This honey butter chicken is sweet, sticky, loaded with flavour and SO easy to make!
As one of my most loved and most popular recipes, I had to include this in my Debut Cookbook ‘Comfy’!
Preparing the Chicken
Honey. Butter. Chicken. Yes, it really is as good as it sounds. Plus it requires minimal ingredients!
What cut of chicken to use?
Today we’re going to be using diced boneless skinless chicken thigh. Reason being you can build up a nice crust on chicken thigh without it drying out. In reality though you can use other cuts of chicken, and I’ve added more on that in the recipe card notes section 🙂
Dredging through flour
You’ll want to coat your chicken in seasoned flour before frying. This not only helps build up a crunchy crust to the chicken, but it also absorbs the sauce to wrap around the chicken. Just make sure you shake it off before frying or it’ll make the sauce go sludgy.
Process shots: add flour to bowl (photo 1), mix in salt, pepper, onion & garlic powder (photo 2), add chicken (photo 3), coat chicken (photo 4), add to oil & butter in pan (photo 5), fry until golden and crunchy (photo 6).
Honey Butter Sauce
Here’s where things get fun 😛 Let’s take a quick look at what you’ll need:
- Honey – Make sure you’re using runny honey so it blends into the sauce easier.
- Butter – I recommend using unsalted butter, just so you’ve got more control over the saltiness of the sauce. Also just make sure you measure the butter correctly or you’ll end up with way too much!
- Apple Cider Vinegar – This cuts through the rich/sweet flavours of the sauce.
- Soy Sauce – Deepens the flavour and adds a savoury tone to the sauce.
Sauce Consistency
It’ll be fairly thin at first, so you’ll need to gently simmer it until it’s got a runny caramel consistency. As you do this the sauce will caramelize and the butter will brown slightly. At first the sauce will taste fairly sharp from the vinegar, but this mellows out as it cooks down, to the point where you don’t even notice it.
When it comes to stirring in the chicken, don’t leave it sat in the sauce for too long or the flour will turn mushy. The flour helps absorb the sauce in the first instance, but if it’s left sitting around the flour will loosen and fall off the chicken.
Process shots: melt butter into pan (photo 1), mix in honey, vinegar, soy sauce and s&p (photo 2), simmer and stir until thickened (photo 3), stir in chicken (photo 4).
Serving Honey Butter Chicken
My favourite way to serve this is with Mustard Mash and Garlic Green Beans. The mustard helps cut through the sweetness, whilst the garlic from the green beans goes beautifully with both the honey and butter. Alternatively for an easy option this does pair well with rice!
For the spicy salmon version of this recipe check out my Cajun Honey Butter Pork Tenderloin and Hot Honey Butter Salmon!
For more similar recipes check out these beauties:
Easy Chicken Recipes
- Garlic Butter Chicken
- Honey Garlic Chicken
- Honey Sriracha Chicken
- Honey Lemon Chicken
- Salted Caramel Chicken
Alrighty, let’s tuck into the full recipe for this honey butter chicken shall we?!
How to make Honey Butter Chicken (Full Recipe & Video)
Honey Butter Chicken
Equipment
- Large Pan & Tongs
- Wooden Spoon
- Sharp Knife & Chopping Board
- Medium Sized Mixing Bowl
Ingredients
Chicken
- 1.3lb / 600g boneless skinless Chicken Thigh, diced into large bite sized chunks (see notes)
- 1/3 cup / 50g Flour
- 1 tsp Salt
- 1/2 tsp EACH: Onion Powder, Garlic Powder, Black Pepper
- 1 tbsp EACH: Unsalted Butter, Olive Oil
Honey Butter Sauce
- 1/3 cup / 110g Honey
- 5 tbsp / 75g / 2.6oz Unsalted Butter, diced into tbsp chunks (see notes)
- 2 tbsp Apple Cider Vinegar
- 1 tbsp Soy Sauce
- Salt & Black Pepper, to taste
Instructions
- In a medium-sized mixing bowl combine flour with 1 tsp salt and 1/2 tsp onion powder, garlic powder & black pepper. Add in diced chicken and combine until fully coated.
