Honey Lemon Chicken with Sautéed Green Beans
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Say hello to your families new favorite dinner: Honey Lemon Chicken. We’re searing chicken breasts, sauteeing green beans and drizzling it all with a homemade honey lemon sauce. So easy and soo tasty!
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!
Honey Lemon Chicken with Sautéed Green Beans
Say hello to your families new favorite dinner: Honey Lemon Chicken. We're searing chicken breasts, sauteeing green beans and drizzling it all with a homemade honey lemon sauce. So easy and soo tasty!
Ingredients
- 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
- 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder, divided
- 1 - 1 1/4 pound boneless, skinless chicken breasts (or thighs)
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 3 tablespoons lemon juice + 1 lemon, sliced
- 1/4 cup honey
- 1 clove garlic, smashed
- 1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
- 4 tablespoons cold butter, cubed into 4 pieces
- 3/4 - 1 pound green beans, cut into 1 inch pieces*
Instructions
- Chicken: Add the flour, 1/4 teaspoon garlic powder, 1 teaspoon salt, and 1/2 teaspoon pepper to a shallow dish and whisk. Add each piece of chicken to the flour mixture and coat on both sides, dust off any excess flour. Heat a skillet over medium to medium-high heat and drizzle in the olive oil. Add the chicken to the skillet and let cook for 3-6 minutes per side depending on the thickeness. Prepare the sauce while the chicken cooks. Remove chicken to a plate when cooked through.
- Sauce: In a saucepan, combine the lemon juice, honey, and smashed garlic over medium heat. Let the sauce come to a boil, reduce the heat and let simmer for 1 minute. Fish out the clove of garlic. Add 1 tablespoon of butter, remove the pan from heat and swirl, so the butter starts to melt. Place back on the heat for a few seconds, remove and continue to swirl until the butter completely melts. Repeat this process with the remaining 3 pieces. When the butter is completely melted, remove sauce from heat season with cayenne and adjust salt to taste.
- Assemble: Add a small drizzle of oil to the pan you cooked the chicken in if it needs it. Add the lemon slices and push them around the pan with tongs to pick up all the bits left behind by the chicken. Add the green beans and sauté them for 3-5 minutes or until done to preference. Season with salt, pepper, and the remaining 1/4 teaspoon of garlic powder. Pile the chicken onto the skillet if you'd like or divide into personal servings. You can drizzle the sauce over the entire dish or serve it on the side. Personally, we like it on the side (drizzled over rice) so the chicken keeps that nice sear!
Notes
- Broccoli or asparagus will make an excellent substitute if you don't care for green beans!
- Serve with rice, quinoa, or crusty bread.
is this a good choice for you?
Nutritional facts assume you use 1/4th of the sauce (about 2 tablespoons).
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19 Comments on “Honey Lemon Chicken with Sautéed Green Beans”
Made this for dinner tonight. Wow! Great dish and so quick to get on the table. I used bottled lemon juice as I did not have a lemon in hand. Still delish. Will make again soon. I also decreased the butter in the sauce by 1 tablespoon.
This recipe is incredible!! I don’t cook and this recipe made me feel like I can! So simple to make and so yummy to eat! Please try it!
OMG! So incredibly DELISH! Perfect amount of lemony hit, super tender chicken, crisp beans and all so tasty.
If you’re on the fence about making this, jump on it. You will be glad you did.
Absolutely amazing!!! One of my favorite dishes ever, we were practically licking the sauce bowls. I am GF so I used Bob’s Red mill GF flour and it tasted great. Cannot wait to make it again.
This was AMAZING!!!! That sauce was drinkable! Yum. Will make over and over again. We are GF so used corn starch instead of flour for breading
I needed a last minute recipe last night that included chicken breast, green beans and rice. I wish I had found this recipe years ago, it was so delicious!
OMG this was one of the best tasting chicken dishes I have made! I served with a side of Risotto. The flavor mix with the sauteed lemons added such a great flavor. Thank you so much for sharing this recipe; I greatly appreciate it and will put as one of my regular go to chicken dishes to make.
Really delicious, and the sauce is just devine. It’s really important to use the butter in the sauce; without it, it tastes good but it’s thin and has no body. I did reduce the amount to 3 tablespoons, tho. I have made this twice with boneless thighs. They take a little longer to cook, and I need to cook them for several minutes with the pan covered at the end of the cook time to get them cooked through. We are thinking of other things to use the sauce on. Salmon first.
This was delicious and so easy! I made it last night and already shared the recipe with co-workers this morning. I may try reducing the butter a bit next time (it’s the Registered Dietitian in me speaking… 🙂 but the flavor was so nice that I won’t alter it much. I also added some sage leaves from the garden at the sauteing phase for some added herbal flavor. Thanks for sharing this, we really enjoyed it!
Thank you so very much for responding. That means a lot. I did keep the lemon slices in the pan and it did add more lemony goodness. Honestly, I would not change a thing about this recipe. i want to thank you for posting this. It is nothing short of amazing. I will make this so many more times! I had linguine so I used that because I wanted to use it up. I drizzled some of the yummy sauce over it and I was in food heaven it was divine!!! I am your new fan! Looking ahead to my next venture with littlspicejar. So glad I stumbled across this!
So happy to hear it was enjoyed! Thank you for taking the time to come back and comment, Kim 🙂
Oh my goodness! This looks soooo good! Gonna try this weekend!
Do you leave the lemon slices in the pan to sauté along with the green beans?
Yup, I did, that adds a little more of that lemony goodness to the green beans and some of that chicken flavor! But feel free to remove them if you didn’t want the beans to have that lemon flavor.
Would coconut cream work as replacement for butter in the sauce? Thanks!
Sorry, not sure if the coconut cream would make a good substitute as I’ve only tested the recipe with butter. If you decide to give it a go, Ariel, I’d love to know how it went! 🙂
Is coconut Cream Parve? If so please let us know if it works as well.
Would this work just as well with skin-on chicken thighs? Or would the skin get soggy from the sauce? Sounds delish tho, if I don’t make it this week with chicken thighs, I’ll be sure to make it next week with breasts!
You can make it with skin-on chicken thighs, Jessica! They’ll take a little longer to cook so you’ll need to monitor for doneness but the recipe should work just fine. I’d suggest pouring the sauce right before serving so that you can still enjoy that crispy skin or serving the sauce over rice rather than pouring it on the chicken like I did. Hope you enjoy it 🙂