My Honey Lemon Chicken is perfect for weeknights! Chicken breast lightly coated in seasoned flour, pan fried until golden and served with a gorgeous honey lemon sauce. At just 320 calories a serve – with plenty of sauce – and on the table in 15 minutes, this is a fantastic back pocket recipe for busy days!
This rarely happens, and it usually only lasts 24 hours, but I can officially say: I’m cooked out. Between cooking for Easter both in real life and for RecipeTin Eats and client work, the amount of food that has come out of my pokey little kitchen over the past couple of weeks is extraordinary.
My freezer is jam packed, the homeless guy is getting 2 meals almost every day, and every friend I see gets sent home with food.
So today, it’s fitting that I share something super fast to make but, as always (!!), super tasty – this Chicken with Honey Lemon Sauce.
I start off by dusting the chicken with lightly seasoned flour which serves two purposes: 1) so the chicken forms a lovely golden brown crust; and 2) it helps thicken the sauce (via brown bits stuck on the pan mixed into the sauce and popping the chicken back into the sauce at the end).
The key to this recipe is the golden brown bits left in the pan from cooking the chicken. It’s gold and it should never be wasted. Whether you’re cooking fish or protein, swish a little liquid of some sort (broth/stock, wine, lemon juice, even water), bring it to a simmer to loosen the brown bits and use a spatular to scrape it off the bottom of the pan and into the liquid.
It’s free flavour and it’s the key to making this simple Honey Lemon Sauce so tasty even though there are so few ingredients in it.
This Honey Lemon Chicken is actually a really healthy meal too, at just 320 calories per serving. Serve it with a simple side salad and a couple of slices of bread to mop up the sauce, and you’ll have a complete meal for less than 500 calories.
Something to mop up the honey lemon sauce is key! It’s rude to lick the plate (in front of others, home alone is perfectly acceptable). So make sure you have some bread to wipe your plate clean!! – Nagi x
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Honey Lemon Chicken
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Ingredients
Chicken
- ▢ 1 lb / 500g chicken breast (2 pieces)
- ▢ Salt and pepper
- ▢ 1/4 cup / 35 g flour (any)
Sauce
- ▢ 1 1/2 tbsp butter
- ▢ 1 tbsp olive oil
- ▢ 1 garlic clove, minced
- ▢ 3/4 cup / 185 ml chicken broth / stock
- ▢ 1/4 cup / 85g honey
- ▢ 1/4 cup / 60 ml lemon juice (fresh)
- ▢ 1 tsp soy sauce
- ▢ 2 tbsp water
To serve (optional)
- ▢ Lemon slices
- ▢ Finely chopped parsley
Instructions
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Slice each chicken breast horizontally to form 4 steaks in total. OPTIONAL (for more even cooking): Pound to even thickness about 1cm/ 2/5″ thick.
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Sprinkle each side generously with salt and pepper.
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Place flour in shallow dish. Coat the chicken in the flour, shaking off excess.
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Mix 1 tsp of the flour (reserved from step 3) with the water. Set aside.
Cooking
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Place butter and oil in a skillet over medium high heat until butter is melted and hot. Add chicken and cook for 2 minutes or until golden brown. Turn and cook the other side until golden brown, then transfer onto a plate to rest.
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Add garlic into the skillet and stir for 20 seconds or until golden. Add chicken broth / stock and bring to simmer. Use a spatula to scrape the brown bits from the bottom of the pan into the liquid.
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Add honey, lemon juice, soy sauce and flour/water mixture (from step 4) into the skillet. Mix and bring to simmer for 2 to 3 minutes until thickened into a syrup. Add salt and pepper to taste.
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To serve, pour Sauce over the chicken and garnish with parsley and lemon slices if using. Alternatively, return the chicken to the pan for 30 seconds (to reheat), turning to coat in the sauce.
Recipe Notes:
1. Bringing the chicken to room temperature really helps to cook the chicken very fast, keeping it extra juicy.
2. TIP: Sometimes I blanch asparagus or other fairly flat vegetables in the sauce while it is simmering. To do this, just add 1/4 cup of water and cook the veggies in the sauce for a few minutes until crisp-tender, by which time the extra water added should have evaporated, leaving you with just the sauce!
3. This can be made with fish or thin pork steaks too! Use thin schnitzel steaks (ie. not breaded / crumbed) or do it yourself – place a sheet of baking / parchment paper over the pork and bash until thin with a rolling pin or large can.
4. To freeze: Don’t put the chicken you want to freeze in with the sauce in the pan (it will go soggy when stored), keep them separate. Freeze sauce separately from the cooked chicken. To reheat, defrost chicken thoroughly and bring to room temperature. Heat a skillet over high heat, add a touch of oil and add the chicken to reheat and freshen up the surface and make it golden again. Pour sauce in to reheat, turn chicken to coat and serve.
5. The reason I use both butter and oil is because the butter is flavour for the sauce and chicken, but if you use only butter, it has a tendency to burn. So I use both butter and oil.
6. Nutrition per serving, assuming all sauce is used.
Nutrition Information:
WATCH HOW TO MAKE IT
Honey Lemon Chicken recipe video! Note: The recipe is missing the soy sauce which is in the ingredients, returned to the recipe by popular demand by readers who loved the original recipe!
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