This Honey Garlic Chicken recipe is so easy to prepare and will be a family favorite! Made with chicken breasts and a four ingredient honey garlic sauce. Add cut up broccoli, cauliflower, peppers, carrots or peas for honey garlic chicken stir fry.
A weeknight dinner doesn’t get much easier than this honey garlic chicken! It’s even faster than takeout if you take into account the time it takes to drive to the restaurant, wait for the food and then drive home again.
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How To Make Honey Garlic Chicken
Step One: Honey Garlic Sauce
Start by making the sauce for this honey garlic chicken by whisking together the honey, soy sauce, olive oil, and hoisin sauce. Set the sauce mixture aside until later.
Step Two: Chicken
For this recipe, I used boneless, skinless chicken breasts. You could also use chicken thighs if you prefer your meat to have more fat.
Try to cut the chicken into evenly sized pieces so that they will finish cooking at the same time. After cubing the chicken, season it with salt, black pepper, and garlic powder.
Step Three: Flour
To get a nice, crispy coating on the chicken, coat it with flour before frying it. I’ve found that the easiest way to do so is to put the chicken pieces in a gallon sized plastic bag.
Add the flour, close the top of the bag, and shake the chicken to coat it evenly with flour.
Step Four: Frying
Next, it’s time to cook the chicken. Heat the olive oil in a large skillet. Add the seasoned and coated chicken.
Cook for about three minutes before flipping it over to cook on the other side.
Add the minced garlic, stir and cook for two minutes.
By the way, this is our favorite frying pan. You see it in so many of my videos and blog posts. We have this size as well for making omelets.
Step Five: Sauce
Finally, it time to add the sauce mixture. Turn the heat down to medium and pour in the sauce. Stir and cook for 3-4 minutes.
Garnish with toasted sesame seeds and sliced green onions before serving over rice, noodles, or cauliflower rice.
My son has already asked me to make this twice in the past week! I’d say it was a huge hit with my family.
Honey Garlic Chicken Recipe FAQs
1. Do I have to use chicken breasts for this recipe? The recipe calls for chicken breasts but chicken thighs or chicken tenderloins would work as well.
2. Why are the chicken breasts cut into small pieces before cooking? Chicken breasts are cut into pieces in this recipe so that it cooks faster, there are more crispy bits and you get honey garlic sauce on more areas. But the chicken breasts can be left whole if you prefer but you will need to extend the cooking time depending on the thickness of the chicken breasts.
3. What else can I add to this honey garlic chicken? Stir in cut up broccoli, cauliflower, peppers, carrots or peas for honey garlic chicken stir-fry.
4. My sauce won’t thicken. What should I do? If you want a thicker sauce, mix one tablespoon of cornstarch into two tablespoons of cold water. Stir the mixture into the sauce.
5. My honey garlic sauce is too thick? What should I do? If you want a thinner sauce, add a little water at a time until it reaches the consistency you prefer.
6. How can I make this recipe gluten free? To make this gluten free, use a gluten free flour or cornstarch in place of the flour or skip the flour coating and thicken the sauce with cornstarch as mentioned above. Also, be sure to use gluten free soy sauce, hoisin sauce, and sesame seeds.
Want More Asian Cuisine? Try These Recipes Next:
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General Tso Chicken: Skip the takeout and make this General Tso Chicken recipe at home! It’s easy to make and full of flavor. Serve over rice or noodles for a family dinner.
Stir Fry Sauce: This stir fry sauce recipe can be used for vegetables, chicken, beef, shrimp, and pork. It is super easy to make and totally adaptable. Store in the fridge or freezer for later!
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Honey Garlic Chicken
This Honey Garlic Chicken recipe is so easy to prepare and will be a family favorite! Made with chicken breasts and a four ingredient honey garlic sauce.
Ingredients
- 1 lb boneless, skinless chicken breasts
- salt, black pepper, and garlic powder
- 1/4 cup flour
- 2 tbsp olive oil
- 3 tsp minced garlic
- 2 tbsp sliced green onions
- 1 tbsp toasted sesame seeds
Honey Garlic Sauce
- 1/2 cup honey
- 1/4 cup light soy sauce
- 2 tbsp olive oil
- 1 tbsp hoisin sauce
Instructions
Honey Garlic Sauce
- Whisk together honey, light soy sauce, olive oil, and hoisin sauce in a small bowl. Set aside for later.
Honey Garlic Chicken
- Cut boneless, skinless chicken breasts into pieces. Sprinkle with salt, black pepper, and garlic powder.
- Put the chicken pieces in a gallon sized plastic bag. Add the flour, close the top of the bag, and shake the chicken to coat it evenly with flour.
- Heat olive oil over medium-high heat. Add the flour coated chicken. Cook for about three minutes, flip the pieces over and cook for another three minutes.
- Add the minced garlic, stir and cook for two minutes.
- Turn the heat down to medium. Add the honey garlic sauce. Stir and cook for 3-4 minutes.
- Sprinkle with toasted sesame seeds and sliced green onions.
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Nutrition Information:
Yield: 4 Serving Size: 1 gramsAmount Per Serving: Calories: 444Total Fat: 18gSaturated Fat: 2gUnsaturated Fat: 0gCholesterol: 72mgSodium: 1009mgCarbohydrates: 44gSugar: 36gProtein: 27g
Tara says
This was excellent, I will be making this for my family when they come to visit. Thank you!
