Look, I get it. Some weeknights you walk in the door, you’re dead on your feet, and the thought of a thirty-minute cooking process feels like climbing Everest. We all need emergency dinner wins, right? This is where my crown jewel comes in. I swear this recipe has saved me from ordering takeout more times than I can count. These Simple Honey Garlic Chicken Bites – Dinner in 20 Minutes (easy dinner recipes Recipe, 2025 Edition) pack an unbelievable punch of sticky, sweet, garlicky goodness, but they are unbelievably fast. Seriously, from hungry to eating takes less time than streaming the opening credits of most shows. You can find more tips on my favorite easy dinner recipes in 20 minutes, but you are going to want to save this one!
Why These Simple Honey Garlic Chicken Bites Are Your New Go-To Easy Dinner Recipes
Listen, flavor shouldn’t need an hour of your precious evening! I’ve tweaked this recipe until it’s absolutely foolproof, making it a constant for our **easy dinner recipes** rotation.
- Unbelievable Speed: Seriously, we’re talking 20 minutes total. That’s less time than it takes to decide what movie to watch.
- Huge Flavor Payoff: That sticky honey garlic glaze tastes like you slow-cooked it for hours. That’s just kitchen magic, people!
- Cleanup is a Breeze: Since almost everything happens in one large skillet, cleanup takes about two minutes. Trust me, that’s essential after a long day.
I promise you, the more you make these **chicken bites**, the faster you’ll get. You can check out some other ideas for easy weeknight dinners, but this one is the clear winner when time is super tight.
Gathering Ingredients for Simple Honey Garlic Chicken Bites
Okay, before we jump into the sizzle, we need our troops lined up. Because this is a 20-minute meal, we can’t be scrambling around looking for minced garlic when the chicken is already browning! If you use precise measurements, I promise these chicken bites will come out exactly like mine every single time. We’re keeping things super simple, which you know I love, but don’t skip the cornstarch step—that’s our secret weapon for a thick glaze. If you’re looking for even fewer ingredients, check out my guide on 5-ingredient easy dinner recipes, but you’ll want the full list for this flavor bomb!
For the Chicken Bites
This is the main event! Make sure you get your chicken breasts ready before you even think about turning on the heat. It’s all about the prep here.
- 1.5 lbs boneless, skinless chicken breasts, cut into nice 1-inch cubes
- 1 tsp salt
- 1/2 tsp black pepper
- 1 tbsp olive oil (just enough to get things started in your skillet!)
For the Sweet & Savory Honey Garlic Sauce
This sauce is what brings everything together—it’s salty, sweet, and perfectly sharp from the ginger and garlic. Don’t worry about the cornstarch, it’s not scary!
- 1/2 cup honey (the good, thick stuff!)
- 1/4 cup soy sauce
- 2 cloves garlic, minced (don’t even think about using the powder here, please!)
- 1 tsp ground ginger
- 1 tsp cornstarch mixed with 1 tbsp cold water to make a slurry (Mix this in a tiny cup right before you need it!)
Step-by-Step Instructions for Simple Honey Garlic Chicken Bites – Dinner in 20 Minutes
This is where the speed magic happens! Remember what I always say: preparation saves time when you’re cooking fast. Make sure your chicken is cubed and your sauce ingredients are measured out right next to your stove. If you follow these steps exactly, you’ll have glazed perfection on the table in about 15 minutes of actual cooking time. I’ve tested this dozens of times, so you can feel confident following along. For more foolproof guides on crafting these **easy dinner recipes**, take a peek at my thoughts on how to make easy dinner recipes foolproof.
Season and Cook the Chicken
First things first, grab those cute 1-inch cubes of chicken and toss them right in a bowl with your salt and pepper. Get them evenly coated. Heat up that large skillet with your olive oil over medium-high heat—you want it nice and hot before the meat goes in! Add the seasoned chicken cubes and let them cook, stirring occasionally, for about 6 to 8 minutes until they are beautifully browned all over and cooked totally through. Once they look perfect, scoop them out quickly and set them aside on a clean plate for a minute. Don’t wipe out the pan!
