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This simple Sheet Pan Hot Honey Garlic Chicken and Zucchini is about to become your new go-to meal. Easy homemade, crispy chicken, tossed in a spicy-sweet hot honey garlic sauce. Serve with summer zucchini cooked up right alongside the chicken and top with your favorite creamy dressing. The easiest sheet pan dinner. Add a side of rice or homemade french fries and you’ve got all you need! This fun restaurant-style dinner is great any night of the week!
This is the perfect effortless summer dinner. I know we all try to avoid using the oven in the summer, especially in August. But if you ask me, an effortless delicious sheet pan dinner is worth the heat.
Whenever I’m creating recipes, I always try to think of the best way to make the recipe that will be simplest for you all at home. I’ve learned some tips on condensing and simplifying the cooking process that I think we can all appreciate. So here we go!
This recipe was created in a matter of minutes. Creighton sent me a text message that I should make a garlic buffalo chicken. The simple idea of adding garlic to already delicious buffalo sauce interested me.
Sometimes simple additions can make a big impact on a dish.
I already knew that the family loves my buffalo sauce. So I decided that garlic and honey could be really delicious additions. I wanted to keep the recipe quick and to make sure it required minimal effort. Baking everything all together on a sheet pan helps to achieve that.
The details
Step 1: the chicken
You want to start with the chicken. Cubed raw chicken, breasts, or thighs, or use a mix of the two as I do. Then toss the cubed chicken with a mix of seasonings: smoked paprika, onion powder, garlic powder, salt, and pepper. Next, add flour, then toss again.
The flour allows the chicken to crisp up in the oven. Not a fully breaded chicken, but breaded just enough so that the sauce can nicely stick to the chicken. It’s a small amount, so a very light coating, but just perfect.
Bake the chicken up with a side of fresh garden/market zucchini. It takes maybe 20 minutes to cook.
Step 2: the sauce
Now the sauce, hot sauce, Franks is my favorite. Add some salted butter and then chopped-up garlic, chipotle chili powder, onion powder, and garlic powder. Melt this all together on the stove until just combined and the garlic turns golden. Then, turn the heat off, mix in the honey, and season with salt and pepper.
The addition of garlic, sizzled in butter makes such a difference. Adding garlic creates even more flavor. Then mixing in honey makes things even more special. The lightest bit of sweetness to balance the garlic and spice. Pour the sauce over the baked, crispy chicken and cook the chicken in the sauce. What happens is that the coating soaks up all the sauce – wow, so delish.
Step 3: the ranch – if you’d like
The next step is optional, I make a creamy, cooling cilantro ranch dressing, It’s easy to do, just blend everything up until creamy!
I use cilantro and basil, then all the usual ranch dressing ingredients. But my secret? I also mix in some crumbled blue cheese, so delicious.
Step 4: serve
I serve the chicken and zucchini over rice. Then add chunks of avocado and always some herbs – basil, cilantro, and or/green onions are great.
The chicken, zucchini, and sauce are also yummy with a side of homemade fries. Your choice though, rice or fries – both are delish!
Looking for other quick dinner recipes? Here are a few.
One Skillet Saucy Chicken Tortilla Enchilada Rice Bake
Crockpot Crispy Chicken Tinga Tacos with Avocado Jalapeño Crema
Sheet Pan Honey Mustard Salmon with Caesar Roasted Potatoes
One Skillet Cheesy Green Chile Chicken
20 Minute Garlic Oil Schezwan Peanut Noodles
Sheet Pan Chipotle Salmon Tacos with Pineapple Jalapeño Salsa
Parchment Baked Roasted Red Pepper Salmon
Coconut Curry Salmon with Garlic Butter
Sheet Pan Buffalo Chicken Pizza
Spinach and Artichoke Stuffed Soft Pretzels
Baked Buffalo Chicken Egg Rolls with Cilantro Lime Ranch
Buffalo Cauliflower with Spicy Tahini Ranch
Lastly, if you make this Sheet Pan Hot Honey Garlic Chicken and Zucchini, be sure to leave a comment and/or give this recipe a rating! Above all, I love to hear from you guys and always do my best to respond to each and every comment. And of course, if you do make this recipe, don’t forget to tag me on Instagram! Looking through the photos of recipes you all have made is my favorite!
Sheet Pan Hot Honey Garlic Chicken and Zucchini
Servings: 6
Calories Per Serving: 492 kcal
Nutritional information is only an estimate. The accuracy of the nutritional information for any recipe on this site is not guaranteed.
