Garlic Brown Sugar Chicken - a perfect weeknight meal full of flavor and a sweet brown sugar coating. It comes together in under 30 minutes with only 5 ingredients.

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Ingredients you'll need for Garlic Brown Sugar Chicken
- boneless skinless chicken breast, cut into 1 inch pieces
- unsalted butter
- garlic
- chicken seasoning (I use Montreal chicken seasoning)
- brown sugar
How to make garlic brown sugar chicken
- In a large skillet, add the butter and melt. Make sure burner is on medium-high/high. You want to get a good brown sear on the chicken.
- Add chicken to the skillet and sprinkle with chicken seasoning.
- About halfway through cooking the chicken, add garlic and continue to saute, stirring frequently. Be careful not to burn the garlic.
- When chicken is completely cooked, sprinkle brown sugar over the top and allow to melt into the chicken.
- Stir it all together and serve up with a starch and veggie!
Tips, tricks, and faqs
- This recipe intentionally uses a stove top method. I find that it gets a nice browned chicken. If you were to cook this in the oven, you'd miss out on the nice, browned outer layer of the chicken.
- It's important to cut the chicken breast into equal pieces. They don't have to be perfect, but staying similar in size will ensure even cooking and avoid undercooked pieces mixed in with overcooked pieces.
- Be careful about the heat and time you cook your minced garlic. If garlic burns (which it can easily), it gets bitter and will cause the chicken to taste bitter.
- A great shortcut is to buy pre-minced garlic. I buy it in a jar from either Costco or HEB. I find that bulbs of garlic are great if you're making roasted garlic or need whole cloves, but for recipes like these, pre-minced garlic is perfect!
- My pan had a lot of extra moisture/water in it after cooking the chicken - usually this is directly from the chicken itself. If it was still partially frozen, or if you purchased a brand that adds water (it usually says on the package), sometimes you end up with a lot of water in the pan with the chicken. This will actually prevent it from searing the outside and it won't give the sauce the right consistency. If this happens, just drain your chicken and add back to the hot skillet.
This is a great go-to meal for weeknights. Super easy, super fast, and super good! Each serving is only about 153 calories and has 23g of protein!
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Garlic Brown Sugar Chicken
- Prep Time: 5min
- Cook Time: 20 min
- Total Time: 25 minutes
- Yield: 6 1x
Ingredients
- 1.5lbs boneless skinless chicken breast, cut into 1 inch pieces
- 2 tbsp unsalted butter
- 1 clove garlic
- chicken seasoning (I use Montreal chicken seasoning)
- 4 tsp brown sugar
Instructions
In a large skillet, add the butter and melt. Make sure burner is on medium-high/high. You want to get a good brown sear on the chicken.
Add chicken to the skillet and sprinkle with chicken seasoning.
About halfway through cooking the chicken, add garlic and continue to saute, stirring frequently. Be careful not to burn the garlic.
When chicken is completely cooked, sprinkle brown sugar over the top and allow to melt into the chicken.
Stir it all together and serve up with a starch and veggie!
Notes
Weight Watchers Freestyle Points: 2
Nutrition
- Serving Size: ⅙ of recipe
- Calories: 153
- Sugar: 2
- Sodium: 126
- Fat: 6
- Saturated Fat: 2
- Unsaturated Fat: 1
- Trans Fat: 0
- Carbohydrates: 2
- Fiber: 0
- Protein: 23
- Cholesterol: 80
Mimi Durham
Love what you are doing. On this chicken recipe, what do you serve it with, like pasta or rice?
karamyers
Thanks Mimi! Either actually. I usually serve it with Basmati rice or a really light pasta.
Cristina Schackman
I wish I could give this 10 stars. We literally have this once a week, sometimes even twice a week. The kids love it and always ask for seconds or sometimes thirds. It is such a simple recipe that when I forget about dinner and don't think about it until the kids are hangry I can whip garlic brown sugar chicken up in like 20 minutes and everyone is happy. Seriously a favorite in this house, if you haven't tried it yet, do it!
★★★★★