Prepare the Honey Garlic Sauce in the Skillet
Keep the heat a little lower now—medium heat is your friend here so the honey doesn’t burn! Right into that same skillet, you’ll pour your honey, your soy sauce, the minced garlic, and that ground ginger. Give that a good stir and let it come right up to a gentle simmer. Now, slowly drizzle in your cornstarch slurry (that cornstarch mixed with cold water, remember?). Stir constantly! You should see it thicken up seriously fast, usually within just 1 minute. It needs to look glossy, not runny.
Combine and Coat for the Final Simple Honey Garlic Chicken Bites
It’s the moment of truth! Take that cooked chicken you set aside and slide it right back into the skillet with that gorgeous, bubbly sauce. Turn the heat down to low and use tongs or a wooden spoon to toss everything together gently. You’re aiming for every single one of those **chicken bites** to be completely smothered and coated in that sticky glaze. That’s it! Don’t let it cook long now, just long enough to heat through and stick. Serve these **Simple Honey Garlic Chicken Bites** immediately over rice, or whatever side you’ve got ready!
Expert Tips for Perfect Simple Honey Garlic Chicken Bites
Even though this recipe is designed to be quick, a few little tricks make the difference between good chicken bites and *amazing* chicken bites. I’ve made this so many times that I know exactly where the bumps in the road can be, especially when we’re dealing with honey, which loves to burn if you look at it wrong!
For the best cubes, try to keep the size consistent when you cut your chicken breasts. If you have some pieces that are tiny and others that are huge, the small ones will dry out while you wait for the big ones to finish cooking. Aim for that uniform 1-inch size; that keeps the cooking time short and even across the whole batch.
When you get to the sauce stage, watch that honey like a hawk! Honey sugars caramelize really fast, and burnt sugar tastes bitter, which ruins the beautiful **honey garlic chicken** flavor we are aiming for. If you see it starting to bubble too furiously in the skillet, pull the pan right off the heat for literally 10 seconds while you stir, then put it back. It’s all about temperature control.
Getting that sauce thick is the best part. The cornstarch slurry only needs about a minute on the heat to work its magic, but you must stir constantly. If you stop stirring, you get lumpy sauce, and nobody wants lumpy sauce clinging to their **chicken bites**! Once it coats the back of a spoon, it’s done—don’t overcook it in this step, or it’ll get too thick when it cools.
Lastly, don’t forget the finishing touch! The notes say you can garnish this, and you totally should if you have five extra seconds. A sprinkle of sesame seeds adds a lovely little crunch, and some freshly chopped green onions makes the whole dish look restaurant-quality. It’s such a rewarding way to finish one of your favorite easy dinner recipes!
Ingredient Notes and Substitutions for Your Easy Dinner Recipes
I love that you’re getting ready to cook these, but I know sometimes folks don’t keep every single ingredient on hand, or maybe you have dietary concerns! That’s totally fine, because these **Simple Honey Garlic Chicken Bites** are surprisingly flexible if you know the key flavor roles. We need salty, we need sweet, and we need that garlicky warmth. If you have to swap something, it’s usually easy enough to make adjustments. For more ideas on planning your chicken for busy weeknights, I’ve got a whole post about meal prep friendly chicken that might help you plan ahead!
Let’s talk about the big hitters in that glaze: the soy sauce and the honey. These are the flavor backbone of this **honey garlic chicken** recipe.
If you need to keep this recipe gluten-free, soy sauce is the one ingredient that needs swapping. You absolutely must grab Tamari! Tamari is usually gluten-free, and it has a very similar savory, salty profile to regular soy sauce, so the flavor payoff stays high. Just make sure the bottle says ‘Tamari’ on it.