Ingredients
- 2 pounds chicken breasts or thighs, cut into cubes
- 1 tablespoon smoked paprika
- 1 1/2 teaspoons onion powder
- 1 1/2 teaspoons garlic powder
- kosher salt and black pepper
- 1/4 cup all-purpose flour or use gluten-free
- 4 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
- 2 zucchini/yellow summer squash, sliced
- 1/2 cup hot sauce
- 6 tablespoons salted butter
- 4-6 cloves garlic, chopped
- 3/4 teaspoon chipotle chili powder
- 1-2 teaspoons cayenne pepper
- 1/4 cup honey
- blue cheese or ranch dressing, for serving
- avocado, basil, sliced green onions, for serving
Instructions
- 1. Preheat the oven to 450° F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper or rub with oil.2. On the sheet pan, toss together the chicken, paprika, 1 teaspoon onion powder, 1 teaspoon garlic powder, salt, and pepper. Add the flour and toss again. Add 2 tablespoons olive oil, tossing to coat. Arrange the chicken to one side of the baking sheet. Add the zucchini to the other side. Toss with olive oil, salt, and pepper. Bake 15-20 minutes until the chicken is cooked through.3. Meanwhile, make the sauce. In a saucepan set over medium heat, melt together the hot sauce, butter, garlic, chipotle chili powder and cayenne. Stir until melted and combined. Remove from the heat and mix in the honey and a season with salt.4. Pour the buffalo sauce over the chicken, toss the chicken up in the sauce. Bake another 5 minutes, until the hot honey sauce is baked onto the chicken.5. Serve the chicken, zucchini, and hot honey with chunks of avocado, basil, green onions and blue cheese or ranch dressing. I love this over rice, but it's also great with french fries too!
Notes
Creamy Cilantro-Basil Ranch: In a blender, blend 1/2 cup plain Greek yogurt or sour cream, 1/3 cup mayo, 2 tablespoons buttermilk, 1 cup fresh cilantro, 1/2 cup fresh basil, 1/4 cup fresh chopped chives, 2 teaspoons Worcestershire, 1 teaspoon garlic powder, 1 teaspoon onion powder, 1/4 teaspoon cayenne, and a pinch each of kosher salt and black pepper. Blend until creamy.Â
I made this for my family and they LOVED it! For the sauce, I put in a 1/4 cup of butter (4 tbl spoons) instead and did not add the cayenne pepper so that it wouldn’t be too spicy. Also, before adding the sauce I pulled out a few “naked” nuggets for my youngest and he loved them plain with ketchup. I served it with homemade fries in the air fryer. Such an easy/healthy weekday meal!
Looks like a delicious recipe! I’ve looked through the comments and can’t find an answer to this–what do you do with the other 1/2 t garlic powder and onion powder? Thanks!
After reading through the blog, I believe it should be added to the sauce step . I think it was just missed in the recipe instructions. Hope this helps!
Made today, tasted really good but for some reason my chicken didn’t turn out nice and coated like the recipe photos. Has a slight coating but looks more like skinless unbreaded chicken in sauce. Am i missing something? Xo
I made this tonight and it was fantastic, also super easy! I omitted the zucchini and just made the chicken and served it over brown rice with green beans on the side. My husband loves it, will definitely keep in the rotation.
Love to hear that!! Thank you so much for giving the recipe a try! xT
this was delicious!
Thank you so much!!
I had the same question about where the other half teaspoon of garlic and onion powder was supposed to go, but I accidentally added it all to the chicken to begin with, and it turned out great.
My zucchini was too mushy, so next time I will slice a little thicker so the have more substance to them and won’t be as crowded on the pan causing them to steam.
This was amazing! We loved it!
Awesome! So glad you enjoyed the recipe! Have a great week! xT
Made this for dinner this evening and it was unbelievable. I didn’t want to use lavender honey and the only difference I made was I used Hot Honey. This meal will be in the rotation! The family absolutely loved it. So happy my constant recipe search lead me to Half Baked Harvest!
Thanks so much Teresa! So glad you enjoyed this sheet pan dinner! xT
So good! I used ranch dressing and a bit of crumbled blue cheese and it was delicious 🙂 I also used unsalted butter b/c I didn’t want the sauce to be too salty with the sodium-heavy hot sauce.
Sounds awesome! Thanks for trying out the recipe! xT
Hi !
What happens to the other half teaspoon of the garlic powder and onion powder? Thanks!
My question too! 🤔🤔🤔
This was absolutely incredible! My family loved it, and it was really easy to put together. The only (minor) change I made was adding some fresh grated Parmesan cheese on top of the zucchini at the end and broiling for a few minutes with the chicken coated in the sauce, and it came out crispy and so so good. Thank you, Tieghan!
Thanks so much Christine! xT
We loved the recipe but it was way too spicy for us. Next time I would omit the cayenne altogether. Thanks for another recipe to put in our rotation!
Thank you for the feedback! xT
Wow, this was sooooo good! Your recipes never disappoint – the chicken was so juicy and the coating perfect, hot honey sauce just the right amount of hot. Served over brown rice with the zucchini, felt lazy and used bottled blue cheese dressing and still wow! Definitely going on repeat, thank you!
Thanks for giving the recipe a try! I’m so glad you enjoyed it! xT
Made this for dinner tonight. Served with rice and your Creamy Cilantro-Basil Ranch (so good). My husband and I loved it! It exceeded my expectations. So very delicious.
Do you have a recipe for Blue Cheese dressing?
Hey Pam! So glad you enjoyed the recipe! I’m sorry, I don’t have a blue cheese dressing! xT
I followed this recipe exactly and sauce came out pretty thin and didn’t stick well to the chicken. The chicken did end up with some decent flavor, but would have been much better (and less messy) if the sauce didn’t run all over the pan.
Hey! So sorry about that! Is there anything that you did differently? xT
This was really tasty, but the type of hot sauce clearly matters. 🙂
Don’t sub Tabasco for Frank’s Red Hot! The heat level was quite aggressive (even halved and without the cayenne).