Honey Lemon Garlic Chicken
Hours of marinating, basting, or a ton of preparation are not necessary for a tasty chicken supper. Dinner is ready in less than an hour with this honey lemon garlic chicken. Fresh ingredients, a straightforward dish, and minor cleanup, in my opinion, that’s a huge win!
My children frequently ask for this dish, and I’m thrilled to make whatever they all like! We serve it with country cornbread and brown butter Brussels sprouts. Another option is to serve it with long-grain white rice on the side.
Honey Lemon Garlic Chicken
Honey Lemon Garlic Chicken is a quick, flavorful meal made with fresh ingredients and minimal prep, best cooked in a cast iron skillet and paired with cornbread, Brussels sprouts, or rice; customize it with cayenne for spice, swap chicken thighs for breasts or pork chops, and prep the marinade ahead for extra flavor.
Ingredients
- ½ Cup honey
- ¼ cup fresh squeezed lemon juice or juice of 1 lemon
- 1 tbsp soy sauce
- 1 tbsp rice vinegar
- 8 garlic cloves 2 cloves minced and the
- 5 bone-in skin-on chicken thighs
- ½ bunch of green onions sliced
- 1 lemon cut into wedges
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 360°F.
- In a small bowl, whisk together the honey, lemon juice, soy sauce, vinegar and minced garlic. Set aside.
- Over medium-high heat, preheat a skillet that is safe for the oven. The chicken should be seared until browned on both sides. Drain the remaining fat and liquids from the pan, leaving aside about 1 tablespoon.
- Cover the chicken with roughly half of the honey mixture. In between the thighs, insert the remaining intact garlic cloves. A meat thermometer should read 160°F for the chicken after 40 to 50 minutes of baking.
- Heat the remaining honey mixture in a small saucepan over medium heat while the chicken bakes. After bringing to a boil, lower the heat so that it simmers. Simmer until the sauce thickens.
- Cover the cooked chicken with the thickened sauce. Serve heated with lemon wedges and garnish with green onions.
Hints, Techniques, and Variations
- I like to cook this in a cast iron skillet. A well-seasoned cast iron pan retains heat better than a standard non-stick pan because it is inherently non-stick. Even when the burner is heating one side of the pan, I find that my cast iron cooks equally. Whenever I use my cast iron, my food always appears to cook to perfection. If you use a non-stick pan, will this recipe still work? Of course.
- To make this recipe more ” savory, ” add a little spice. A pinch of cayenne pepper adds a little additional flavor, nicely counterbalancing the sweetness of the honey.
- Use chicken breasts instead of chicken thighs. If you already have chicken breasts on hand, this would still work perfectly, but I like the taste of chicken thighs (plus they’re less expensive). You can also use a pork chop in place of the chicken. The recipe is still intact; however, you will need to modify the cooking time slightly.
- For extra flavor, prepare the marinade ahead of time.