Now, about the honey—it provides that unique sticky viscosity and sweetness that’s just different from plain white sugar. If you are avoiding honey for any reason, maple syrup is a fantastic substitute! Maple syrup works beautifully with the ginger and garlic. The flavor profile shifts just slightly, maybe getting a little deeper and woodsy, but it is absolutely delicious, making it a great option for these **20 minute meal** recipes.
What about the garlic? I’ve preached this a lot, but please, if you can spare thirty seconds, use fresh garlic! If you absolutely have no fresh garlic cloves, you can get away with 1 teaspoon of jarred minced garlic, but I wouldn’t suggest garlic powder here. The fresh stuff blends into the sauce so much better and doesn’t clump up when it heats. Remember, building successful **easy dinner recipes** relies on fresh core flavors!
Serving Suggestions for Your Simple Honey Garlic Chicken Bites
So, you’ve got these amazing, glistening **Honey Garlic Chicken Bites** staring back at you from the skillet. Fantastic! But what are we serving them *with*? Since this is a genuine, low-effort, 20-minute meal, we absolutely cannot pair it with something that takes an hour to cook. The meal needs to move at the speed of the chicken!
For me, the perfect pairing has to soak up all that extra sticky sauce that pools at the bottom of the bowl. I’ve got a few go-to’s that keep the entire process under that 20-minute mark, so you aren’t sacrificing your evening.
Rice is the classic choice, of course. If you have instant rice, great, use it! But if you’re feeling a little bit ambitious, I sometimes cheat by using microwaveable frozen rice pouches. They cook in about 90 seconds, and you just toss them in the microwave while the chicken is setting in the sauce. Perfect texture, zero fuss.
If you want to punch up the green veggie factor—because we all need some green, right?—steamed broccoli is my absolute favorite partner for these bites. It’s neutral enough not to fight the honey garlic, and it soaks up the sauce beautifully, too. You can steam florets right on the stovetop while the chicken is browning, or honestly, the microwave steaming bags are lifesavers here. Just toss the broccoli on a plate, cover it, and you’re done in 3 or 4 minutes.
If you’re looking for something a bit different, maybe trying to use up some ingredients, coleslaw is a surprisingly awesome, refreshing counterpoint. The cool, crunchy cabbage cuts right through the sweetness of the glaze. And don’t forget about noodles! Quick-cooking ramen noodles (without the seasoning packet, obviously) tossed with a dash of sesame oil make a fantastic base. It turns the whole dish into a hearty noodle bowl!
No matter what you choose, just make sure it’s fast. If you’re looking for other quick poultry ideas that stick to the speedy theme, you might want to check out how I handle my simple chicken fajita skillet on nights when I’m craving something zesty instead of sweet!
Storage and Reheating Instructions for Leftover Simple Honey Garlic Chicken Bites
Okay, confession time: sometimes these **chicken bites** don’t even last long enough for leftovers! They are just *that* addictive. But if, by some miracle, you managed to stash some away, you definitely want to store and reheat them correctly so they taste almost as good as when they came hot off the stove. Nobody wants sad, rubbery chicken, right?
The biggest rule here is keeping that lovely glaze intact. Honey and soy sauce mixtures tend to get gooey and then seize up oddly when they cool down completely. To prevent this stickiness disaster, make sure you let the **Simple Honey Garlic Chicken Bites** cool down just slightly before putting them away—we don’t want condensation building up in the container!
When it comes to storage, an airtight container is your best friend. Seriously, cram a gallon of tupperware in the fridge, but make sure that lid snaps down tight. This keeps the flavor locked in and prevents your chicken from tasting like whatever else you have lurking in there, like that leftover onion soup! These will last comfortably for about three to four days in the refrigerator.
Now for reheating—this is crucial if you want to maintain that soft, slightly chewy texture. I strongly advise against just nuking them in the microwave for a minute. Microwaving tends to steam the chicken excessively, especially pieces coated in sugar-heavy sauces like this one, and they can get tough really fast. While the microwave is fastest, it sacrifices texture.
