Sticky and Easy Honey Garlic Chicken made fast and simple, with the most amazing 5-ingredient honey garlic sauce that is so good you’ll want to use it on everything!
With a recipe that includes both chicken thighs AND chicken breasts, you’re just minutes away from the most addictive Honey Garlic Chicken dinner the whole family loves! The perfect meal to have when you feel like eating something sweet with a hint of savoury.
Crisp and sticky skin (which is optional), a beautiful sauce and perfectly cooked chicken. It doesn’t get any better!
This super-simple recipe makes a crisp-tender chicken with a perfect, sticky glaze. You may (or may not) remember the crispy oven fried chicken I made a couple months ago? Well, this sauce was so good on those chicken pieces, that I wondered what would happen if I cooked some pieces right in the sauce without any crumbing or breading needed.
Honey Garlic Chicken
This sauce not only tastes amazing, it’s incredible satisfying watching it bubble and morph into a perfectly balanced savoury, sweet and garlicky syrup. But your mouth really begins to water watching the sauce simmer all around your chicken and coat it so effortlessly. The bonus of this recipe? It makes up so much sauce that you have enough to drizzle to over some rice or steamed broccoli.
Chicken thighs or breasts?
Chicken thighs are perfect for this recipe, since dark meat is super moist and packed full of flavour. Although, we also love this recipe with chicken breasts… they are incredible in this sauce.
The best part about this Honey Garlic Chicken? You have ALL the ingredients in your kitchen pantry/kitchen tap/refrigerator already.
- Honey? YES ✓
- Soy Sauce? YES ✓
- Vinegar? YES ✓
- Water? OF COURSE ✓
- Garlic? Not even a question ✓
So few ingredients needed for the perfect sweet to salty honey garlic sauce that will have you licking your fingers after every juicy bite.
WATCH US MAKE THE MOST ADDICTIVE HONEY GARLIC CHICKEN RIGHT HERE!
For more Chicken Recipes, try these!
- Browned Butter Honey Garlic Chicken
- Honey Garlic Sriracha Chicken
- Oven Fried Chicken with Broccoli + Honey Garlic Sauce
You may also love these!
- Honey Garlic Salmon
- Lobster Tails with Honey Garlic Butter White Wine Sauce
- Browned Butter Honey Garlic Shrimp
Need to cook it in a slow cooker instead? Try our Slow Cooker recipe!
Easy Honey Garlic Chicken Recipe
Ingredients
- 6 chicken thighs, bone in or out, with or without skin*
- Salt and pepper, to season
- 2 teaspoons garlic powder, to season
- 6 cloves garlic, crushed
- 1/3 cup honey
- 1/4 cup water (or chicken broth)
- 2 tablespoons rice wine vinegar (or apple cider vinegar, or any white vinegar)
- 1 tablespoon soy sauce
Instructions
- Season chicken with salt, pepper and garlic powder; set aside.
- Heat a pan or skillet over medium high heat; sear chicken thigh fillets or breast fillets on both sides until golden and cooked through.
FOR BONE IN THIGHS:
- Reduce heat after searing on both sides, cover skillet with a lid and continue cooking until the chicken is cooked through, while turning every 5 minutes until done. Alternatively, see notes for oven method.
- Drain most of the excess oil from the pan, leaving about 2 tablespoons of pan juiced for added flavour.
FOR SAUCE:
- When chicken is done and cooked through, arrange chicken skin-side up in the pan (if cooking with skin); add the garlic between the chicken and fry until fragrant (about 30 seconds). Add the honey, water, vinegar and soy sauce. Increase heat to medium-high and continue to cook until the sauce reduces down and thicken slightly (about 3-4 minutes).
- Garnish with parsley and serve over vegetables, rice, pasta or with a salad.
Notes
**For oven baked, bone-in thighs: Preheat oven at 400°F or 200°C. Sear chicken in an oven proof skillet or pan, skin side down first for 3 minutes. Flip and sear for a further 3 minutes until browned each side. Then bake in the oven for a further 20-25 minutes, until completely cooked through and no longer pink inside. Continue directions from the sauce, onwards.
Celie says
I just thought you should know — I use this recipe ALL THE TIME! I always use it for chicken thighs and once in a while for pork chops. It is so simple and so amazing, and it comes out perfectly every single time. Sometimes I add some ginger, just because I love the taste of it and because of it’s health benefits (I use ginger very often, especially when I make Asian sauces.) Last night it was too hot to cook, so I used a pan on the grill and cooked the chicken the same way I do on the stovetop. Perfect!! I made extra sauce for the rice. I’m a huge fan of sauces and make a lot of pan sauces when I cook. I’m so glad to have found your recipe, and thank you so much for sharing.
Marnie says
Epic recipe!! Made this like 3 times already
Amy says
Super easy, very delicious, all the family loved it! I will be making this again – I anticipate a busy school year and this will help feed us well! **NOTE: once you get to the glaze step, be watchful. It can easily overcook/burn, and we don’t want that!
Bonny says
My husband made this recipe tonight since I was working late BEST chicken thighs I had in forever. Perfect flavors sweet and savory.
Allison says
I used apple cider vinegar because that’s all I had and it was delicious!!!
Kyle says
This recipe was amazing. Thanks so much for sharing it! Definitely going to add this dish to my roster.
Grace says
Made this the other night for the first time and it was a hit! My husband was hesitant at first when he smelled the vinegar (he’s not a vinegar fan) but you couldn’t even taste it. Perfectly balanced sweet and savory. I’ll be making this regularly!
Arianna says
Made this for lunch today! I used thin sliced chicken breasts. I combined the sauce ingredients into a bowl and followed tips from previous reviews and added some red pepper flakes and ground ginger for extra flavor. I also added a cornstarch slurry after combining the sauce and chicken into the pan to make it thicken quicker. It was so delicious and I would definitely make this again as a quick meal idea. Super easy. I served with roasted potatoes and steamed broccoli.
Ling says
I tried your recipe tonight using boneless chicken leg with skin. It was so easy to cook and the flavour of the sauce was spot-on! It was amazing how the honey, water, apple cider vinegar, soy sauce and garlic complement one another so well. My kids loved it and so did I. Thank you so much for sharing such a good recipe. 🙂
Carolyn says
Wow! The recipe was very simple yet the result is like something I’d get from a restaurant! I can hardly even cook rice, yet I managed to cook this and it was delicious!