Honey Grilled Chicken

Yum

We’ve all been there– you come home after an exhausting day of work, pick up the kids, swing by the grocery store to grab the groceries, and then heave the heavy bags through the door while everyone whines about starvation and asks what’s for supper.  You have about 10 seconds to come up with something before the troops go into full on revolt mode.

Luckily, you now have this sweet little recipe in your arsenal.  Honey grilled chicken is made in one skillet, uses only 3 ingredients, and is on the table in 10 minutes.  It’s great served hot with minute rice and a microwave vegetable, or warm overtop a crisp green salad.  Oh, it’s just so delicious no matter what way you serve it! 🙂  Get down on one knee and propose, because I think this just may be the one.  😉

What are we waiting for?  Let’s do this!

Honey Grilled Chicken

Ingredients:

1/2 cup Zesty Italian Dressing (I use fat free)

6-8 chicken tenderloins (I use 1 small pack from the grocery store)

2-3 tbsp. honey, depending on sweetness preference

Directions:

Heat Italian dressing in a cast iron skillet until liquid is shimmering.  Add chicken breasts to skillet and allow to cook on one side until brown.  Flip cutlets and drizzle with honey, while the other side begins to cook.  As the sauce thickens, gently move the chicken around in the pan, flipping a few times to coat with sauce.  When sauce is desired thickness turn off heat and serve immediately.  Sauce will thicken even further as chicken cools.

Now, in pictures! 🙂

Ahhh, this lovely recipe.  It’s so simple that I almost chuckle to even call it a “recipe.”  Let me show you how to make it, and soon it will be the “quick and easy” that you pull out on those nights when you swear your kids will all be turning into ravenous werewolves and howling at the moon in a few minutes.

First, I strongly recommend a cast iron skillet (the one I have is this beauty from Le Creuset, here).  A cast iron skillet will reduce your sauce down into divine, sticky loveliness in no time, as well as put a gorgeous caramelized sear on your meat.  A good cast iron skillet speeds up the cooking process too, and keeps your chicken warm while everyone eats.  I’m pretty sure it may solve world peace, too.  It’s just that good. 😉

Get your skillet nice and hot (cast iron takes a few minutes to heat up so keep the heat at medium low and just be patient).  Add in your dressing– I dump in enough just so that the bottom of the skillet is covered.  You may need a squidge more or less, depending on the size of your skillet.  Get the pan hot enough that the dressing is shimmering, and then add in your chicken breast tenders.

Think deep thoughts while your chicken is cooking on the first side.  I wait until the chicken has JUST started to brown, and then I flip it over.  Of course, you can get it more golden if you want to.  You can become president, if you want to. It’s a free country.

When the chicken has seared on the first side, flip it ‘on over.  At this point, add your honey (I usually don’t really measure it– just drizzle some over each piece).  And just let it rest and cook.  Yep. Do nothing.  Yep.  Just like that.  You’re doing great with this.

The sauce should be hot enough to start bubbling, by now.  Just let it bubble merrily away.  Each of those bubbles is reducing your sauce a little bit more and making you some “GAWGEOUS” thick, sticky pan sauce.  I let my meat cook for 3-4 minutes and then check the sauce.  If you can move a piece of chicken around and it leaves kind of a “bare spot” in the pan, then you’re almost to finger-lickin’ chicken bliss, Baby.

Turn your chicken pieces over again and slide them around in the sauce.  At this point your chicken should be fully cooked– you just want to get it nice and coated with sticky honey loveliness.  See that?  Look how gorgeous and sticky and delicious that chicken is!  Oh my gosh.  Divine.

Let your chicken play around in the sauce for a minute or two, until it’s nice and coated.  Turn the heat off under your pan.  The sauce will thicken even further as the chicken cools, so don’t worry if your chicken is done but the sauce isn’t as thick as you like. That sauce will go to bat for you and thicken up while you’re getting the table set and the kids rounded up (and telling them to wash their hands for the billionth time).

I like to let my chicken rest, tented with foil, for a few minutes before cutting, to let the juices recirculate back into the meat.  But hey– if time is short and the troops are staging a revolution, then you do what you gotta’ do, and you can cut into it right away.

I adore this chicken thinly sliced over a fresh green salad.  It adds just a kiss of sweetness, and the sticky sauce means that I don’t have to use as much dressing to get a pack of flavor on my salad.  You can also serve the chicken, plain, with minute rice and a steamable microwave vegetable.  How’s that for multitasking?  You just threw supper on the table in 10 minutes, and you didn’t even have to turn on the oven.  You superwoman, you.

But no matter how you choose to eat it, be sure to save some chicken for tomorrow. It’s delicious hot or cold, and I’m pretty sure the salad you always take to work for lunch could use an upgrade.  And upgrades just don’t get any sweeter than this.

You did it.  And I’m just so proud of you.

 

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