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This recipe is amazing! We tried it for the first time tonight and it was a huge hit. The sauce is so flavorful. My husband and I both loved it. Thanks so much for another wonderful recipe!
Elizabeth
You guysss. Today is a Totally Absolutely Completely Spicy Garlic Chicken and Broccoli Monday.
These tender, juicy, flavor-pumpin’ chicken pieces are first baked to a golden crispy perfection, then dipped in sauce, then re-baked to get that sauce all soaked into the chicken so it’s that perfect balance of semi-crispy and saucy-sticky, and served over hot steaming basmati rice that will make you feel like you might be in the restaurant of your dreams. Surprise! It’s your kitchen. And before the fork action starts, let’s throw some supergreen tender crisp broccoli florets up in there and drizzle it all with a little more of that tangy hoisin and honey garlic sauce, mmkay? Sauce makes the food world go ROUND.
Is it just me, or should it always be time to eat? I am pretty sure we arranged and re-arranged our whole Texas trip this last weekend around where we (read: I) would locate, obsess, and devour our next meal. And then hi hello hayyy snack bar over there, and then the clock strikes vanilla latte o’clock, and *gasp* would you look at that, kids? Time to eat again.
I take eating really seriously 1) in life, and 2) to the extreme when traveling. It will for real put me in a medium-ish bad mood if and when a travel meal is not intentionally pre-chosen for all its good ratings on my nerdiest/favoritist website ever, Trip Advisor. Don’t look now but I might have just become a Senior Reviewer. BOOSH.
So before every meal, and especially on vacation, there is re-re-re-research. As in I search and a re-search and I re-re-search until I find the place deserving of one of my Eating Out On Vacation Meals. We’re talking 45 minutes of hard core, sorry-can’t-talk-right-now-I’m-working-on-something Trip Advisor picture stalking and restaurant website studying. After Saturday’s night’s epic hunt for the perfect place in Houston, I became a living, breathing version of Trip Advisor with a database of BBQ and seafood restaurant menus embedded into my food-loving head. Like, mem-or-ized. And that’s the kind of crazy you’re endorsing when you read this blog.
When we arrived in Houston, it was late and we got a leetle mixed up and tried to check in at the wrong hotel thanks to the person who arranged our accommodations whose name rhymes with Tindsay. By the time we made it the actual correct hotel *eye roll* all the restaurants within ten miles were closed. Pouty face. No room in the inn. Do not pass go. Kick self in face.
So the real truth of my life ensued: with all the restaurants closed, I had to spend one of my Eating Out On Vacation meals on (you know it’s coming) McDonald’s. Owie ow, it hurts. Not even because I don’t like McDonald’s – you and I both know there is a very real time and place for the arches, usually involving Desperation with a capital D and fistfuls of golden, salty, crispy French fries – but how horrible is it to go all the way to Texas only to find yourself eating things fr— I can’t even talk about it anymore.
Here, look at some chicken with me.
This Sticky Garlic Chicken and Broccoli. ❤ It’s so satisfying – especially with a side of beautifully aromatic basmati rice. And hello to the pile of bright green broccoli. I’m telling you – this combo is going to fill you up all day and night (which, for me, is some kind of miracle) and now let me tell you the magic trick –> 30 minutes.
I made this for the first time in the 25 minutes between a quick jog around the lake, a shower and get ready, and a head out the door for a church event. Maybe I stuffed my face with my sticky garlic chicken and broccoli dinner in the car that night. Don’t know don’t care.
What I do care is about that it was ready in time for me to whip into existence and then the leftovers were there waiting for me the next day for lunch and I swear to you they tasted like something from a movie. Er, like a food movie. Uhh, what? I don’t.. just, like… here.
Eat the sticky garlic chicken and feeeeeel gooooood.
Sticky Garlic Chicken and Broccoli
- Total Time: 40 minutes
- Yield: 6 1x
Description
This Sticky Garlic Chicken and Broccoli has that awesome semi-crispy, saucy-sticky texture and tons of spicy sweet Asian inspired flavor.
Ingredients
For the chicken and broccoli
- 1 1/2 pounds boneless, skinless chicken breast tenders
- 1 cup buttermilk (just use milk with a spoonful of vinegar if you don’t have buttermilk)
- 1 cup panko breadcrumbs
- 1/4 cup cornmeal
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- salt and pepper
- 3–4 cups broccoli florets
For the sauce
- 3 cloves garlic
- 1 1-inch piece fresh ginger
- 3/4 cup light soy sauce
- 1/2 cup water
- 1/2 cup hoisin sauce
- 2 tablespoons honey
- 1 tablespoon white vinegar
- 2 teaspoons sambal oelek
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 450 degrees. Line a baking sheet with foil and place a metal cooling rack on top if you have one (it can work without, too). Soak the chicken in the buttermilk. Mix the panko, cornmeal, olive oil, and salt and pepper in a bowl. Remove the chicken one piece at a time, let the buttermilk drip off, and gently press into the panko cornmeal mixture until coated with crumbs. Place the chicken on the baking sheet and bake for 10 minutes. At 10 minutes, flip each piece and bake for another 10 minutes (so total bake time for the chicken is about 20 minutes).
- Meanwhile, as your chicken bakes, pulse all the sauce ingredients in a food processor. This is optional, but to help the sauce develop its flavor and thicken a bit, you can put it in a skillet over medium low heat and let it simmer for a while. Prepare your broccoli by boiling for 1 minute and plunging into ice water (it stays so bright green and crispy!) or stir frying until tender crisp.
- When the chicken is done, dip each piece in the sauce and return to the baking sheet. Bake another 5 minutes, re-dip for one last sauce love, and let rest for a minute or two. Serve over rice, with the broccoli and extra sauce.
