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We really enjoyed this recipe. Wish we had more. Will double next time. Thank you so much for sharing.
We need to talk, like, big time.
This is the easiest and best way I’ve ever made chicken EVER. Period. I’m not even going to beat around the bush about it – you need to know the secret to this 3 Ingredient Grilled Chicken right this very second.
The secret is equal parts:
- soy sauce
- honey
- water
- (and a few cloves of smashed garlic)
And chicken, doh.
Ummm hi, that’s all.
Honestly, I’d like to keep you around because we’re internet besties and we have good times together, but you probably don’t even need to look at the rest of this post because I bet you can not only get started making this grilled chicken in the next two minutes – you can actually just tuck that combination in your head (try chanting it to commit to memory: equal parts soy sauce, honey, and water – very good, friends) and keep it filed away for all your future grilled chicken needs.
Even as a flustered person trying to grill for the second time in my life and stressing majorly, I can handle that short ingredient list. THANK YOU LIFE.
Three ingredients // marinate // grill it up.
How To Make Our 3-Ingredient Chicken:
The chicken is lightly saucy and sticky on the outside and tender, juicy, and loaded with flavor on the inside, and grilled to golden brown grill perfection on skewers because CUUUUTE! It’s really adaptable since it just starts with a base of three ingredients, so you could think of a bajillion and one ways to give it more of a personalized kick and they would all be just as simple as tossing a few more ingredients into the bag. Ginger, maybe? Jalapeño? Peanut butter to do a creamy-peanut-sauce type thing? I have plenty of ideas for elaboration in my head.
But as is – the short recipe – that’s the kind of recipe that can stay filed away in the back of my head and that will get pulled out whenever we need to feed people (read: ourselves) something really summery, flavorful, and satisfying.
This grilled chicken goes with just about everything, including but not limited to 5 Minute Magic Green Sauce, and it makes for a great Getting Ready For The Week recipe that you can keep in the fridge to toss in salads, wraps, and noodle and rice dishes.
Normally me and chicken don’t really love each other. I mean, you guys know what I eat better than anyone, and you know that I don’t make a lot of chicken in my life. This is true.
But that’s because I can only morally support chicken that is really, really delicious – flavor, texture, all of it – and a lot of the chicken that I find myself eating in life is just medium delicious. I’m super picky with chicken, and in this case that’s actually a good thing for everyone because I’m not interested in something halfway good. AND THIS. This passes my Delicious Chicken Test.
I have to have to HAVE TO to give a huge shout out to my friend Liz for sharing this genius idea with me – she and her huzz were actually sweet enough to invite us to her house for dinner (Sage included!) and feed us the best grilled pork using this 3-ingredient marinade.
And in return, I was greedy enough to seriously badger her for the very explicit how-to on the pork and then replicate the process with chicken and post it on my food blog. I’m so fun like that.
The beauty of this recipe is that it’s so easy that EVEN I CAN DO IT. Like – I can actually grill. I can make grilled chicken. I can make grilled chicken that tastes so super good. And you’re talking to a person who does not grill.
Look, Mom, I’m doing it!
I’d like to close today with one more shout out to my 5 Minute Magic Green Sauce, which continues to be amazing on everything including soy sauce and honey grilled chicken. I’m very aware that it doesn’t even make sense (avocado and parsley in a sauce? plus soy sauce chicken?) but I do not question the powers of that sauce.
So. This pretty chicken! And the smell of the grill. And the taste of the plate piled high with rice, chicken, cilantro, lime, and 5 Minute Magic Green Sauce.
It all awaits you and it is SO MUCH YUMMMMMY!
The Best 3 Ingredient Grilled Chicken
- Total Time: 4 hours 10 minutes
- Yield: 4 servings 1x
Description
The Best 3 Ingredient Grilled Chicken – marinated in soy sauce, honey, and garlic and grilled to juicy, golden brown perfection. So easy!
Ingredients
- 1 lb. boneless skinless chicken breasts
- 3/4 cup soy sauce
- 3/4 cup honey
- 3/4 cup water
- 4 cloves garlic, smashed
- cilantro and lime for serving
- 5 Minute Magic Green Sauce for serving
Instructions
- Cut the chicken into chunks. Place in a large ziplock plastic bag or bowl.
