Mouthwatering Baked Honey Garlic Chicken Breast is made with a simple sweet and tangy honey garlic sauce. It’s a restaurant quality Asian inspired healthy dinner that will become your new favorite quick and easy chicken recipe!
Our other family favorites are this chili lime chicken and garlic butter chicken.
Table of contents
This honey garlic chicken breast is oven baked until tender and juicy then smothered in a delicious sweet and sour glaze made from honey, garlic, soy sauce, and lemon juice. It’s an easy 30-minute dinner that comes in extremely handy when you have no idea what to make for dinner!
This chicken recipe is our go-to on busy weeknights when we’re looking for something quick, healthy, and super easy!
I make some healthy sides while the chicken is baking and bam, an Asian-inspired, healthy baked honey garlic chicken breast is ready to be served with Asian chopped salad or healthy broccoli salad recipe.
Why Baked Honey Garlic Chicken Recipe is Healthy?
- Baked not fried: A flavorful and saucy baked chicken recipe is so much healthier than any fried chicken!
- Easy: This quick 10-minute marinade is one of my favorite easy chicken marinades that sits while the oven preheats!
- Impressive: The beautiful sheen on this delicious glaze is pretty enough to serve dinner guests.
- Pantry staples: Made with budget friendly ingredients that you probably already have on hand. Especially great when you have stocked up on chicken breast!
Ingredients for Honey Garlic Chicken
- Chicken breasts: About 3 large boneless and skinless breasts. Cut them into thin cutlets lengthwise as I did with this chicken and tomatoes. Even thin cut, the breasts come out juicy and saucy.
- Honey: I try to buy unpasteurized and raw honey for its health benefits. Keep in mind once heated it loses many of its good properties, so for this recipe, it doesn’t matter which kind you choose. It’s always nice to have raw honey on hand for other uses though!
- Soy sauce: Regular soy sauce or liquid aminos have the same amount of sodium. I used only 2 tbsp of aminos.
- Acid: You can use freshly squeezed lemon juice, lime juice, or apple cider vinegar.
- Fresh garlic: I used 2 grated garlic cloves to bring out even more flavor in the sauce and 1 minced garlic clove for texture in the final product.
- Cornstarch: Or arrowroot powder to thicken the sauce. You can skip it if you don’t have it.
- Green onion and sesame seeds (optional): This honey garlic chicken is meant to be Asian-inspired and although not exactly authentic, we can still add some delicious garnishes for zing and crunch!
Dinner for two? Feel free to cut this honey garlic chicken recipe in half if you’re serving 2 people or less. Otherwise, save your leftovers, they freeze like a charm.
How to Make Honey Garlic Chicken Breast
- Marinate chicken for 10 minutes in your healthy sauce for chicken which is a combination of honey, soy sauce, lemon juice, and garlic. Mix all of the ingredients in a large bowl and let them sit while the oven is preheating to 450 degrees F.
- Preheat the oven. Grab a baking sheet and line it with unbleached parchment paper or a silicone baking mat. It makes cleaning up caramelized honey a breeze.
- Bake chicken for 20 minutes. Arrange chicken in a single layer and bake, turning once.
Do not discard marinade! Make healthy honey garlic sauce by bringing the marinade to a boil in a small pot. Whisk cold water with cornstarch, add and cook a few minutes until the sauce has thickened.
- Chicken is ready when it reaches 165 degrees F internal temperature. 20 minutes should be good. You can even pull it out when the internal temperature is 155 degrees F and allow it to keep cooking with the residual heat.
- Combine chicken breasts with sauce: Transfer the marinated soy garlic chicken pieces onto a platter, drizzle with sauce and sprinkle with green onion and sesame seeds.
Optional Add-In’s and Variations
- Ginger: Keep some extra grated ginger aside and add a little more into the sauce.
- Different cuts of chicken: This recipe works for baked chicken thighs as well.
- Heat: Add some red pepper flakes into the honey, garlic, and soy marinade for a little spice!
- Garlic: Grate all the garlic instead of combining grated and minced, if preferred.
