Honey Lemon Chicken With Green Beans Recipe Little Spice Jar

Sweet summer loving. Beautiful seared chicken breasts kissed with homemade honey lemon sauce and you’re all set to holler for dinner in around 30 minutes. And let me take a moment to tell you about that sauce! It’s bright and lemony with some natural sweetness from the honey, and you can almost hear that deep-voiced ‘oh yeahhhhhhhh’ as the honey lemon butter sauce slowly trickles down that lightly crispy chicken. In the midst of sweltering Houston heat, I grudgingly make my way into the kitchen only before/after the sun has made its way towards the other end of the house and even then I’m only willing to spend 30 minutes preparing food. Luckily, this honey lemon chicken requires just ten simple ingredients and comes complete with one side and the main entree. Also: honey lemon sauce to drizzle alll over a little rice, quinoa, or dip some crusty bread. It’s the first rule in the book: sauce makes a good meal, GREAT. I don’t make the rules, ya know ??‍♀️??‍♀️??‍♀️

But before we talk about pan-seared chicken with honey lemon sauce, how was your weekend? What did you do? If you follow my on Instagram, you probably saw that the hubby surprised me with a mini staycation about an hour outside of the city. It was the perfect little getaway to celebrate our five year anniversary and just to sit back and take a day OFF. No checking emails, mapping out schedules or constantly thinking about food (other than the stuff I wanted to consume, obvi, selfishly). Looking back, I don’t think I’ve taken a proper day off in the ballpark of three months. Yikes! Don’t be like me. Rest and relax and also: eat honey lemon chicken for dinner every night this week. It’s so good!

Let’s talk about this weeknight-friendly honey lemon chicken recipe. It starts with the chicken. We’re dusting boneless skinless chicken breasts (or thighs if that’s more your thing) in a little flour, garlic powder, salt, and pepper. Then into a hot skillet, it goes with a drizzle of oil. Let the chicken cook all the way through on both sides. You can prep the sauce while the chicken cooks. The sauce consists of 5 ingredients. The obvious ones – honey and lemon juice. You’ll also need cold slices of butter, a clove of garlic, and a big pinch of cayenne pepper. It’s sweet, lemony with a little kick of heat in the end. Have you made my garlic butter baked salmon in foil? If you have, the sauce uses that same little trick to thicken in up, and you don’t need flour or cornstarch or anything else! The key is to simmer the honey, lemon juice, and a smashed clove of garlic together until the sauce concentrates a bit. Then, we’ll slowly whisk in cold pats of butter a little bit at a time to help thicken the sauce. This will take a few minutes but what you get is a perfect restaurant quality sauce that has that ideal, pourable consistency. Remember, the key is to use COLD butter. The sauce just won’t thicken properly if your butter is at room temperature or melted.

Sauté the green beans with a few slices of lemons, a pinch of garlic powder, and a little salt and pepper. We like them crunchy, so I didn’t let them go for too long. You do you! Cook them all the way through if that’s your thing. Honey Lemon Chicken is the kind of recipe that’s fancy enough to serve your dinner guests and easy enough to pull off on a weeknight! Get at this!