Our Most Popular Copycat Recipe Is a Nostalgic Chicken Dish You Need to Try Again

Published on October 12, 2025

Malibu chicken has been a staple dish on Sizzler menus for decades. And for good reason. The beloved dinner stars crispy breaded chicken, ham, Swiss cheese, and a homemade honey mustard sauce. We created our own take on the restaurant favorite, and it's quickly become our most-saved copycat recipe of 2025. Here's why we love it, and our Test Kitchen tips for making the dish at home.

Tips for Making Malibu Chicken

We kept our version of the restaurant favorite as close to the original as we could, but there are many ways to make the dish your own. Here are some of our favorite ideas.

• Instead of baking the breaded chicken, cook it in the air fryer instead. You'll get the same crispy chicken in a fraction of the time.
• Prep the breaded chicken a day ahead and keep in the fridge. When you're ready to make the dish, bake the chicken and assemble as usual.
• Get creative with the breading mixture. Adding fresh or dried herbs, your favorite seasoning blend, or crushed nuts helps elevate the flavor of the finished dish. A pinch of cayenne pepper or crushed red pepper flakes will give the chicken a touch of heat.
• If you're not a fan of deli ham, try swapping in smoked turkey, prosciutto, or crispy bacon instead.
• Swiss cheese is classic, but the recipe is also delicious with Gruyere or cheddar cheese instead.
• The honey mustard dipping sauce can be made more or less sweet by varying the amount of honey you add.

What Our Editor's Love About Copycat Malibu Chicken

Here are just a few things our editors and Test Kitchen pros had to say about our copycat Malibu chicken recipe.

• "I can't get enough of the combination of crispy breading and moist chicken. But hands down, the best part of this dish is the creamy honey mustard sauce."
• "This is a winner. To keep it from being too salty, I don't add any extra to the breading on the chicken."
• "The cheesiness is my favorite part of this copycat recipe."
• "Very good."

Any restaurant names or trademarks in the names of our recipes are included solely for reference and do not indicate any authorization or approval by their owners. All recipes were independently created and have not been reviewed or approved by any other parties.