Honey Lemon Garlic Chicken

This Honey Lemon Garlic Chicken is an easy dinner recipe made with garlic and honey to make this sauce bright and tasty!

 

Why You’ll Love This Honey Lemon Garlic Chicken Recipe

Simple ingredients, big flavors and ready in under an hour- need I say more?

• Loved by the whole family – With it’s simple yet delicious flavors, this meal is one that will be requested for your dinner table frequently.
• Great flavors – The combination of tender chicken, sweet honey and a little bit of tang from lemon, this chicken packs a big flavor punch.
• Perfect weeknight dinner – This is the perfect meal for those busy days when you want to get dinner on the table quickly!

Ingredients

The simple ingredients needed to make this Honey Lemon Garlic Chicken will easily be found at your local grocery store if you don’t already have them on hand.

• Chicken thighs – I used bone in chicken thighs for this recipe. If you use boneless, make sure to adjust the cooking time accordingly.
• Salt and pepper – I like to use a blend of coarse kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper.
• Fresh garlic – The more garlic the better in my opinion! But because this is one of the main flavor of the dish, I strongly recommend using fresh garlic cloves instead of garlic powder or pre-minced garlic.
• Lemons – We will be using lemon juice to make the honey lemon sauce, as well as lemon slices to garnish the chicken.
• Honey – Sticky honey helps to add some sweetness and balance out the strong flavors of garlic and lemon.
• Extra virgin olive oil – We use this to make our sticky sauce, as well as adding to the pan when browning the chicken.
• Smoked paprika – You can of course use regular paprika, but I love the hint of smoky flavor smoked paprika adds to this dish.
• White wine – I like to use a dry white wine here, as the honey does a good job of adding a hint of sweet to this chicken.

Variations

There are plenty of ways to make this honey lemon garlic chicken recipe your own. Here are a few suggestions.

• Meat – You can swap out the type of meat for boneless skinless chicken breasts, pork chop or pork tenderloin. Just make sure to adjust the cook time accordingly.
• Fresh herbs – To add extra flavor to this dish, you can add things like fresh thyme, rosemary italian seasoning or sage.
• Citrus – You can swap the lemon zest and juice for lime or orange. Because the orange is sweeter than lemon, I would reduce the honey by half.

How to Make Honey Lemon Garlic Chicken

Chicken thigh recipes are abundant on the internet. But this simple meal is not only easy to make, but it’s fill of delicious flavor too.

1. Prepare oven and chicken. Preheat the oven and season the chicken with the salt and pepper. Set them aside at room temperature while you prepare the sauce.
2. Make sauce. In a small bowl, whisk together the garlic, the zest and juice from the lemons, honey, olive oil, water, smoked paprika and parsley.
3. Brown chicken. Heat the additional olive oil in a large, ovenproof or cast iron skillet to medium-high heat. Add the chicken, allowing to brown on all sides.
4. Deglaze pan. Deglaze with the white wine, scraping up the browned bits from the bottom of the pan. 
5. Spoon sauce over chicken. Whisk in the lemon garlic and honey sauce, spooning over the chicken.
6. Add skillet to oven. Place the skillet in the oven. Remove, turning chicken and drizzling with remaining honey. 
7. Bake again until the chicken reaches an internal temperature registers 165°F with an instant-read thermometer.
8. Serve over toasted couscous, angel hair pasta or rice. Garnish with the lemon slices, scallions and flakey salt.

What to Serve with Honey Lemon Garlic Chicken

To make this a complete meal, you can serve this chicken with any of your favorite side dishes. Some of our favorites include green beans with bacon, a fresh salad or brussels sprouts gratin .

I also like to serve with some sort of starch. Toasted couscous, pasta or rice are great options. You also can’t go wrong with crusty bread or garlic bread.

Storage and Freezing

How to Store

You can store any leftover chicken in an airtight container. It will stay for up to five days in the refrigerator.

Can I Freeze Honey Lemon Garlic Chicken?

You sure can! You can freeze the chicken for up to three months. Do this in an airtight container as well.

More Easy Chicken Recipes

When you’re looking for quick and easy chicken recipes, we’ve got you covered! Here are some of our favorites.

More Lemony-good recipes.

• Buttery Lemon Garlic Rice by Hot Eats and Cool Reads
• Lemon Brulee Tart by Life Currents
• Lemon Cardamom Scones by Manila Spoon
• Lemon Garlic Chicken by Savory Experiments
• Creamy Lemon Layered Pie by Who Needs A Cape?
• Lemon Panna Cotta by Culinary Ginger
• Lemon Pie Bars by Noshing With The Nolands
• Lemon Pudding Cheesecake by Serena Bakes Simply From Scratch
• No Bake Lemon Cheesecake by Num’s the Word
• Mini Meyer Lemon Loaves by Liv for Cake
• Zingy Lemon Chicken Wings by Lovefoodies