- Pour the soy sauce, honey, water, and garlic into a bowl. Whisk until incorporated. Set aside about 3/4 cup of the sauce for brushing the chicken later.
- Pour the remaining sauce into the bag or bowl with the chicken. Seal or cover the mixture and refrigerate as long as you can – 4 hours is a good minimum but you can go as long as overnight.
- When you’re ready to grill, preheat the grill on medium high for 5-10 minutes and oil the grates. Meanwhile, drain off the marinade and place the chicken pieces on skewers. Place the chicken on the hot grill, cover and cook for 3-4 minutes. Brush with reserved sauce and flip. Repeat this process until you see that the chicken is browned to your liking and fully cooked.
- Serve with cilantro, lime, Magic Green Sauce, or any other dipping sauces you like. We also like this with a salad and some naan or rice.
Notes
If you’re using wood skewers, be sure to soak them in water prior to using them.
- Prep Time: 10 mins
- Cook Time: 4 hours
- Category: Dinner
- Cuisine: American
Keywords: grilled chicken, easy grilled chicken recipe
Hey There–this looks so good! Do you think I could use the marinade with boneless chicken breasts not cut and put on skewers?
Yes, absolutely!
I need a meal for a food allergies of milk, eggs,soy,corn, gluten free, chocolate, oranges, pineapple, shellfish, Do not want any fish dishes.
Thank you
This was an excellent marinade! I just did it on the stovetop. Super flavorful and easy.
Would you recommend this marinade with salmon? Just wondering
We think this marinade would be awesome with salmon!
Thank you for sharing this recipe… i appreciate it
We really enjoyed this recipe. Wish we had more. Will double next time. Thank you so much for sharing.
Oh, this sounds SO yummy & I was excited to make it UNTIL I gasped at the high amt of carbs, sodium, & sugar :O. Dang.
Kids loved it. very good and easy recipe, i tried it last night
So happy to hear that!
Wow, this is gorgeous! That color! Sounds so delicious!
Is there any way to make this in the oven? Grill decided to break…
Made this for dinner last night. It was delicious! I boiled the extra sauce and put it all on a bed of quinoa!
Glad to hear that, Jennifer!
This was amazing! I substituded molasses for honey because it was the syrupy sweetener I had on hand and it was DAYUM good! Thanks for posting!
Glad to hear it! 🙂
I am loving trying all your recipes. I am fairly new so thought I would ask about printing them. I have tried to print..and nothing does. I have tried to copy and paste. Anyone have trouble ? My printer and computer are fairly new, so not sure what to do.
Great Recipe,
It looks so delicious and I think it will taste amazing too.
I am going to try and cook it tomorrow for my family.
Thank You!
Hope you enjoy it!
I made this last night and it was delicious! The only thing I did differently was I cut the chicken into strips and pounded it thin because I couldn’t wait 4 hours for it to marinate. I’d say it had about an hour and twenty minutes of total marination time but that was plenty! Also, since the chicken was tenderized to thin it out, it was really tender and not tough at all. Easy and yummy. A win-win in my book!
Awesome, Callie! Thanks for the comment. 🙂
We’re having a barbecue tonight, can’t wait to try this recipe out. It looks very yum! 🙂
Awesome, Caroline! Enjoy. 🙂
Made this a couple days ago and it was amazing! Marinated for about 4 hours and baked in the oven but next time I will grill the chicken for sure. Soooo yummy, thanks!
Glad you enjoyed it, Nikki! 🙂 Thanks for the comment!
Thank for picture!!
I thinking delicious sure:)
We had these for dinner last night. We love this marinade. Next time we will be sprinkling some sesame seeds on at the end too.
Honeybourne Line
Yum! Love that idea, Roseann!
I made this recipe with the amazing green sauce this week. Sometimes the simplest recipes are the best, especially for busy weeknight meals! Thanks for the inspiration.
Exactly! Weeknights are already crazy enough without adding a complex recipe… Glad you enjoyed it, Stephanie!
Thanks for this amazing recipe! It was so easy and quick to do. This is actually one of my favorite recipes. I am usually not too enthusiastic when it comes to cooking but you really changed that! Goal: try out all your recipes!
