In bringing out this honey butter chicken recipe, we experienced a spring in our steps. The incredible aroma of melted honey and butter alone are enough to lift three fingers in salute. Get ready and hop in with us!
Which Chicken Cut Should You Opt for?
When it comes to chicken dishes, people differ in whether they prefer white meat or dark meat. We can reassure you that either of the two cuts will work well in this recipe. Whether it’s the thigh or the breast that you choose to cook, your meals will still taste wonderful.
This time, we purposely go for chicken thighs. Thighs will produce the kind of caramelization we’re about to introduce you to. Even when you cut them into bite-size pieces, the meat will still be juicy and tender, not too lean nor too mushy.
Our Tips for Cooking Perfect Chicken Thighs
One of our tried-and-true tips for preparing honey butter chicken thighs is to combine searing with baking. Searing the chicken beforehand will help bring out its outstanding flavor, while baking it for 20 minutes afterwards will help cook it to perfection from the inside out.
What’s is The Honey Butter Sauce for Chicken?
In this recipe, the golden-brown sauce gives you a true burst of flavor. It calls for many ingredients to caramelize together on the heat.
While honey and butter are important ingredients, the sautéed garlic is what gives the sauce its marvellous flavor. It slices through the sweetness of the honey with its notable pungent aroma, especially when sautéed with the browned butter. This sauce makes a perfect pair with honey butter baked chicken. We simply couldn’t ask for more.
Good Timing is Everything
The next thing you have to keep in mind is to always act quickly— keep swirling continuously once the butter and honey start to melt in the pan, and stop when the foam quiets down. As long as the sauce turns glossy and golden, you’re good to go. It’s important not to keep on cooking the sauce for too long since sucrose burns easily. We believe no one would be in favor of a blackened, bitter-tasting glaze.
For this recipe, we recommend that you let both the honey and the butter melt down well before adding the lemon juice and chicken broth. Otherwise, the sauce could taste a little strange. Better to take a little more time than to be sorry later. Be quick, and keep an eye on what’s on the heat— good timing is everything.
Side Dishes
This pan-roasted dish is juicy and savory, making it an applicable pair of whatever side you want. You can eat it with salad if you wish to neutralize the sweet, buttery aroma of the chicken; otherwise, get yourself a hot bowl of rice to pile the chicken onto, or serve it alone. The choice is yours!
Honey Butter Chicken Recipe
Ingredients
- 25.5 oz skin-on bone-in chicken thigh 4 cutlets
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1/2 tsp ground black pepper
- 1/2 tsp garlic powder
- 1 tbsp unsalted butter
- 1 tsp garlic minced
- 2 tbsp honey
- 1/2 cup unsalted chicken broth
- 2 tbsp lemon juice
- 1 tbsp parsley
Instructions
Prep
- Season the chicken thighs with salt, ground black pepper, and garlic powder. Let sit for 15 minutes.
- Preheat the oven to 400℉.
Cook
- In a cast-iron skillet, heat 1 teaspoon of butter over medium heat, place the chicken thighs skin side down. Sear the first side (skin side) for 6 minutes and the second side for 3 minutes. Remove from the skillet.
- Bake the seared chicken thighs for 20 minutes in the oven at 400℉.
- Remove the chicken thighs from the oven, transfer them to a clean plate.
- Make the honey butter sauce. On the same skillet used for the chicken, turn on high heat and add these ingredients successively: minced garlic, 2 teaspoons of butter, honey, lemon juice, and chicken broth.
- Transfer the chicken cutlets back into the skillet. After 1 minute, reduce the heat to medium. After 5 minutes, flip the chicken cutlets to the other side, let sit for a minute and turn off the heat.
- Serve immediately.
Video
Nutrition
Somehow I am misreading this. It sounds delicious, however it is unclear to me whether in the Searing Phase, Step 2, you are searing the chicken in the oven or on the stove. Then, in Step 3, when do you use this pan again with the remaining oil? Do you pour the honey butter mixture into it?
In the Roasting Phase, Step 2 seems to indicate that you are doing this on top of the stove, but then in Step 3 it says to remove the chicken from the oven.
What am I missing? Also, the total cooking time listed in the recipe is 20 minutes, 10 of which is recommended for searing. This doesn’t quite seem like enough for chicken thighs. .
Thank you Drob for dropping by and leaving us comment 😀
Here’s for your confuse:
– In phase 2, step 2, the chicken is seared on pan and on the stove. My bad – I should have stated it with detail.
– In phase 2, step 3, I think you might have some misunderstanding, I didn’t leave the remanining oil for later use. What I meant was to not drain the oil from the meat completely, just so the thighs are covered with a little bit of oil left.
– In phase 3, I did roast the chicken meat on the stove – my bad again, I checked through and edited it. I was having trial with many baked chicken dishes at the same time, that must be why I was in the jumble with ‘anything-oven’.
– And for the cooking time, step 2 of phase 3 should be “cook and flip every 5 minutes”. I truly acknowledge how reckless this was.
So in short, I seared the chicken in 5 minutes, and leave the remaining 25 minutes for pan roasting on the top of the stove. And you were right, it should be 30 minutes in total, not 25 minutes. I must have miscalculated at some point in between.
Drob, we sincerely apologize for all these inconvenients you’ve had with the recipe and truly appreciate your comment, from which we can take a look back at the instructions and make changes so it appears clearer to readers.
Did my reply answer you somehow? Hope you’ll let us know if this recipe works for you 😀
Have a very nice day!
I made it the first time for my family gathering last weekend and everyone loved it! It was actually much easier to make than I thought. Thank you for the great recipe, Luna.
Thanks for a nice recipe, I’ll definitely make this chicken butter again. I love how easy and quick this recipe is, yet the taste is so gooood!
Just made it today for my picky husband Steve and he liked it. Though he said it was not really as great as the honey butter chicken he usually has at his favorite restaurant, but still very amazing.
I’ve tried both skinless and skin-on chicken thighs and highly recommend everyone to leave the skin on because it keeps the chicken juicy and moist. Anyway, it’s another great recipe from you, Luna. It simply works.
I brought this to the table yesterday and my children loved it. Guess this’ll be one of my family staples for a long time.