Sesame Chicken
Although I didn’t eat a lot of it in college, I’ve definitely made it up for lost time when it comes to my consumption of Chinese food. As much as I love the ease of ordering take-out, I’ve been trying to tackle some of my favorite menu items one at a time. So far, I’ve cooked up sweet and sour chicken, cashew chicken and General Tso’s Chicken, and I’ve loved each rendition. Next on my list was sesame chicken, but I was surprised that there weren’t more recipes available when I did some researching online. I absolutely adored the General Tso’s recipe I made last year, specifically how crunchy the fried chicken was and how the overarching flavors carried through all of the recipe components. I decided to use that recipe as a template, while changing up the flavors to make a sesame version. The end result was fabulous – thick-coated, crunchy chicken tossed a sesame-flavored sauce that had just the right amount of sweetness. Another homemade take-out success!
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This recipe isn’t exactly a 30-minute meal – it takes a little bit of time and preparation, but if you have a few extra minutes, this sesame chicken is 100% worth it. I love how crunchy the chicken is and that the sauce thickens beautifully to coat the chicken. It’s not too thin, but not gloopy either; just right. Toss the chicken on a bed of white rice and top with toasted sesame seeds and chopped scallions, and you’ll be in dinner heaven. Trust me, you’ll want to hoard the leftovers (if there are any!) all to yourself.
I have a long list of take-out favorites that I can’t wait to recreate; what are some of your favorites?
One year ago: Chewy Chocolate Chip Granola Bars
Sesame Chicken
Ingredients
For the Marinade:
- 1 cup (240 ml) chicken stock
- ½ cup (125 ml) water
- ½ cup (116 ml) soy sauce
- ¼ cup (84.75 ml) honey
- ¼ cup (63.75 ml) rice wine vinegar
- 3 tablespoons light brown sugar
- 2 tablespoons cornstarch
- 1 tablespoon sesame oil
- 1½ pounds (680.39 g) boneless skinless chicken breast, cut into 1-inch chunks, skinless chicken breast, cut into 1-inch chunks
For the Sauce:
- 1 tablespoon sesame oil
- 2 garlic cloves, minced
- 1 tablespoon minced fresh ginger
- 1 teaspoon chili paste, can substitute a couple pinches of red pepper flakes
For Coating & Frying:
- 3 egg whites
- 1½ cups (192 g) cornstarch
- ½ cup (62.5 g) all-purpose flour
- ½ teaspoon (0.5 teaspoon) baking soda
- 6 cups (1.31 l) vegetable oil, for frying
- Sesame seeds, to garnish
- Scallions, sliced, to garnish
Instructions
- To make the marinade, whisk the chicken stock, water, soy sauce, honey, rice wine vinegar, brown sugar, cornstarch and sesame oil in a bowl. Of this mixture, place 6 tablespoons into a zip lock storage bag and add the chicken; seal and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes. Set aside the remaining marinade in the bowl.
- While the chicken is chilling in the marinade, heat the 1 tablespoon of sesame oil in a large skillet over medium heat until shimmering. Sauté the garlic, ginger and chile paste until fragrant (about 2 minutes). Add 2 cups of the reserved marinade to the skillet and simmer, whisking constantly, until the mixture has become a darker brown and thickened. Remove from the heat and cover.
- To prepare the chicken for coating and frying, whisk the egg whites in a shallow dish until foamy; set aside. Combine the cornstarch, flour, baking soda, and remaining marinade in a second shallow dish; mix using a fork until it resembles coarse meal.
- Remove the chicken from the refrigerator and from the marinade. Pat the marinated chicken dry with paper towels.
- Heat the oil in a Dutch oven over medium high heat until the oil registers 350 degrees.
- While the oil is heating, prepare the chicken for frying. Toss half the chicken into the foamy egg whites until well coated, then dredge the chicken in the cornstarch mixture, pressing to adhere. Transfer the coated chicken to a plate and repeat with the remaining chicken.
- Fry half the chicken until golden brown, about 3 minutes, turning each piece halfway through cooking. Transfer the cooked chicken onto a paper towel-lined plate to drain. Return the oil to 350 degrees. Repeat with the remaining chicken.
- Warm the sauce over medium heat until simmering. Turn off the heat and add the fried chicken pieces. Toss to coat and serve, sprinkling with sesame seeds and chopped scallions.
Notes
Did you make this recipe?
Leave a review below, then snap a picture and tag @thebrowneyedbaker on Instagram so I can see it!
I made this last night and will make it again but would prefer a baked method bc the frying was a bit much….Overall, its a good but the sauce can be halved unless you want the chicken swimming in the sauce. Otherwise, I followed the directions as written and it was pretty good.
just polished off seconds. this was pretty good. mine came out a lot darker than the pictures, and could have done with more sesame flavor and chilli heat. i’d add a tablespoon (at least) more of each to the sauce if i ever make this again. i do feel like the directions are a bit more complicated than they need to be. i egg washed the drained chicken and tossed them in a ziplock bag with the dry cornstarch mixture, no marinade. it coated perfectly and fried crisp with zero mess. any pointers on achieving the gorgeous orange colour?
Hi there,
I tried this recipe already and it is so good! Chinese take out – GOODBYE!
Thanks.
Okay this is probably obvious but do you fry the chicken in the dutch oven or a pan? It seemed like you fry it in the dutch oven but it might just be used to heat the oil. I’ve never fried anything in a dutch oven so I’m not sure
Hi Hannah,
I actually fried the chicken in the Dutch oven and it turned out just fine. I love frying in my Dutch oven ;-)
Hi Hannah, Yes, I fry in my Dutch (do it all the time, actually).