- Make this on the grill! Preheat the grill to 450-500 degrees and rub with an oiled paper towel. Grill chicken for 8-10 minutes, flipping once. Careful not to overcook the chicken! Make a sauce on the stove or over the side burners on the grill. So good!
Tips for Best Chicken
- Chicken has to be fresh or defrosted. Not frozen. Save your frozen chicken breasts for making chicken noodle soup.
- I do not recommend pan-frying this chicken as the honey burns quickly. Been there, done that! 🙂 Try my lemon chicken recipe with this method instead.
- If your honey is solid, melt it on a stove in a small pot on low heat.
- You can use low-sodium soy sauce as well if you are watching your salt intake. Or, reduce it to just 1 Tbsp.
- Cornstarch settles fast, so whisk again before adding to the sauce, the same way I get you to do when making healthy orange chicken. It makes for a much smoother finish! Also, cold water is the key to avoiding lumps.
- Use a proper sized baking sheet: To avoid sauce bubbling over and causing oven mess. A rimmed edge is perfect.
FAQs
You can! Chicken thighs are darker, less lean than chicken breast, so they’ve got a bit more fat and flavor. These work just as well and there’s no need to cut them thinner.
The only time it is safe to reuse marinade is if you boil it first. It is a MUST, otherwise, you need to discard any leftover marinade. The reason for this is it has been contaminated with raw chicken (or whatever meat you’re using) and consuming this is dangerous. You HAVE TO BOIL it first, then it can be used as a delicious healthy sauce for chicken, a gravy, or glaze!
It is similar in that they both have a sweet element. Other than that, not really! Chinese honey chicken is typically battered and fried with egg and flour (like tempura) and then sweetened with either honey or another type of refined sugar.
This recipe for honey garlic chicken breast is not battered or fried and it has a tangy sour component along with the sweet.
How to Serve Honey Chicken Recipe?
Serve honey garlic chicken with:
- Grains: Brown rice, quinoa, or whole wheat spaghetti.
- Veggies: Classic steamed vegetables or air fryer broccoli possibly drizzled with Asian salad dressing completes our Asian-inspired theme.
- Low carb: Serve with low carb side like cauliflower fried rice.
- Craving comfort food? While the chicken is baking, make healthy mac and cheese or even easier Instant Pot mac and cheese.
How to Store Leftovers?
Store: Refrigerate chicken in a covered container for up to 5 days. This is great for teriyaki chicken meal prep for the week!
Freeze: It also freezes extremely well for up to 3 months.
Reheat: Place honey garlic chicken recipe in a skillet or saucepan and reheat on low heat. The sauce will thicken in the fridge, so add a splash of water and watch it come back to life. Easy-peasy!
Make Ahead: Marinate the chicken for up to 3 days ahead of time. Keep it covered and stored in the fridge and use it when you’re ready!
I hope you enjoy this super easy healthy meal! Come back and let me know in the comments. I reply to every single one of them.
More Chicken Breast Recipes
Browse all healthy chicken recipes and you may also like these healthy grill recipes!
Baked Honey Garlic Chicken Breast
Ingredients
- 2 lbs chicken breasts boneless & skinless
- 1/3 cup honey melt on the stove if it is hard
- 2 tbsp soy sauce
- 2 tbsp lemon juice or apple cider vinegar
- 3 large garlic cloves
- 1 tbsp cold water
- 1 tsp cornstarch
- 2 tbsp green onion for garnish
- 2 tsp sesame seeds for garnish
Instructions
- Cut chicken breasts in half lengthwise to make thinner cutlets. More sauce will coat more chicken this way.
- Grate 2 garlic cloves and mince the other one. More flavor this way.
- In a large bowl, add chicken, honey, soy sauce, lemon juice and garlic. Stir with tongs and let marinate while oven is preheating.
- Preheat oven to 450 degrees F and line large rimmed baking sheet with silicone baking mat or unbleached parchment paper.
- Arrange chicken in a single layer and bake for 20 minutes on the lowest rack, turning once.
- While chicken is baking, pour marinade into a small pot. Don’t discard it – we will make delicious sauce. Place on a stove to bring to a boil.
- In a small bowl, whisk cold water with cornstarch. When marinade is boiling, add slurry to it and cook until sauce has thickened, about 3-4 minutes.
