This honey soy chicken recipe creates beautifully tender bites of chicken in a rich and sticky sauce served simply with tender steamed broccoli and rice. This is the perfect weeknight dinner when you’re craving takeaway. It’s easy, healthy, dairy free and with a gluten free option.
I don’t remember where the inspiration came from for this recipe, but it’s something I’ve been making for years having first published the recipe on the website in January 2019. Since then, it’s remained a favourite and every time I make it I am reminded of just how good this chicken is.
So today the post and the photos have had an update, but the recipe remains unchanged. This honey soy chicken is easy, so incredibly flavourful and will hit the craving you have for takeaway while being a little healthier and cheaper than getting food delivered.
It also reheats well, so make a batch on Sunday and put it in containers for meal prep dinners or lunches throughout the week.
The stand out to this dish is of course the honey soy sauce. It’s very simple, using just a few ingredients, but it flavours the chicken all the way through and creates the most beautifully tender and delicious chicken. Because of the richness of the sauce, this chicken is best served with a simple side of steamed white rice and some broccoli.
I promise you this recipe is easy enough for a weeknight meal and uses simple ingredients but tastes like something you’ve spent hours creating. It’s the perfect dinner for those nights when you don’t know what to have but still want something delicious and good for you.
Key Ingredients
There are three parts to this recipe, the sauce, the chicken itself, and the sides, all which use simple, pantry staple ingredients.
Note all ingredients and their quantities are laid out in the recipe card at the bottom of this post.
- Chicken thigh – I always prefer thigh meat for this recipe as it gets super tender and full of flavour. You can use breast if that’s all you have but the meat won’t be quite as succulent so I do recommend using thigh fillets.
- Corn flour – also known as corn starch in the US, this is going to coat our chicken and help give it that light and crispy coating.
- Eggs – used to coat the chicken and help give it that coating that makes you think of takeaway without being a heavy batter.
- Honey – gives our sauce the flavour and sweetness.
- Soy – the salty that balances the sweetness of the honey. You can use tamari instead to make this recipe gluten free.
- Ginger and garlic – again adding essential flavour and balance to the sauce.
- White rice and broccoli – to serve alongside the chicken. You can use brown rice as well for an even healthier meal and use any combination of veggies you have on hand or prefer.
Step-By-Step Instructions
To make this easy honey soy chicken, you don’t need any special tools or equipment, just a shallow frying pan.
Start by getting your rice cooking so you’re ready to serve. I like to pop mine in the rice cooker before I prep everything else so I can just focus on the main event.
Mix together all of your sauce ingredients in a small bowl until combined and set aside.
To make your chicken, cut your thigh fillets into bite size pieces and toss with the cornflour to completely coat it. The easiest and cleanest way to do this is to add the chicken pieces and the cornflour straight into a large zip lock bag and give it a shake until all the pieces are coated.
Next, you’ll want to beat together the eggs in a shallow bowl and heat a large frying pan with a little peanut oil over medium / high heat.
Once your pan is hot, dunk each piece of chicken in the egg mixture to coat, then place into the pan and fry until golden brown on both sides. The chicken doesn’t need to be cooked through as we’ll cook it again, we’re just looking for the outside to be golden.
You’ll need to do this step in batches to ensure that you’re not overcrowding the pan as you want there to be space around each piece of chicken so that we get that perfectly golden brown coating. Once done, set the chicken pieces aside on a plate with a paper towel to drain away any excess oil.
Once the chicken is all cooked, wipe out the pan to remove any excess oil and add back in your chicken pieces with the sauce and reduce the heat to low. Mix through so that the sauce coats all of the chicken and let simmer, stirring occasionally, until the sauce is sticky and the chicken is cooked through – approximately 10 minutes.
While the chicken is cooking you can lightly steam or boil your broccoli until just tender.
To serve, place some rice in a bowl with the broccoli and some of the chicken and excess sauce from the pan. Sprinkle with sesame seeds and green onions if desired to serve.
More easy weeknight recipes:
10 Minute Peanut Butter Noodles
Spicy Pork and Peanut Noodles
20 Minute Hoisin Pork Stir Fry
20 Minute Bow Tie Pasta
Teriyaki Salmon and Avocado Rice Bowls
Honey Soy Chicken
Ingredients
Sauce
- ⅓ cup honey
- ¼ cup soy sauce or tamari
- 1 teaspoon crushed ginger
- 2 cloves garlic crushed
Chicken
- 500 grams chicken thigh
- ¼ cup cornflour
- 2 eggs
- 1 tablespoon peanut oil for cooking
To serve
- 1 cup white rice
- 2 cups broccoli
- sesame seeds optional
- green onions (shallots) optional
Instructions
- Get your rice started. Add rice and water to a rice cooker according to directions, or prep rice your usual way.
- In a small bowl, mix all sauce ingredients together and set aside.
- Chop up chicken thighs into 1.5inch sized pieces. Place in a large zip lock bag with the cornflour. Seal and shake until all chicken pieces are evenly coated.
- In a frying pan, heat about a tablespoon of peanut oil.
- While oil is heating, crack eggs into a shallow bowl and whisk. In batches, dip each piece of chicken into the egg, coating it completely before allowing any excess egg to drip off and placing the chicken piece into the hot pan being sure not to overcrowd it. Cook chicken on each side until golden. It’s ok if the chicken is not cooked through at this stage. Repeat until all chicken has been used, adding more oil if needed between batches.
- Once all chicken is golden, use a paper towel to wipe out any excess oil from the pan before adding back in all the chicken pieces. Add in sauce and turn down heat to medium/low.
- Using a wooden spoon, stir the chicken to make sure each piece is covered in the sauce. Allow to simmer on medium/low heat for about 10 minutes or until the sauce has become thick and sticky and the chicken is cooked all the way through. Take off the heat and sprinkle with sesame seeds.
- While the chicken is cooking, lightly steam or boil your broccoli until just tender.
- Serve chicken with cooked rice, broccoli and a sprinkle of sesame seeds and green onions.
Video
Notes
Nutrition
Nutritional information is provided as a guide only and is calculated using automated online tools, therefore we cannot guarantee the accuracy. We encourage you to make your own calculations based on the actual ingredients used in your recipe.
Yolande says
My fussy 5 year old just declared this his new favourite meal! It is super easy, and delicious! Thank you!!
Sally says
The ultimate compliment! Thank you for sharing!