Honey Garlic Chicken

Dressed to impress, this honey garlic glazed chicken is delicious and deceptively easy! Paired with green beans, red potatoes and carrots, this is an easy dinner that the family will love.

Sometimes you want a dinner that is a little fancier. Maybe you want to impress your dinner guests, or even just step it up a little for a family dinner. Even better is when you find a fancy dinner recipe that is EASY—and doesn’t require you to slave away in the kitchen all day. Well my friends, this is a perfect meal for you. It’s classic, delicious and quite simple to create.

There are quite a few versions of Honey Garlic Chicken out there, with a variety of cooking methods. I am always on the lookout for a good crockpot meal, so I started with the slowcooker version. It seemed like a great idea—put the veggies, chicken and sauce together and let it cook all day. However, crockpot chicken is usually best shredded, and doesn’t get that crisp glaze. And the crockpot vegetables were terrible! I don’t often have kitchen fails, but those slow-cooker veggies were definitely a fail. They were so brown and mushy that I couldn’t even save them for leftovers, and I’m usually pretty good about not wasting food.

It was a meal that needed a do-over. So I tried again the next day with skillet-cooked chicken and oven-roasted veggies. This time, the result was amazing! My family loved it.

My oven roasted vegetables were easy, and put those crockpot veggies to shame! I like to boil the potatoes before baking them—just to ensure they are done and cook quicker. But even with that step, it was only about 20 minutes of prep time, and 40 minutes of baking time.

While the potatoes were in the oven, I had time to make the chicken. The sauce whipped up in less than 5 minutes, and then it’s just a matter of searing the chicken thighs in the skillet, and letting them simmer in the sauce. The chicken was sweet—but not over the top. It was a hit even with the kids. I scaled up the chicken recipe a little so that you can have extra—I had 1 ½ thighs when I ate this, and my husband had 2.

I also had time to make biscuits from scratch. Homemade bread always takes the fanciness of the meal up a notch, and these biscuits are a quick fail-proof way to do that. I let my kids choose the cookie cutters for our biscuits, which is always a fun way to get them involved. This time, they chose hearts and ducks. Aren’t they cute?

All in all, this is a nice dinner that you can have completed in about 60 minutes. I’m sure it will be a favorite that your friends and family will request again.

The Meal:

• 1 ½ Honey Garlic Chicken thighs

• 1 ½ cups Honey Garlic Vegetables

• 2 biscuits

Recipe Used in this meal:

Honey Garlic Chicken

Serving size: 1 chicken thigh

Servings per Recipe: 9

Ingredients

• 9 chicken thighs (boneless, skinless)

• 1 ½ tsp minced garlic

• 5 Tbsp honey

• 1 ½ tsp ginger (fresh, grated)

• 3 Tbsp soy sauce

Directions

1. In a small bowl, combine the sauce ingredients. Stir until well blended.

2. Trim off excess fat or skin, and pat the chicken thighs dry with paper towels.

3. Spray a large skillet with cooking spray, and preheat on medium high heat. Place chicken thighs in the pan in a single layer. You may need to do this in batches.

4. Sear the chicken thighs, cooking for about 3-4 minutes per side. Drain any excess liquid and place all thighs back in the skillet.

5. Reduce heat to medium-low and pour sauce over chicken. Bring to a gentle boil over medium-low heat until reduced (about 5-7 minutes). Flip the chicken several times during this process to fully coat in the sauce. Plate and serve hot.

Honey Garlic Vegetables

Serving size: 1 ½ cups

Servings per Recipe: 6-8

Ingredients

• 1 ½ lbs red potatoes

• 1 lb baby carrots

• ½ lb fresh green beans

• 2 Tbsp honey

• 2 Tbsp soy sauce

• 1 Tbsp ketchup

• 1 tsp minced garlic

• ¼ tsp oregano

• ½ tsp basil

• ¼ tsp pepper

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 400º. Wash red potatoes and green beans. Cut potatoes into chunks (4-6 pieces per potato). Place potatoes in a medium size pot and cover with water. Bring to a boil and allow to boil for 8 minutes. While the potatoes are cooking, trim the green beans 2-3 inches long.

2. Cover a baking sheet with aluminum foil and then spread boiled potatoes, green beans and carrots over the baking sheet.

3. In a small bowl mix the honey, soy sauce, ketchup, garlic, oregano, basil and pepper. Stir to combine then pour over the vegetables on the baking sheet. Toss to coat.

4. Bake for 35-40 minutes at 400º. Serve hot.

Flaky Biscuits

Serving size: 1 biscuit

Servings per Recipe: 14-16

Ingredients

• ½ cup butter (divided)

• 1 ¾ cup flour

• 2 ½ tsp baking powder

• ½ tsp salt

• ¾ cup milk

Directions

1. In a medium bowl, combine flour, baking powder and salt. Stir to combine.

2. Use a fork to cut in 1/3 cup of butter (softened) into the flour mixture. Once the butter and flour are evenly distributed, mix in milk and stir until well blended.

3. Roll out on a floured surface to ¼ inch thickness. Cut biscuits into desired shape. Melt remaining butter and dip each biscuit in the butter before placing on cookie sheet.

4. Bake at 450º for 10-12 minutes, or until golden brown on top.

Nutrition Facts Label for Entire Meal:

Nutrition Facts Label for Honey Garlic Chicken:

Nutrition Facts Label for Honey Garlic Vegetables:

Nutrition Facts Label for Flaky Biscuits: