This made it low-carb too! Thanks for your amazing recipes!
Wonderful! So glad you enjoyed this Barb, thanks for letting me know! N x
Made this last night…AMAZING!! Definitely need to double the sauce, I did and it was enough to pour on the rice! YUMMY!!! This will be on the menu for years to come!
Wonderful! So glad you enjoyed this Brenda, thanks for letting me know! N x
Tried this out for the first time tonight. HUGE hit. I used 3 chicken breasts and probably doubled the sauce recipe…while it was cooking both my teenage boys started satelliting the kitchen. I added some red pepper flakes, and some green onions at the end. Everyone agreed this is a keeper. Thanks for sharing!!! Perfect Monday dinner after work recipe.
Wonderful to hear Lisa! Thank you for letting me know you enjoyed this – N x
Thinking about substituting dry white wine for the vinegar next time. Thoughts? I bet it would be yummy! I tried it as written, and when I asked my husband how he liked it on a scale of 1 – 10 — he gave it a ten!!
Hi Diane! What I would do is deglaze the pan with white wine before adding the Sauce, still using the vinegar 🙂 YUM! N xx
Hi, just want to comment regarding making it gluten free. There are a lot of GF flours out there to use instead of cornstarch. I use Pillsberry GF flour and this recipe was amazing with it. Might want to also note that most soy sauces have wheat in it as well so make sure you get a GF sorry sauce.
Ohhh that’s a terrific tip Donna, thank you!!! N xx
Fixed this for supper tonight, everyone loved it !It’s definitely a keeper.
Could you make this with boiled chicken or does it have to be from raw?
Hi Andy! Sorry to say best made from raw meat 🙂 But you could just plonk everything else in a small saucepan to bring to a simmer then pour it over the reheated chicken! N x
This was definitely a hit tonight for dinner, everyone enjoyed it – even the very picky 11 yr old. We all enjoy lots of sauce for our rice so I’m glad that I doubled the sauce ingredients. Next time we will add an extra clove of garlic and maybe a splash of hot sauce for a little touch of heat. Awesome!
So great to hear Johanna!! Thanks for letting me know you enjoyed this – N x
Hi Nagi,
If you oven bake the chicken, do you think you’ll get the same result? Or is searing the chicken a crucial part of the deliciousness?
Thanks in advance! 😀
Hi Chrissy! For this one it’s stove all the way, sorry! Will share a baked honey garlic chicken one day soon 🙂 N xx
This was delicious!!! I added a few dashes of siracha for some heat! Served over cauliflower rice with broccoli! Yumo!!! Thanks for sharing ☺️
Love hearing that Jessica! So pleased you enjoyed this 🙂 N x
Made this last night. Super easy and tasted great! Will make again.
So great to hear Akshelly! N x
I made this recipe last night, good thing I doubled it because my 6 year old son had 2 helpings and asked to have it again for dinner tonight! That almost never happens, thank you!!!
High praise!! 🙂 N x
Can you use white wine instead of vinegar ? I always have white wine in 😳
Hi Maggie! Splash of wine would be fab! 🙂 N x
So yummy. Quick and easy. I served with rice and corn. Will be a new family favorite.
That’s terrific to hear Mary Jane! Thanks for letting me know – N x
Can you do. Chicken thighs with this recipe
Yes yes yes! Cook on medium and do 4 minutes on each side 🙂