Huge Honey Garlic Chicken
Prep
10m
Cook
20m
Total
30m
Bigly says
Listen to me. Honey garlic chicken. HONEY. GARLIC. CHICKEN. Thirty-minute weeknight dinner that punches WAY above its weight class. Way above. It's the boxer that walks into the ring looking small and then knocks out the champion in the third round and then signs autographs on the way out. People come up to me, they say 'Bigly, the honey garlic chicken, how is it that good, it's only four ingredients in the sauce' and I say BECAUSE THE FOUR INGREDIENTS ARE THE RIGHT FOUR INGREDIENTS. End of discussion.
Most honey garlic chicken out there is a TRAGEDY. Sticky in the bad way. Cloyingly sweet. Burnt on the outside, raw on the inside. The so-called chefs on TV — you know the ones, the ones with the perfect hair and the dead eyes — they caramelize the honey too long, and now you have CANDY chicken, and candy chicken is a disgrace. A disgrace to chicken, a disgrace to honey, a disgrace to the WHOLE STOVE. If your chef tells you otherwise, find a new chef. Period.
The trick is balance. Honey for sweet. Soy for salty. Garlic — and I mean a LOT of garlic, I want you to use more garlic than feels reasonable, I want you to use so much garlic that a vampire in the next ZIP code starts sweating — for depth. And a hit of rice vinegar at the end for brightness. The best version of this I ever had was, hand on heart, in a tiny kitchen behind a laundromat in Queens. A woman named Bao made it. She didn't write it down. She told me with her eyes. I've been chasing that bowl ever since, and this — THIS — is where I landed. Four ingredients. You'll never order takeout again. Easy math.
Ingredients
- 2 lbboneless, skinless chicken thighs(thighs, not breasts, the thigh is the king of the chicken)
- 1 tspkosher salt
- 1/2 tspblack pepper
- 2 tbspcornstarch
- 2 tbspneutral oil
- 8 clovesgarlic, minced(yes eight, do not negotiate with me)
- 1/3 cuphoney
- 1/4 cuplow-sodium soy sauce
- 2 tbsprice vinegar
- 1/4 tspred pepper flakes(optional, for a little heat)
- 3scallions, thinly sliced
- 1 tsptoasted sesame seeds
- as neededsteamed jasmine rice (for serving)
Steps
- 1
Pat the chicken thighs dry with paper towels. Season with salt and pepper, then toss with the cornstarch until evenly coated.
- 2
In a small bowl, whisk together the honey, soy sauce, rice vinegar, and red pepper flakes if using. Set aside.
- 3
Heat the oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat until shimmering. Add the chicken in a single layer and sear 4-5 minutes per side, until deeply golden and cooked through (internal temp 165°F). Transfer to a plate.
- 4
Reduce heat to medium-low. Add the minced garlic to the same skillet and cook 30-60 seconds, stirring constantly, until fragrant but not browned. Burnt garlic ruins everything.
- 5
Pour in the honey-soy mixture. Simmer 2-3 minutes, stirring, until the sauce thickens enough to coat the back of a spoon.
- 6
Slice the chicken into bite-size pieces or leave whole. Return to the pan and toss to coat thoroughly in the glaze, simmering another 1-2 minutes.
- 7
Remove from heat. Top with scallions and sesame seeds.
- 8
Serve over jasmine rice with extra sauce spooned over.
One more thing
Thirty minutes. THIRTY MINUTES. Start to finish. And you've got a glaze that's glossy, sticky, sweet, salty, garlicky — all the things — clinging to chicken that's still juicy in the middle because YOU pulled it at the right time, because YOU listened to Bigly, because YOU are now a person who knows how to cook honey garlic chicken better than the takeout place down the street. That place is going out of business and they don't know it yet. They will. They will. Tremendous.
★ QUESTIONS ABOUT THIS ONE? ★
Ask Bigly about Huge Honey Garlic Chicken.
Substitutions, what to serve it with, why other chefs are wrong about it. He's got opinions.
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