Honey Mustard Chicken with Orange Juice

Name: Honey Mustard Chicken with Orange
Prep time: 10 min
Cook time: 40 min
Total time: 50 min
Ingredients: 4 chicken breast fillets; 2 cloves garlic, crushed; 1 orange, juiced (the juice only); 2 tablespoons olive or vegetable oil (one for the marinade, one for the pan); 6 tablespoons honey (goes into the marinade); 2 tablespoons mustard; 1 tablespoon soy sauce; Salt and pepper, to taste (on the fillets before anything else); 1/4 cup chicken broth (goes in with the sauce, to keep it from reducing too far)

Chicken breasts marinated in honey, mustard, orange juice and soy sauce, browned and then finished in their own marinade. Four fillets, fifty minutes, most of it marinating.

Total: 50

JUMP TO RECIPE

Chicken breasts marinated in honey, mustard, orange juice and soy sauce, browned in a pan and then finished in the same marinade, which reduces into the sauce.

Dry them before they go in the pan

The recipe says to lift the fillets out of the marinade before browning, and the reason is worth spelling out.

A wet fillet in a hot pan releases liquid and steams in it. Steamed chicken goes pale and grey, and the browning that gives this dish its colour and most of its flavour never happens.

Let the excess drip off, or pat them briefly with kitchen paper. The marinade goes in afterwards and nothing is lost.

The marinade becomes the sauce

It has held raw chicken, which would normally rule it out, but here it goes into the pan and boils for twelve minutes. That is comfortably enough.

The chicken broth goes in with it. Six tablespoons of honey reduce to a syrup very quickly on their own, and the broth keeps the sauce loose enough to spoon over the fillets rather than glue them to the pan.

Honey burns

Once the sauce is in the pan, keep the heat moderate. Sugar over direct high heat goes from caramel to burnt in under a minute, and six tablespoons of honey is a lot of sugar.

If it thickens before the chicken is done, add a splash more broth. If the chicken is done before the sauce has thickened, take the fillets out and let the sauce reduce on its own.

Mustard and honey

Two tablespoons of mustard against six of honey sounds unbalanced and is not. Mustard is sharp and honey is only sweet, so the sweetness needs the larger volume to arrive at something balanced.

The orange juice and the soy sauce are doing the same job from opposite directions: acid and salt, both cutting the sweetness.

More chicken

Barbecue wings — the other sweet glaze.
Chicken in strawberry sauce — the other fruit one.
Roast chicken — for the whole bird.
Chicken in mushroom sauce — savoury instead.

Honey Mustard Chicken FAQ

Why take the chicken out of the marinade before browning it?

Because wet chicken steams instead of browning. The liquid clinging to the fillet turns to steam in the hot pan and the meat goes pale and grey. Let the excess drip off, brown the fillets, then add the marinade.

Is it safe to use the marinade as the sauce?

Yes, in this recipe. It goes into the pan and boils for twelve minutes, which is more than enough. What is not safe is spooning a raw marinade over cooked chicken without cooking it.

Why is there chicken broth in it?

To keep the sauce loose. Six tablespoons of honey reduce to a thick syrup very quickly, and the broth gives you something you can spoon over the fillets instead of a glaze stuck to the pan.

The sauce burned. What went wrong?

Too much heat. Honey is sugar and goes from caramel to burnt in under a minute over a high flame. Keep the pan moderate once the sauce is in, and add broth if it thickens before the chicken is cooked.

Six tablespoons of honey to two of mustard: is that right?

Yes. Mustard is much sharper than honey is sweet, so the proportions look uneven and taste balanced. The orange juice and soy sauce work in the same direction, cutting the sweetness with acid and salt.