This Honey Lemon Chicken Pasta is ready in 20 minutes, making it the perfect weeknight meal! Pair with a simple salad or veggies and extra lemon wedges to amp up the lemon flavor. Your family will love this easy pasta recipe!
Easy Honey Lemon Chicken Pasta Recipe
Lemon and honey are so good together. This angel hair pasta with chicken is bright, tangy and sweet, and feels perfect for warmer weather. It’s a fast, easy pasta recipe that the whole family will love. Bonus: it’s ready in less than 20 minutes!
I used angel hair pasta because it cooks so quickly, and because the chicken is cut into bite-sized pieces it also cooks fast. After cooking the pasta, it’s transferred into the skillet the chicken cooks in, and everything is tossed together in the honey lemon sauce the chicken simmers in.
The sauce helps keep the chicken perfectly moist and tender. It’s tart yet sweet enough and coats the pasta perfectly. I love the pronounced lemon flavor that’s achieved from a combination of lemon juice and lemon pepper seasoning.
If you’re a lemon lover or a fan of easy dinners that taste like a million bucks but that are really so simple, you’ll love this angel hair pasta recipe for those busy nights!
Honey Lemon Chicken Pasta Ingredients
For this angel hair pasta with chicken recipe, you’ll need:
- Angel hair pasta
- Honey
- Lemon juice
- Olive oil
- Apple cider vinegar
- Lemon pepper seasoning
- Salt and pepper
- Fresh thyme
- Boneless skinless chicken breasts
How to Make Lemon Chicken Pasta
To make this easy pasta recipe, first cook the angel hair pasta according to package instructions.
While the pasta cooks, prep the honey lemon chicken. Add the honey, lemon juice, olive oil, apple cider vinegar, lemon pepper seasoning, salt, pepper, and thyme to a large bowl and stir to combine.
Then, season chicken with lemon pepper seasoning and cook in an oiled skillet until it’s almost fully cooked. Turn the heat down and carefully add the sauce to the skillet. Allow the lemon sauce sauce to bubble at a low boil for about 5 minutes, or until it’s thickened and reduced some.
Once the chicken is cooked through, add the pasta to the skillet and toss to combine. You can garnish the lemon chicken pasta with Parmesan, fresh herbs, or a squeeze of lemon juice!
Tips for the Best Lemon Chicken Pasta
I used angel hair pasta in this recipe because it cooks quickly, but you’re welcome to use any pasta you have on hand. I like longer, skinnier pastas for this recipe since the sauce coats them nicely, but shorter pastas (like bow tie) would be fine too.
For the best flavor, I recommend using freshly squeezed lemon juice instead of the bottled stuff. I know it seems like such a small thing, but fresh lemon juice is so much brighter and has lots more flavor in my opinion!
Your lemon pepper seasoning blend shouldn’t have salt in it, but if it does be sure to taste the sauce before adding any additional salt to it. You might not need to add any salt to this dish, it’s totally up to you.
Finally, make sure to flip the chicken a few times while it cooks to ensure it cooks through evenly. You don’t want one side of the chicken to be more browned than another side.
More Easy Pasta Recipes:
- Lemon Butter Garlic Shrimp with Angel Hair Pasta — Buttery noodles with juicy plump shrimp, flavored with lemon and garlic!! A family-friendly dinner recipe that’s ready in 15 minutes and it’s so EASY!!
- Easy 15-Minute Spaghetti — This Easy Spaghetti Recipe is ready in just 15 minutes and is a hearty, comforting meal during cooler months. Pair with a side salad or steamed veggies for a full meal and enjoy!
- Italian Chicken Pasta Salad — This Italian Chicken Pasta Salad is easy, ready in 20 minutes, and showcases some of my favorite summer ingredients.
- BLT Pasta Salad — Creamy ranch dressing perfectly coats the pasta and BACON. Guaranteed family FAVORITE!
- One-Pot Beef and Bow Tie Soup — EASY, hearty, comfort food that’s full of flavor!! A FAST and tasty soup the whole family will LOVE! It will keep your warm on chilly winter nights!
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Honey Lemon Chicken with Angel Hair Pasta
Ingredients
- 8 ounces angel hair pasta, cooked according to package directions
- ½ cup honey
- ¼ cup lemon juice
- 2 tablespoons olive oil for sauce + 1 tablespoon for cooking chicken
- 1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar
- 1 tablespoon lemon pepper seasoning blend for sauce + more for sprinkling over chicken
- ½ teaspoon salt, or to taste
- ½ teaspoon black pepper, or to taste
- leaves from 2 or 3 sprigs of thyme, optional and to taste
- 4 boneless skinless chicken breasts, diced into bite-sized pieces (about 1 1/2 pounds)
Instructions
Make the Pasta
- Cook according to directions on box, drain, and set aside.
Make the Chicken
- To a medium bowl or large measuring cup, add the honey, lemon juice, 2 tablespoons olive oil, apple cider vinegar, 1 tablespoon lemon pepper seasoning, salt, pepper, optional thyme, and stir to combine; set sauce aside.
- To a large skillet, add 1 tablespoon olive oil, add chicken, generously sprinkle with lemon pepper seasoning, and cook chicken over medium-high heat for about 5 minutes, flipping intermittently so all sides cook evenly. Cooking time will vary based on thickness of chicken breasts and sizes of pieces. Chicken should be about 90% cooked through.
- Turn heat to medium-low, and carefully add the sauce noting that it may bubble up in the first few seconds.
- Allow sauce to bubble at a low boil for about 5 minutes, or until sauce has thickened and reduced some, and chicken is cooked through. Stir sauce and flip chicken intermittently throughout.
Assemble the Pasta
- Add pasta to skillet with the chicken and toss to combine and coat. Serve immediately.
