Maple glazed chicken is sweet, tangy and full of flavor. With a robust glaze to start your meal and ready in 30 minutes.
Chicken breasts can be pretty boring. I usually cook with boneless, skinless chicken breasts so there’s no magical crispy skin that I get to steal from everyone later. They really don’t look at good as thighs and certainly aren’t as juicy. But they’re cheap and easy to deal with in the kitchen, so we stick with it. Yes, chicken breasts can be boring. But that doesn’t mean they can’t be delicious.
Now that I’ve primed you and you’re ready for deliciousness, today we’re gonna make some maple glazed chicken breasts. Simple. Totally not sophisticated. But full of yum. If you’ve followed me long enough, you’ll know I like depth of flavor. So instead of dumping a whole bunch of maple syrup in there and calling it a maple glaze, I’ve tweaked the flavor profile just a little to have notes of citrus and some soy sauce to balance it out.
So let’s get cooking!
MAPLE GLAZED CHICKEN TIPS AND TRICKS:
Portions: This recipe is enough for four servings but if you want to halve the portions, use two chicken breasts but keep the sauce proportions the same. You still want enough glaze to go around and more sauce is better than no sauce.
Sauce: There are two ways to deal with the sauce or glaze. You could do a reduction in a pan before baking or after baking by simmering until it thickens. Or you can cheat and add in a cornstarch slurry to save time. I always do this because it’s fast, I can control the consistency and it’s just easier overall. It’s so much better than standing over the stove and waiting for the sauce to thicken. The sauce will turn whitish when you add the slurry. Bring it to a boil and wait until the color returns to normal. That’s when you know the slurry has thickened it as much as it can.
Baking: I used a 12″ oven-safe skillet so that’s about the size you’re looking to fit 4 chicken breasts. Keep the chicken at a distance from each other so they don’t steam instead of bake.
Alternatives methods: If you want to skip the baking part or simple want to do everything over the stove-top, reduce heat to medium and simmer the chicken in the sauce for about 5 minutes per side. Flip it and do the other side until the chicken is no longer pink or internal temperature reads 165 degrees F. You can also do this over the grill by thickening the sauce before hand and then basting it onto the chicken every time you flip.
And that’s about it. Enjoy it with a side of veggies to balance the meal out or some potatoes. If you’re in the mood for a salmon version of this, there’s a salmon bowl recipe I made awhile back.
Happy cooking!
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Maple Glazed Chicken
- Prep Time: 10 mins
- Cook Time: 20 mins
- Total Time: 30 mins
- Yield: 4 1x
Description
Maple glazed chicken is sweet, tangy and full of flavor. With a robust glaze to start your meal and ready in 30 minutes.
Ingredients
- 4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
- Salt and pepper to taste
Sauce:
- 1/4 cup chicken broth
- 1/2 teaspoon garlic, minced
- 4 tablespoons maple syrup
- 1 tablespoon soy sauce
- 1 tablespoon lime juice
- 1 teaspoon cornstarch mixed with two teaspoons cold water (optional)
Instructions
- Combine the sauce ingredients and stir to mix
- Pat the chicken dry and season with salt and pepper to taste
- In an oven-proof skillet over medium high heat, pan-fry the chicken on both sides until browned, about 2-3 minutes per side
- Remove chicken from pan, drain any excess oil
- Add sauce to pan and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to medium and simmer for 1 minute, stirring constantly
- Return chicken to pan and spoon the sauce over it
- Bake at 400 degrees F for 10 minutes or until chicken is cooked
- Dish chicken and start reducing your glaze or use cornstarch slurry to thicken it. Simmer until sauce has thickened
- Drizzle the sauce over the chicken and serve hot
11 Comments
FoodGeekGraze
May 30, 2015 at 3:42 AMi really, really enjoy how well you capture the luscious gooey drool-ish aspect of glazes in this and past posts. thank you for sharing 🙂
The Cooking Jar
June 1, 2015 at 2:39 PMGotta have that glaze to tempt the hungry! Love your Pinterest page by the way 😉
Thalia @ butter and brioche
June 11, 2015 at 11:28 PMI too love how you have captured this glazed chicken! I am so salivating over all the images and that sticky, sweet maple glaze. Yum.
The Cooking Jar
June 15, 2015 at 2:52 PMGlazes speak for themselves and they’re really hard to resist! It’s almost magical 😉
Cedar @ Hospitality
June 12, 2015 at 1:46 AMHey Farah, Your chicken looking delicious and yummy with great presentation of different ingredients…Thanks for sharing with us.
★★★★
The Cooking Jar
June 15, 2015 at 2:54 PMVery welcome, I hope you try out something soon. Happy cooking!
Lori
March 31, 2020 at 2:42 PMAwesome red lobster has nothing on you !
First place I tried it
But not the last . Thanks to you I now can make
My own 👍
Stefania
May 13, 2020 at 8:13 PMThank you for this delicious recipe!
★★★★★
The Cooking Jar
January 3, 2021 at 1:00 PMAbsolutely Stefania! Thank you trying it out 🙂
Janet W
July 15, 2020 at 4:06 PMIs it possible to make the sauce then pour over the chicken and just bake it? Thank you
The Cooking Jar
July 16, 2020 at 10:29 AMYes, you could do that too. The sauce just won’t be as thick as if it was done on the stove top with the reduction and slurry to thicken it. But you will still have the flavor.