- Remove chicken from the oven and transfer onto a serving platter. Drizzle with sauce and sprinkle with green onion and sesame seeds.
- Serve honey garlic chicken with Instant Pot brown rice or Instant Pot quinoa or healthy broccoli salad.
Video
Notes
- Store: Refrigerate leftovers for up to 5 days in an airtight container. Perfect for a meal prep.
- Grill: Preheat grill on medium-high (450-500 degrees F) and rub with oiled paper towel. Place chicken on the grill, close the lid and grill for 8-10 minutes turning once. Do not overcook. Make sauce on the stove or o na side burner of the grill. Easy-peasy.
- Different cut of chicken: Instead of breasts, you can use boneless & skinless chicken thighs. No need to cut them thinner. Chicken has to be fresh or defrosted.
- I do not recommend pan-frying this chicken as the honey burns quickly. Been there, done that!
- If your honey is solid, melt it on a stove in a small pot on low heat.
- Cornstarch settles fast, so whisk again before adding to the sauce, the same way I get you to do when making healthy orange chicken. It makes for a much smoother finish! Also, cold water is the key to avoiding lumps.
- Use a proper sized baking sheet: To avoid sauce bubbling over and causing oven mess. A rimmed edge is perfect.
- Ginger: Keep some extra grated ginger aside and add a little more into the sauce.
Love your recipes! Great tips along with the recipe. Thanks for adding the pictures of the finished meal. I just bought a diabetic cook book that did not. Your recipes will make feeding my son so much easier. I can now make one meal for the whole family. No more custom cooking.
Yeah! So glad you have found it helpful.
I’ve made this twice so far and the sauce is so delicious , I used chicken breast this time and chicken thighs last time , so delicious either way but I prefer thighs
So glad to hear you enjoy the recipe Brianna!
I’ve made other honey garlic chicken recipes before, but not this yummy!! Oleana, the honey garlic sauce was so GOOOD!! Toss out all the other h/g recipes!! This is my new favorite!! Thank you for bringing these delicious recipes to us!! I always head to your recipes first!!
Thank you Joyce! I am glad you enjoyed it!
Hi,
I am thrilled to have discovered your site and more so since I am also on Vancouver Island. Today I was planning on preparing Honey Garlic Chicken and I have a question regarding portions. The recipe asks for 2 lbs of chicken breasts and for me that was 5 chicken breasts. Each breast cut in half as the recipe states would be 10 cutlets. Since the recipe feeds 6 people how many cutlets each or should there be six breasts giving 2 cutlets each. Sorry if this question seems weird but I am just trying to get it right. Thank you so much.
1.6 cutlets
This is delicious. I haven’t been eating as healthy lately so I looked up recipes to re-inspire my good habits and this is it! I opted to cut the chicken into smaller slices before marinating it. FYI the apple cider vinegar is a great choice for the marinade. After all was said and done I served it over some rice with veggies like a stir fry and it was wonderful. Thank you so much for the recipe.
Thanks so much for sharing Chris 🙂
Super easy and oh so good! Even our picky eaters loved it. A must try!
Firstly, I have to say the chicken was delicious. But secondly, I almost set my house on fire! I used a rimmed baking sheet with parchment paper and the marinade ended up bubbling over and going all over the oven. Like I had to put the baking sheet outside in a snowbank! My oven is a mess and crackled for almost an hour while cooling- pretty scary.
I am glad you survived, Dawn. You need to use proper size baking sheet as it is barely 1 cup of marinade in the recipe, not much to bubble over. Oven crackling while cooling off is sort of normal. However, if it’s crackling so much that it makes you scared, then it’s time for new oven. I am so happy chicken was delicious! Maybe try stovetop next time.
I just had a similar issue, so you’re not alone!
I used chicken thighs and pan seared them, then finished it under the broiler, so good! Kid approved, this will definitely be a regular dinner 😁
Yay! Love kid approved recipes 🙂
I just had a quick question. After the raw chicken has been marinating in the sauce, is it still OK to cook and use? I just worry about having raw chicken sitting in it and then using it again. I usually always throw mine marinades right out!
That’s why we bring to a boil, so it cooks.