Thanks,
Diana!!
That’s great to hear! Thanks, Diana!
Hi Lindsay.
Follow-up to my comment yesterday – we tried your recipe for dinner last night and loved it. I added lime juice and fresh ginger, marinated chicken tenderloins for seven hours, and skewered and grilled. Served with Sriracha, brown lime Jasmine rice, and zucchini. My kids devoured it. Had lots of flavor and was a quick and easy weeknight family meal out of pantry staples. Nice!
Great suggestions, Laura! Thanks! 🙂
Hi Kristin,
I love reading your posts first of all, so enthusiastic and light-hearted; they always make me smike. I tried this chicken last night because it sounded so great, but I didn’t get the same results. (First of all my chicken didn’t look like yours- dry). I marinated it over night, maybe that was a mistake… And I also did 2.5 lbs of chicken and I still had lots of marinade. While the flavor was good, it stuck to the grill during cooking which was a little frustrating. But I also forgot to save some marinade for basting during grilling. I wonder if subbing the water for olive or veg oil would help?
My chicken stuck to a hot clean grill as well. It’s another (small) minus point that I did not mention above in my post.
Hi, Emily! First of all, this recipe does make a lot of marinade. You didn’t go wrong there at all. 🙂 Marinating the chicken overnight should be fine, and I don’t think that was what caused the sticking. A few tips for preventing sticking to the grill are: 1. a clean grill — food sticks to a dirty grill, so the grates should be cleaned before each use. 2. lubricated — a quick coat of cooking oil on a hot grill grate will season it and help food release easily. 3. hot — the grill needs to be hot before you add food to it; the hot grates sear the food and help it release better. Hope that helps.. food sticking to the grill is definitely a pain!
Hi EMILY!
The problem may be in the process of frying. To keep the meat juicy should immediately douse his ardor, it is covered with a crust that prevents the juice to go inside. At the same pieces should not be much smaller. There may be other problems.
p.s. Sorry for my English, I teach it
Thanks for the tips, Yulia!
Wowzer, the comment section on this blog is astonishing! Dozens of people gushing over what looks and sounds good, but no one actually trying the recipe and commenting on the results. Once again, looks like I’m the first to do so, so here goes, and my usual unvarnished manner.
I’ll say it right up front: Lindsey, this is not your best work. It’s Less Than Ideal in several areas: flavor, cost, and quantity.
I made this chicken yesterday. Quite disappointing.
The sauce is very flat and lacks depth of any kind, as you’d expect from two ingredients. Yes, I said two, water does not count.
Good cooking rule of thumb: don’t water things down.
Water adds no flavor. Stock, broth, wine, vinegar, fruit juice, yes. Lots of water in a sauce, no.
And, for a 2 ingredient marinade, it’s also kind of expensive.
I used good farmer’s market honey and quality tamari, and I was into the ingredients alone for about $6-$7.
This recipe also makes more marinade then you need.
After you reserve three quarters of a cup for basting, you still are putting 1 pound of meat with 1 1/2 cups of marinade, which is a LOT.
(If you start with more flavorful marinade, you need less of it.)
I think Trader Joe’s Soyaki marinade, my go-to jarred teriyaki, is much better then this, and costs under $3 a jar. (Soyaki ingredients: soy sauce, sugar, garlic, sesame seeds, soybean oil, ginger, vinegar, sesame oil.) No water.
So, while some of your recent posts have been terrific (five-minute green sauce and veggie salad rolls) this one doesn’t quite cut it.
I haven’t made this yet so I don’t know if it’s good or not, but calling it a 2-ingredient marinade is a mistake because GARLIC is the 3rd ingredient (not water), and if you forgot to add the garlic… then yeah, it would probably lack some depth! My guess with this marinade is that it would need some acid to keep the flavor from falling flat, which is why I plan on adding lime when I do try it out. But if you forgot to add the garlic, it really isn’t fair to give it a 1-star rating!
Thank you for your feedback.
Hi Linsay!
Making this now with lime juice on skewers for tonight on a quick bed of lime scented Jasmine rice with grilled veggies. Quick prep dinner like this is sooo great to combat the after school crunch time and keeps a healthy family! Thanks!
That’s great! Enjoy, Laura! 🙂