Honey Turmeric Chicken and Green Bean Skillet
This Honey Turmeric Chicken and Green Bean Skillet is delicious and easy to make, perfect for a weeknight meal! My husband asked me to make this again soon almost immediately after tasting it, so it’s safe to say it was a huge hit at our house. The flour and turmeric give the chicken a marvelous crispy coating, the green beans are cooked perfectly, and the sauce is a bit sweet and spicy with a nice kick from the black pepper. The whole recipe comes together super quickly, and I just threw some rice in my rice cooker before I started prepping to get a complete meal. Not only is this Honey Turmeric Chicken and Green Bean Skillet easy and delicious, each satisfying serving is just 245 calories or 4 WW Points on Weight Watchers! To view your current WW Points for this recipe and track it in the WW app, click here!
I adapted this recipe from NY Times Cooking’s Turmeric-Black Pepper Chicken with Asparagus that is definitely having a moment on the NYT Cooking subreddit right now. It seems like everyone there is making and loving that dish, so I couldn’t wait to try it myself! I did make a few minor changes to the original recipe. I used chicken breast instead of chicken thighs, because I just happen to prefer it, and I almost always have some on hand. It’s usually even already cut up in bite-sized cubes to make any of my many chicken bite recipes. I also used green beans instead of asparagus because green beans are one of my favorite vegetables. The final change I made was just using a little less honey than the recipe called for, which I think worked out well. It still gives sweet and spicy vibes, just slightly lightened up with a bit less sugar/carbs.
Recipe Notes
- Serving Size: This finished dish makes a little over 4 cups and weighed 26.7 ounces, so divided into four servings, each serving is about one cup or around 6.5 ounces, depending on whether you prefer to measure by weight or volume.
- Chicken: I used chicken breasts in this recipe, but the original recipe uses thighs, so feel free to substitute that if you prefer! I often buy a big pack of boneless, skinless chicken breasts at the store and then use kitchen shears to trim them down to make 5-6 oz cutlets to use in recipes. Everything I cut off to make the cutlets gets cut into chunks to make chicken bites! It’s easy to weigh out 1 lb or 1.5 lb of chicken chunks and freeze them for later in a quart size freezer bag. That way, I always have some on hand! Buying the bulk packs of chicken breasts is cost-effective, and cutting them into cutlets and bites ensured I have what I need on hand when I go to make a recipe. I find that kitchen shears make this task go quicker and easier than using a knife, so I highly recommend using shears like these (affiliate link).
- Turmeric: If you don’t already have this in your spice lineup, it’s definitely worth buying for this recipe! Turmeric is earthy and peppery and a bit gingery. It pairs so well with the black pepper and honey in this recipe!
- Green Beans: I chose to use green beans in this recipe because they are one of my favorite vegetables and they cook quickly. I thought they were perfect in this dish and the tender-crisp texture was perfect with the chicken. The original recipe used asparagus, but you could also substitute another quick cooking vegetable like peas or zucchini.
More Tasty Lightened-Up Chicken Recipes
Looking for more tasty lightened up chicken recipes like this Honey Turmeric Chicken and Green Bean Skillet? Check out my Cheesy Bacon Ranch Baked Chicken, Chori Pollo, Mexi Chicken Bites, Blackened Chicken with Avocado Corn Topping, Pickle Brined Chicken Bites, Mushroom and Mozzarella Stuffed Chicken, Sticky Honey Coriander Chicken Bites, Barbecue Rubbed Chicken Bites, Cheesy Garden Vegetable Baked Chicken, Mexican Street Corn Chicken, Lemon Pepper Chicken Bites, Nashville Hot Chicken Bites, Strawberry Balsamic Grilled Chicken, Blackened Chicken Bites, and many more in the Chicken category of my recipe index!
Honey Turmeric Chicken and Green Bean Skillet
Ingredients
- ¼ cup water
- 2 tablespoons honey
- ¾ teaspoon black pepper
- 1 ½ teaspoons salt, divided
- 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
- 1 ½ teaspoon ground turmeric
- 1 lb raw boneless, skinless chicken breast, cut into small bite-sized pieces
- 1 tablespoon canola oil
- 12 oz raw green beans, sliced diagonally into about 1-inch long pieces
- 1 teaspoon unseasoned rice vinegar
- 4 lime wedges
Instructions
- Combine the water, honey, black pepper, and ½ teaspoon of salt in a small bowl and stir together until well mixed. Set aside.
- In a mixing bowl, add the flour, turmeric, and remaining teaspoon of salt and stir together to combine. Add the chicken pieces and stir the contents of the bowl until the chicken pieces are coated with the flour mixture.
- Add the oil to a large nonstick sauté pan/walled skillet and bring over med-high heat. Once the oil is hot, add the chicken pieces and stir to break them up and coat them in the oil. Cook the chicken for 5-6 minutes, stirring every couple minutes to brown the outsides of each piece until golden.
- Add the green beans to the skillet and stir to combine with the chicken. Cook, stirring occasionally, for about 2 minutes until bright green and just starting to get a bit tender.
- Add the honey-pepper sauce from step one and stir to coat. Continue to cook, stirring occasionally, for another 2-3 minutes to allow the sauce to thicken a bit. Remove the skillet from heat and add the teaspoon of vinegar. Stir to combine. Serve with a lime wedge to squeeze over top of each serving.
Notes
245 calories, 19 g carbs, 11 g sugars, 7 g fat, 1 g saturated fat, 28 g protein, 3 g fiber, 66 mg sodium (from myfitnesspal.com) Weight Watchers Points Plus:
6 per (1 cup) serving (PP calculated using a Weight Watchers PointsPlus calculator and the nutrition info) adapted from NYT Cooking
The recipe card to print doesn’t list the flour and turmeric in the ingredients.
This was WONDERFUL! Completely exceeded my expectations. I’ll definitely be making again.
Your recipe looks good except for the Canola Oil. You should substitute either olive oil or avocado oil. Canola oil is not as healthy as the others.
My husband & I really liked this recipe.