Notes
You might have some extra breading and sauce, so you can also use closer to two pounds of chicken depending on how many people you have to feed. Also, the key to the 30 minute trick is prepping the sauce, broccoli, and rice while the chicken bakes. Voila!
- Prep Time: 15 mins
- Cook Time: 25 mins
- Category: Dinner
- Cuisine: Asian-Inspired
Keywords: garlic chicken, chicken and broccoli, sticky chicken, asian chicken recipe
One more thing – we just got back from an awesome weekend at Blog Elevated where Bjork and I taught seminars on monetizing a food blog, improving your food photography, and self-publishing ebooks. Holy wow that was fun! Thanks so much to everyone there for hosting us and it was so nice to meet all y’all Texas (and beyond) food bloggers. What a privilege. XO!
PS. I call that the Touching Heads Selfie. You can use that idea if you want, for sure. Feel free.
Follow directions exactly, they turned out WAY TOO SALTY I couldn’t even eat them
I’m glad I tried it. I did not love the flavor or texture. I don’t know how it could be changed to make it better. The crust was soggy and it was messy to make.
I don’t know if I did it wrong. Those poor lil tenders were soggy and chicken was dry. I might try thighs next time?
I read it as 11 inch piece of fresh ginger😬
This did not taste good. Sorry. Will not make again.
Someone likely asked this when this post first came out, but do you have any recommendations for a non-dairy substitute for the buttermilk? Thank you!
Hi Arielle! Check out some options here!
I love all of your recipes which is why I am commenting on this one. This one was so so salty. I wondered if maybe there was a typo in the recipe. Is it really supposed to be 3/4!cup light soy sauce because we found it over the top salty.. just letting you know so you can amend the recipe as needed. Please keep up the awesomeness of your recipes and website.
Sorry to hear that, Nancy. We appreciate your feedback!
Would you happen to have any suggestions on how to make this sauce without a food processor? This chicken looks too delicious for me not to try !
cookingrecipes Your Daily Food Guide on Instagram_ CHICKEN SWEET POTATO NACHOS
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Hey Lindsay! I’ve honestly never heard of sambal oelek before and I’m not sure I want to buy some just to try this chicken… do you think it would be possible to sub sriracha sauce instead? Looks delicious!
Yes, that should be fine!
Had this recipe in my radR for awhile and was very sad that it was too salty. Wasted almost two pounds of my good expensive organic chicken because it was inedible. Breaking did stick so, that’s why it got one stR
SOOOO salty!! It was literally inedible. I checked and double checked the recipe and yup, it’s the recipe, not me.
Not sure what happened but I did not find this recipe to produce a sticky sauce. An incredibly salty one, yes. Way too much liquid (particularly soy sauce) and not enough honey. Every other recipe I looked at was 2 or 3 tbsp soy sauce max with double the honey. I should have gone with another recipe. ☹️
Hi, what can i sub for the milk? I don’t do lactose. Thanks!
You could probably sub in soy milk – we’d just add an acid (like vinegar or lemon juice) to imitate the buttermilk flavor.
Looks amazing. I’m clearly being stupid, but I can’t see how to print?
I’ve found it!!! 🙂
I made this recipe last night and it was SOOOOOOOOOO GOOOD. That sauce!! Thanks! 😀
Glad you liked it, Alyssa!
I made this for the first time the other day and it was really good. After I put the sauce on the chicken and put it back in the oven, when I went to take it out the sauce was so sticky it stuck to the pan and pulled the coating off the chicken in a couple spots. The sauce was a tad on the salty side so I think next time I’ll use reduced sodium soy sauce. But overall, really good and I’ll definitely be making it again!
Thanks for the feedback, Maggie. Low-sodium soy sauce sounds like a good option.
Sauce is very good but too thin. I would make it again but leave out the water
Thanks for the feedback, Matthew. We appreciate it!
Your work is great! We’re just starting our food blog and you’re one of our top 3 inspirations. Keep up the great work!
I really enjoyed this recipe I’ve made it a couple of times now, I even included in my newest blog post, I gave you all the credits by the way.
http://livingwithjuan.blogspot.com/2015/03/10-cheap-and-easy-chicken-recipes.html
Thank you Juan!
Made these tonight and the flavor is great … but can you give me some pointers on how you got your breading to actually stay on your chicken. Mine stuck to the tin foil, fell off in in the honey mixture, etc. These ended up being baked chicken with some really nice sauce … but in no way did they look like your photo. Followed the recipe word for word.
Hi Kirsten! They are somewhat delicate – it’s not like the breading is stuck on there really well like a traditional fried chicken finger with a firm coating. You just have to handle them pretty delicately in order to keep all the breading in tact.
Delicious! I made this when we had some friends over, and they loved it! I cut back on the soy sauce, and it was still pretty salty, but other than that, this was awesome! Thanks for the recipe 🙂
Made this for dinner tonigh.! Over all, the flavor was ok, but I was disappointed that the coating didn’t stick very well and the sauce didn’t thicken. I used milk/vinegar to make buttermilk which I found doesn’t thicken as much as buttermilk so maybe that was part of the problem. It wasn’t sticky at all. My son said the sauce was “too much”. I liked the concept, but didn’t like the execution.
going to be trying this recipe out tonight for dinner!! i’ve used some recipes on your blog before and they’ve been a success everytime!
This would have been really good if it hadn’t been so salty. I used reduced sodium soy sauce and did not use any extra salt or pepper. My husband and son liked it, but I’d have to figure out a way to reduce the sodium before I would make it again.
Thanks for your feedback KCarr.