Honey Lemon Chicken

Lightly coated with flour Chicken fillets are pan-fried until crispy and then drizzled with a super quick sweet, tangy delicious Lemon Honey Sauce. This makes for an excellent weeknight dinner and pairs perfectly with rice or noodles.

Pan of Crispy panfried chicken coated in a sticky, sweet and tangy lemon honey sauce.

Honey Lemon Chicken with a sweet, tangy, refreshing sauce needs only a few ingredients. The honey lemon sauce is made with garlic, honey, fresh lemon juice, and a knob of butter. Chicken breast is first coated with a light coating of flour and then fried until it is tender on the inside and crispy on the inside. And crispy flour coating helps the sauce to stick to the chicken.

Think of this as the popular Chinese takeout lemon honey, but a healthier version. Instead of deep frying chicken, we are shallow frying the chicken. Super quick to make for dinner and you can also easily make it in advance. The sauce is a perfect balance of sweet and tang, is just so good to spoon over rice.

Serve Honey lemon sauce crispy chicken breast served over rice along with green beans.

Ingredients

Chicken breast- Large chicken breast cut into horizontal fillets
Seasoning – Mix of garlic powder, salt, and pepper to add to the flour
Flour – All-purpose flour to coat the chicken fillets
Cornstarch- makes the coating crispy
Oil- Any neutral cooking oil with a high smoking point.
Garlic- Minced
Honey –
Fresh Lemon Juice – I would always recommend fresh lemon juice for best flavor.
Chicken Broth – For the base of the sauce
Butter – Added to the sauce at the end for flavor and also it makes the sauce glossy.

Variation

The sauce is well balanced as such. You can add a splash of soy sauce at the end for a slight variation.
While making the flour mix, add 1/2 teaspoon of paprika for a beautiful color.
For extra heat, add a pinch of red pepper flakes

Ingredients for Honey Lemon chicken breast

Steps To Make

A recipe can not be easier than this. It takes literally 15 mins to make. There is barely any preparation apart from mincing garlic and cutting the chicken into fillets (if you have whole chicken breast).

Prep and Sear Chicken

If you have large chicken breasts, cutting horizontally into two fillets is best for even cooking. For medium or small breasts, wrap them in a plastic wrap or ziplock bag, use a meat mallet and pound them to even thickness.

Once cut into fillets, dredge them in seasoned flour. Shake off excess flour. Heat oil in a pan and sear dredged chicken fillets 2-3 minutes on medium-high heat. Keep cooked fillet on a wired rack, loosely covered with foil. Keeping on a wired rack prevents the bottom from getting soggy.

dredge chicken with seasoned flour. Sear 3-4 minutes on both sides.

Make Honey Lemon Sauce

In the same pan, add the remaining oil. No need to clean the skillet unless there is a burnt bit of flour. Saute garlic until fragrant. Add chicken stock, honey, and fresh lemon juice. Let the sauce simmer until slightly thickened. This sauce is not meant to be very thick but has a lighter consistency. Finish it off with a knob of butter and whisk for the sauce to look creamy and glossy.

Cook Chicken With Honey Lemon Sauce

Finish of the dish by adding the chicken fillets back to the pan along with a few lemon slices and cook for another 3-4 minutes for the chicken to cook through. The flour from the chicken will get into the sauce and thicken it slightly.

Can we use Chicken Thighs instead?

You can use both boneless chicken thighs or with bone.

For boneless chicken thighs sear chicken 4-5 minutes on each side. After adding cooked chicken thighs to the sauce, cook for 6-7 minutes until low leat. Add 3/4 cup chicken stock instead of 1/2 cup, as it will take longer for the chicken thighs to cook.
If using chicken thighs with bone, I would follow the same steps as above but instead of finishing the cooking on the stovetop, after adding cooked chicken thighs to the sauce, will move the pan to oven and bake until the chicken is cooked through.

Recipe Tip

For the chicken to cook evenly and remain juicy, it is important for the chicken to be of even thickness. Don’t skip this step.
The chicken needs to be close to room temperature while cooking, or else it will cook unevenly.
You can easily double the sauce quantity by doubling the ingredients. The sauce will thicken further while cooling down, so don’t reduce too much.

Serve Honey Lemon Chicken With

With a mouthwatering sauce to spoon over, this pairs perfectly with hot white rice along with some roasted veggies. I quickly put some broccoli to roast in air fryer while making it. You can also serve green beans, Zucchini stir fry on the side.

The sweet, salty and lemony sauce is also perfect to serve with creamy mashed potatoes.

Storage

Leftovers can be stored for up to 3 days. However, the sauce will thicken further upon refrigerating. It doesn’t freeze well.

Reheating

To reheat, add a couple of tablespoons of warm chicken stock to the leftovers and reheat in the microwave. Keep on mind that upon reheating the chicken might get slightly overcooked.

To Prep ahead

If you are making it in a large quantity or in advance, then cook chicken fillets and honey lemon sauce and store them separately. Just before serving, cook sauce and chicken together until the chicken is warm and cooked through.