Honey Garlic Chicken

Juicy chicken breast cutlets, seared, tossed in a mouthwateringly simple honey garlic sauce, then broiled until sticky and caramelized. Made with simple ingredients, in one pan, and in just 30 minutes – including prep time! 

This ultra easy Honey Garlic Chicken recipe is a winner when it comes to weeknight dinners!  We love easy main dishes, like my Honey Lime Shrimp, and Creamy Garlic Chicken. This is one of my Dinner recipes you’ll definitely want in your recipe rotation!

HONEY GARLIC CHICKEN RECIPE

After the popularity of my honey garlic salmon (you guys love it – and I’m so glad you do!), I knew I needed to find other ways to use that fabulous sauce!

We eat a lot of chicken around here; it’s just so versatile and the kids rarely balk at any meal involving white meat.  So chicken was my first thought, then I remembered a honey garlic chicken recipe that I used to make allllllll the time when I was first cooking at home.

It was so good, and so easy to make!

Plus, chicken and honey garlic flavors are just a match made in heaven.  I kept the seasoning and sauce nearly identical to the salmon recipe, with two exceptions.

I added a light dredge in some flour for the chicken.  This creates a light crust on the chicken, as well as encouraging the sauce to really stick to the chicken.

Also, I omitted one of the tablespoons of water, since we won’t be cooking the sauce as long in this recipe, with less basting of the protein.

Regardless, this is a fabulous weeknight dinner option, when you need something easy to put together, yet tastes gourmet!

You won’t believe how such a simple recipe can pack SO much flavor.  Each bite is full of sweet and savory flavors and delicate textures.

HOW TO MAKE HONEY GARLIC CHICKEN

1. Prep chicken.  Start prepping the chicken by slicing the 2 breasts into cutlets.  Then season cutlets with spices on both sides.
2. Dredge chicken.  Coating the chicken in flour helps create a crust.
3. Sear chicken.  Cook chicken pieces about 2-3 minutes per side, until golden.  Set aside on a plate.
4. Make sauce.  Add butter and saute garlic.  Then add honey, soy sauce, water, sriracha and lemon juice and stir to combine.  Let simmer until thickened.
5. Add chicken back to pan.  Once the chicken is in the pan again, turn it coat on all sides and spoon some sauce over the top.
6. Broil.  Broil chicken in the pan, just a minute or so, until sticky and slightly caramelized.

ADDITIONAL COOKING TIPS

• THE FLOUR – it’s an extra step, but one that makes a great difference!  This creates a light crust on the chicken, as well as encouraging the sauce to really stick to the chicken.  You can omit it if you want, or if you’re gluten-free (see the gluten free variation listed in the next section below for more details).
• SOY SAUCE – whenever I’m using soy sauce, I always use a reduced sodium version, as I’d rather control the salt level myself, and regular soy sauce can be pretty salty!
• VARYING AMOUNTS OF GARLIC – I put a range on the amount of garlic cloves because everyone might not be a garlic fanatic like I am lol.  We use 6 cloves when making this at home, but if you’re not a huge garlic fan, I’d go with 4, or even less if you really aren’t a fan.
• SLICING CHICKEN IN HALF – the reason I slice the chicken breasts in half is so they’re thinner and will cook quicker and more evenly.  Plus you get a better sauce to chicken ratio 🙂

HOW TO MAKE CHICKEN CUTLETS FROM A CHICKEN BREAST

• Start on the thicker side of the breast, so it’s easier to work with.
• Hold your knife parallel to the cutting board and carefully slice the chicken from right to left (if you’re a righty) completely in half.
• Now you’ll have two thinner pieces of chicken, which are called chicken cutlets.
• Alternately, some grocery store may sell chicken cutlets or thin cut chicken, eliminating the need to do this yourself.

VARIATIONS OF THIS RECIPE

• SPICY – if you’re a fan of spice, you can increase the amount of sriracha, add some red pepper flakes, or increase the amount of blackening seasoning.
• MILDER – personally, I think this recipe is fairly mild, but if you’re sensitive to heat, you can omit the sriracha sauce.
• GLUTEN-FREE – to make this recipe gluten-free, omit the flour, and use coconut aminos instead of soy sauce.  Tamari (a darker soy sauce) is generally gluten free as well, but you’ll want to check the ingredients on your bottle to be sure.

• BITE-SIZED – cut the chicken breasts into bite-sized pieces (about 1″), and sear about 2 minutes per side, just until golden, then proceed with recipe as written.
• PROTEINS – this honey garlic sauce is fabulous on just about anything!  Salmon, pork, shrimp, tofu, vegetables, etc.
• HERBS – the version of this recipe I used to make nearly a decade ago included fresh rosemary, so feel free to add a teaspoon of minced fresh rosemary, or a 1/4 – 1/2 tsp of dried rosemary to the seasoning mix!

MAKING HONEY GARLIC CHICKEN AHEAD OF TIME

I think this recipe tastes best when made right before eating, but you can absolutely whisk together the sauce ahead of time if you’d like.

You could also slice the chicken breasts in half ahead of time, and keep covered and refrigerated until dinner time.

STORAGE

Leftover chicken should be refrigerated in an airtight container and consumed within 4-5 days.

SPECIAL EQUIPMENT FOR THIS RECIPE

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• Enameled Cast Iron Skillet – heavy bottomed skillets, like this one, heat evenly and give a reliable sear.  Plus, it’s oven-safe for broiling!

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Any nutritional information shared is an estimate, and is automatically calculated through a program.  If calorie count is important to you, I recommend running the ingredients through whichever online nutritional calculator you prefer.  Calories can vary quite a bit depending on which brands were used.

 

The Chunky Chef is not a nutritionist and doesn’t provide full nutritional information for recipes as she wouldn’t want to potentially and unknowingly pass along incorrect information.

If changing the recipe serving quantity, the recipe plugin will change the ingredient values for you, but it does NOT change the written instructions, those are manually added and not subject to a slider. You will have to extrapolate that multiplication to any amounts listed in the instructions.
For example: if an ingredient calls for 4 cups, and you doubled the recipe, it will automatically change to 8 cups. In the instructions, if I say “use 4 cups of cheese”, you will have to realize that since you doubled it, you use 8 cups, not 4.