- Chicken and pasta are best warm and fresh, but will keep airtight in the fridge for up to 3 days. Reheat gently prior to serving.
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
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Even More Italian Recipes:
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Easy Chicken Manicotti — This is such a simple dish and with so few ingredients that comes out tasting like a million bucks. The chicken is soft, moist, and tender and there’s ample sauce to coat everything and to add flavor!
Sheet Pan Italian Chicken and Vegetables — This sheet pan recipe is ready in about 30 minutes and cleanup is as easy as tossing a piece of foil.
I just made this for dinner tonight for my family and it tasted lovely! Everyone liked it so much that they asked me to put this dish on the permanent dinner menu! :)
Thanks for trying the recipe and I’m glad it came out great for you and that your family wants it on the permanent dinner menu!
The sauce is supposed to thicken? You might want to suggest draining the chicken from the pan before adding the sauce. My sauce is very watery. Trying to save it now by adding a ton of extra honey but it’s not working. Also the apple cider vinegar smell is overwhelming-maybe use a teaspoon instead of a tablespoon. Just some suggestions.
The sauce reduces (water evaporates) as it boils, so yes it will thicken. It’s not ‘thick’ like ketchup but it’s not watery. Since you mentioned both it’s watery and the smell of the vinegar is quite strong, maybe you accidentally over-measured the vinegar by mistake? Many others have made this and raved about it and not sure what happened in your situation, but thanks for trying the recipe.
Well, I think this would have been great if I had followed the recipe better, and if I wasn’t so paranoid about under-cooking meat :/ We had a bunch of spaghetti squash left over so I threw that in, but the sauce ended up being too strong… I guess because the squash soaked it all up. I may have over measured the honey too. I think I might try this again in the future though :) If anyone ventures to try this with spaghetti squash, I recommend keeping the squash and the chicken/sauce mixture separate, then put em together before you eat it :)
Perfect meal for summer! Packed with flavor! Yummmmm
Thanks! :)
This looks good, but it was not. No one in my family liked it.
Thanks for trying the recipe and you’re the first person who’s ever written to say you didn’t care for it. I guess we all have different tastes.
Does anyone know of any sides other than peas? I am wanting to make this, but most people in the house will not eat peas, or green beans.
There are so many sides other than peas or green beans in the world! Pretty much any vegetable in the grocery store will work! From broccoli, Brussels sprouts, carrots, to a simple salad maybe topped with cucumbers and tomatoes or whatever you like!
good blog
I’m planning on making this soon! It looks very yummy! Sorry for the silly question, did you use fresh lemon juice or concentrate? Do you think it really makes a difference? Thanks!
I would use fresh if you have it but if all you have is concentrate you’d have to adapt the ratios so you get it right for your tastes.
Made this for dinner tonight! It was really good! I added a little sriracha and 3 cloves of garlic. HUGE hit around my picky eaters!
Thanks for trying the recipe and I’m glad it came out great for you! And I love that your ‘picky’ eaters will eat sriracha! That’s awesome and I bet delish in this dish! :)
Thanks for the recipe….just made this now!! It was AMAZING! Perfect pasta for the summer! Didn’t change anything probably would change anything going forward….except I might double the sauce…we like it saucey! My pickey kids liked it too ? can’t wait to make again! So glad I pinned this!
Thanks for trying the recipe and I’m glad it came out great for you! And was even a winner with the picky kids :)
made this for dinner the other night. My family loved it! It was delicious! Thank you for sharing the recipe :)
Thanks for trying the recipe and I’m glad it came out great for you!
This recipe is so simple, bright, fresh & delicious I’ve made it two weeks in a row! MUST TRY! I suggest adding the zest of a lemon to the sauce & letting it all marry together for extra lemony goodness!
Thanks for trying the recipe and I’m glad it came out great for you and you can’t go wrong with extra lemon zest!
I tried it, I enjoyed it but I found it way too sweet! Next time I might reduce the amount of honey that I put into it.
Thanks for trying the recipe and everyone’s tastes are different. Many people have written to say they love the recipe as written, but yes there is honey in the recipe, and if you’re very sensitive to honey that flavor may be more pronounced to you than to others, which sounds like possibly the case. That, or you just have a very sweet type of honey – bees and honey can vary greatly I’ve found, too! I maybe try a different honey and/or reduce the amount slightly then in your situation.
I made this for dinner last night and it was so good! Very flavorful. I took left-overs to work and my co-workers kept commenting on how good it smelled. I will make this again!
Thanks for trying the recipe and I’m glad it came out great for you and love that your coworker could even smell how fragrant the dish is!
It’s a beautiful spring day so I had this for a little solo lunch today. Loved it!! I didn’t have any pasta but had a zucchini so I spiralized it and put the hot chicken and sauce over it which was enough to soften it some. The lemon and thyme was great with it and it’s really a versatile recipe!
Thanks for trying the recipe and I’m glad it came out great with the zuke pasta! Love that idea (and need to break out my spiralizer, it’s been way too long!)! Hope you’ve had a great weekend, Paula!
I fixed this for dinner. Overall, it’s a good dish to fix. The only problem I found was the sauce does not thicken. You would need to add cornstarch or flour to thicken, otherwise you have alot of liquid.
https://www.averiecooks.com/wp-admin/edit-comments.php#comments-formThanks for trying the recipe and I’m glad it tasted good. My sauce thickened because I allowed it to bubble at a pretty good rate, so the volume reduced in the pan quite a bit and I didn’t need to add cornstarch but sounds like you figured out something that worked for you. A few other people have written in email this week (didn’t comment on the post) to say they made it and that it came out great without any tweaks necessary but maybe you just had very juicy chicken!! :)