The absolute best way to bring these back to life is right back where they started: the skillet! Heat up your large skillet over medium heat. You don’t even need much oil, maybe just a tiny slick, or none at all if you’re worried about extra grease.
Toss the cold chicken bites into the warm pan. Let them heat through slowly, stirring gently every 30 seconds or so. This method allows the residual moisture to evaporate slightly and lets that glaze just re-tack up without burning. It takes maybe 4 to 5 minutes total, but I promise, they taste fresh again! If you’re doing a lot of meal prep for the week, check out my general tips on making dinner recipes for busy weeknights to keep things moving smoothly.
Frequently Asked Questions About These 20 Minute Meal Recipes
I love hearing from you all! It’s clear these **20 minute meals** are popular because we all need that quick fix. Here are the burning questions I keep getting about whipping up these **Simple Honey Garlic Chicken Bites** when time is short.
Can I make the sauce ahead of time for these easy dinner recipes?
You absolutely can! This is a fantastic trick for making the prep time feel like five minutes flat. You can mix the honey, soy sauce, ginger, and garlic together and keep it in a sealed jar in the fridge for up to three days. The only timing note? Don’t mix the cornstarch slurry until you are ready to use it, as it separates quickly. Just pull the sauce out while the chicken is cooking, bring it to a simmer, thicken with the slurry, and toss! Easy peasy!
What cut of chicken works best for these chicken bites?
For this specific recipe—because we are aiming for speed and that 20-minute window—boneless, skinless chicken breasts cut into cubes are honestly the best choice. They cook quickly and evenly on medium-high heat. Thighs are more flavorful, sure, but they have more connective tissue and fat, so they take a few minutes longer to render and brown properly, pushing us past that 20-minute sweet spot for these **easy dinner recipes**. Stick to breasts for reliability!
If you’re looking for even more fantastic ideas when you are short on time, take a look at my post on quick dinner ideas for busy weeknights—I’ve got more where these came from!
Share Your Experience Making Simple Honey Garlic Chicken Bites
Okay, now that you’ve tasted the magic of these lightning-fast **Simple Honey Garlic Chicken Bites**, I desperately want to hear what you think! Honestly, seeing your triumphs in the kitchen is what keeps me sharing these super **easy dinner recipes** late into the night. This recipe works like a charm for me, but I know everyone’s stove runs a little differently!
Did you manage to get them on the table in under 20 minutes? Did you use sesame seeds or green onions for garnish? Tell me everything!
The best way to let me know is by hitting the rating stars right below this section—a five-star rating tells me I nailed the quick-flavor factor, and it really helps other busy cooks find this recipe when they need a weeknight lifesaver. If you made any slight tweaks (maybe you added a dash of hot sauce to the glaze?), please leave a comment below. I live for those little tips and tricks!
And please, if you snapped a picture of your gorgeous, sticky **chicken bites**, tag me! Seeing them pop up on your social feeds makes my whole week. You can find me over on my main page at the blog, or tag me directly when you post. Happy cooking, friends, and thanks for trusting me with your busy weeknight plans!
Simple Honey Garlic Chicken Bites
Ingredients
Equipment
Method
- Season the cubed chicken with salt and pepper.
- Heat the olive oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add the chicken and cook until browned and cooked through, about 6 to 8 minutes. Remove the chicken from the skillet and set it aside.
- In the same skillet, reduce the heat to medium. Add the honey, soy sauce, minced garlic, and ground ginger. Stir the mixture together.
- Bring the sauce to a simmer. Stir in the cornstarch slurry. Cook, stirring constantly, until the sauce thickens, about 1 minute.
- Return the cooked chicken to the skillet. Toss the chicken until it is fully coated in the honey garlic sauce.
- Serve the chicken bites immediately over rice or with a side of vegetables.