- Add 1 tbsp butter and olive oil to a large pan over medium-high heat. Once the butter has melted, stir it to combine with the oil then add in and space out the chicken. Leave to fry until crispy and deep golden on one side, then flip the pieces and cook the other side until crisp/lightly charred, with the centre piping hot. Remove from pan and turn heat down to medium.
- Melt the remaining 5 tbsp butter into the pan then stir in honey, apple cider vinegar, soy sauce and a good pinch of salt and pepper (to taste). Keep stirring over a gentle simmer until the sauce thickens to a thin caramel consistency. Check for seasoning and adjust accordingly.
- Stir in chicken until it's fully coated then serve up and enjoy!
Video
Notes
- Whole Chicken Breast - Butterfly two large chicken breasts right through to make 4 even sized breasts. Follow recipe as stated, just fry both sides until golden and cooked through the centre then remove.
- Diced Chicken Breast - Follow recipe as stated, they'll just cook quicker than diced thigh.
- Whole Chicken Thigh - You can use boneless/skinless thighs, I recommend just pounding them until even thickness if you can. Follow recipe as stated. Bone in/skin on thighs can be used, just fry them skin side down first to render down the fat, then flip and lower the heat slightly until cooked right through the centre.
Your Private Notes:
Nutrition
Looking for more?
You’ll find plenty more delicious comfort food like this in my Debut Cookbook ‘Comfy’
If you loved this Honey Butter Chicken Recipe then be sure to Pin it for later! Already made it or got a question? Give me a shout in the comments and pick up your free ecookbook along the way!
Delicious. Family loved it. I added cornstarch to the sauce for of a glaze on the chicken. Maybe I didn’t cook it down well enough?
Thanks for the review, Cindy! The longer you simmer the thicker it will get 🙂 C.
my family asks me to make this ALL THE TIME! thank you!
So pleased to hear it! 🙂 C.
Hi Chris,
Great recipe. I’m considering making this in chicken tenders for our annual ladies banquet. Can I use an electric roaster to keep everything warm?
Hey Rochelle! My concern is the longer they sit, the more sludgy the sauce with get due to the flour separating from the chicken. This recipe works best when the chicken is given a relatively quick toss through the sauce then served right away. C.
This was delicious & so easy to make, will definitely make it again. Had some leftover which I reheated in my ninja air fryer, it seemed to give it an extra delicious crispiness to it.
So pleased to hear this went down well, Carol! Thanks so much for the review 🙂 C.
This was very good but I would use less of the honey sauce a bit to much and sweet but delicious and the mustard mashed potatoes excellent
Thanks for the review, Linda 🙂 C.
Have made this many times. It’s so good and fun to make. Part of the rotation
Thanks so much for the review, Cathy! C.
Just finished eating this for dinner and OMG we loved it, the plates are scraped clean I followed everything to a tee including serving with your mustard mash and beans. The mash was a big success too, only thing I did different (but I doubt it made any difference) was I only had 1 tbsp apple cider vinegar so used white wine vinegar for the other spoon. Dinner was a huge success, thanks so much for the recipe
So pleased this went down well, Fiona! Thanks so much for the lovely review 🙂 C.
This was so good! Only change I’m going to make next time is use hot honey. My hubs and I loved this.
Thanks for the review, Brenda! C.
Hi Chris, Another fab recipe from you..
I haven’t tried it, but did Pin it to my DGBMH collection, even though you said it was in your cookbook.. I can’t wait for it to be delivered.. ONE DAY TO GO!!!! It seems ages since I ordered it…. Good luck with your sales. I’m sure many households will have added “COMFY” to their collection of cookbooks.. What a brilliant title by the way!!!