Edwina Howard says
I made this today. I had to make my own hoisin sauce. Tastes great but I wish the chicken could have been a little more crispy.
Hunter says
use corn starch instead of flower, this will crispy those chicken bites up
AJ says
Hi, so I tried this, and it was terrific; I would say tho to make the chicken a little more tender and juicy while being crispy with flour and bread crumbs. I made bigger cuts but not too big, still relatively small. And had the chicken sit in buttermilk for half an hour before putting on seasoning and flour. I put the salt, pepper and minced garlic instead while on the pan. It turned out perfect. I also added sliced bell peppers as a veggie, so it’s not all chicken. Honestly, very amazing; I will definitely do it again as a side with my stir fry noodles.
Monserrat says
The first time I made this it was amazing! The second time my sauce was super runny and smelled off as though the honey or soy sauce was not cooking right. I’m not sure what I did wrong the second time around! Anybody run into this when cooking with soy sauce and honey?
Sylvia says
Absolutely amazing!! Tastes soooo good. Definitely one of my favourite recipes. Thank you 😍.
Dave Pickering says
Loved this meal,followed recipe as is but had it with new potatoes, super tasty and easy to make
Alicia says
That was absolutely amazing! Thank you for the recipe!!
Hana says
Great recipe and tastes delicious! Is this suitable for freezing?
Caz says
Made it today, yum yum as usual!
No honey so used brown sugar instead though 🤗
Kim says
OMG. The best honey garlic anything I’ve ever tasted. Chicken was super tender. I could have eaten the sauce by the spoonful. I did add some minced fresh ginger to the sauce. And also a bit of onion and garlic powders do the flour coat for the chicken.
Beth says
When do I add the veggies if I’m making it a stir fry?
Tonia says
Hi Beth,
I would add them when I add the minced garlic. If you like them well-cooked, you can precook the veggies a little before adding them to the skillet.
Enjoy!
~Tonia
Nisa says
I don’t have hoisin sauce.
I do have kecap manis. Can we use kecap manis instead ?
Tonia says
Hi Nisa,
Unfortunately, I don’t have any experience with kecap manis so I’m not sure if it would work in this recipe or not.
Best,
Tonia
Caz says
Oyster is also as good, just not as sweet, but you have the honey for that. I use brown sugar instead of honey anyways
AJ says
I am very late in response, but hoisin sauce is just sweet and has a certain flavour I wouldn’t know how to explain. But there definitely are substitutes such as brown sugar boiled with water with a little soya sauce. You could use any sauce similar and would still work, even teriyaki, oyster sauce and others.
Caitlin says
This was so good! So tasty! Full of flavours.
Lisa says
Made this tonight with everything but hoisin sauce and everyone liked it still
Lisa says
Can I use garlic salt instead of garlic powder if I don’t have it?
Tonia says
Yes, but skip the salt in the recipe since it is already in the garlic salt. Enjoy! ~Tonia
T says
We didn’t have honey so we used maple syrup instead. It was very good. Didn’t have leftovers😊
Dale says
Question: Do I double ingredients if I’m using way more chicken or keep the same
Tonia says
Yes, you’ll want to double the ingredients so that you have enough sauce for all the chicken. You may want to make the honey garlic chicken in batches though. It’s harder to brown the chicken pieces on all sides and for the sauce to carmelize on the chicken when it is crowded in the pan.
Di di says
Perfect!!
Will be making this again and again and again!!
Substituted the light soy sauce with Kecap Manis and a touch of soy sauce.
Added capsicum, broccolini, half onion, and medium lengths of spring onion.
Tonia says
I’m so happy to hear that and thanks for sharing your additions!
Val S. says
First time trying this recipe couple of weeks ago. Family loved it. Even the 7 and 4 yr old grandchildren loved it. They took leftovers to school next day for lunch!!!!. Son requested it be added to menu. Lol. Making it again tonight… Thank you for sharing…
Laura B says
Amazing recipe! We will be making this again!
Maggie Calvetti says
This is amazing! Do you have recipe that is similar to/tips on how I could turn this into more of a General Gao’s/Tsao’s chicken recipe? Thank you – this chicken is like crack in our house!!!
Tonia says
Thank you! I do not right now but I am working on one!
Misty says
Oh. My. Goodness. Family gobbled it up! I added 1/3 cup more water to have more “sauce” then I added some crushed red pepper to make it spicy after I served to kiddos. Definitely adding it to my weekly rotation. Thank you💜💜💜💜
Taya says
Hey, do you have to use soy sauce?
Tonia says
If you don’t use soy sauce, you’ll have to use something to replace it such as coconut aminos. Or here is a recipe for a soy sauce substitute: https://www.tasteofhome.com/recipes/soy-sauce-substitute/
ERIC says
First of all the soy takes over the honey. Maybe cut the soy sauce in half. That is the only issue I see. I ended up having to add another 1/2 of honey to be able to taste honey and not just soy sauce.
M says
I used to much soy sauce and it was very salty. Next time I’ll use less. In spite of that it is a great recipe!😊
Jennifer says
Perfect family meal…pleased everyone in our family of eight!
Candace Beach says
This was a winner for my family. I made it last night in between working It was easy and fast!
Tonia says
Fantastic! I love to hear that!
Tina says
Awesome!! I’ve made it twice. Once using boneless thigh and once boneless breast. Both were very good. Definitely a favorite!
Rhonda Bunn says
Another thing to try!!
Tonia says
I bought double the chicken this week so I can make a double batch next time! 🙂