My sister has Celia disease, I made this and converted it to gluten free for her. It was AMAZING! Thank you for a great base recipe that was easy to convert! You’ve been mentioned in my GF Sesame Chicken recipe post :)
I made this dish over the weekend. It was a HUGE hit with my family. Will definitely make this again, but maybe make more marinade, maybe increase it by half, but that’s just because we like lost of sauce. Thank you SO much for this recipe. I have always been leary about making Chinese food. You have made it so simple. Thank you!
We loved this dish. The recipe worked perfect and could easily be tweaked for the kids and ourselves. When our kids love it, we love it. Thank You.
Made this for dinner tonight. The chicken was so tender and tasty! I have to eat gluten free. It was so easy to modify! Will definitely make this again!
I made this recipe with slight changes..it was good.
Hey..I really want to make this…but can u substitute the rice wine vinegar with normal synthetic vinegar?? Cuz it’s nt available here..
Hi Noor, I am not sure what you are referring to when you say synthetic vinegar, but I think you could substitute with another mild vinegar without issue.
Just made this it was really good, a little tip is the sauce doesn’t thicken up after 5 minutes mix some more cold water and about a half a teaspoon of cornstarch, thickened it up quickly. Didn’t realize the first time that cornstarch was at the bottom of bowl when I initially mixed up my ingredients. Thanks Beb!
I made this for dinner today and it was amazing!!! Really tasted authentic, definitely better than most takeout places! I did find the coating hard aswell, as it got too messy with the cornstarch and liquid. After watching a few videos on youtube just now, i think next time i will try and put the flour mixture into the chicken marinade this time rather than coating it separately. Its less messy and also slightly easier:)
Thanks for the recipe!! Will definitely be making it again very soon!!!
AMAZINGGG! I prefer it more then take out because I know exactly what I’m eating. I totally recommend it!
Thanks for the recipe, everyone loved it! My kids said it was much better than take out because it had more flavor and wasn’t gloppy or too sweet. I will make it again, Thank You!!
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Great recipe! Coming from East Europe I have never had a proper Chinese food but this must be it. And not difficult to make either, with my 6-year-old daughter, we were even able to cut the time and it was ready in an hour! And – her first time eating chillli! She felt very proud of herself! Thank you so much, will translate that and post it with credits to you… And by the way, you have awesome recipes, I love them all.
Thanks for a good recipe I can work with! I would give this 3 stars out of 5 as is. It IS close to how some Chinese places bread their chicken, but for me it was just too much. I would cut it down to another recipe I have, and use 3/4 to 1 cup of cornstarch (no flour) and use 2 whole eggs to coat it. Like Wendi mentioned above, it was too much soy sauce for me (and I tend to like things salty!)… I would probably use 1/2 next time. I also like a sweeter sauce, so would use more brown sugar (although with less soy it might be ok). I’m wondering how to make up for the extra liquid if I didn’t use as much soy…maybe add more chicken broth? I tried this recipe because I used to go to a restaurant (In Bloomington, Indiana) that I loved their sesame chicken and I thought it might be similar. I can “see it” coming together maybe next time if I do it how I explained. Pretty sure their version was not breaded though, or perhaps but very lightly. I have NEVER found a recipe for sesame chicken since then that is sweet (not even at Chinese restaurants here in East Lansing, MI.) so I was happily surprised when I found your recipe. Thanks for sharing! I enjoy your website!! Oh, forgot to mention I didn’t have 6 cups of oil to fry in… only had 2 1/2 cups and it worked fine! Mine looked very similar to your photos. :)
Hi!
I apologize if this is a repeated question, but can you provide the nutritional information for this recipe? It looks DELICIOUS, but hubby and I are counting calories, so I don’t want to put us into shock. haha
Thank you for sharing!
Hi Brandi, I do not calculate nutritional information for recipes. There are so many variations in ingredients that it would be difficult to provide you with an accurate number. If you need to obtain the nutritional information, I would recommend using one of the many free online nutritional calculators that are available. You can input the exact brand and type of ingredient you are using, as well as how many servings you plan on making (which may be more or less than what is stated in the recipe).
I really want to try this, but I don’t deep fry very often. Do you re-use the oil? It seems a lot to waste for just one meal.
Hi Novita, I do not reuse this oil (I will sometimes save the large amount of peanut oil that we use to deep-fry our Thanksgiving turkey), but you could if you wanted to.
I tried this last night for a New Years eve treat. OMG did my husband and I enjoy this! I love Chinese food and spend quite alot on take out but now I dont need to. I can’t wait to make the recipe again. Can’t wait to try other recipes.
It was awesome and very flavorful! As with any recipe your can add more or less of any of the ingredients to suit your taste. I have made sesame chicken many times but like the fact this recipe does not use alot of sugar the sweetness is perfect.
I made this tonight, I first want to say that it was very good and everyone enjoyed it. It was my first time ‘deep frying’ something! I had trouble with the coating. I wasn’t sure how much of the marinade was supposed to go into the mix because I double the recipe. So maybe the flour mixture was too saturated with marinade, but the coating just drove me crazy! I ended up just making it kind of a batter and it kind of worked. Honestly I would prefer it without any coating, just the chicken and the yummy sauce but my boyfriend loves it crunchy. This was a lot of work, but it was delicious. I would love some advice for whenever I make it in the future, which won’t be for a while :), but next time around I would like to make it better!
Not sure if this will help you or not, but I had about 1/2 cup of the marinade left to go into the coating mix so going by that and if you double, use 1 cup next time. :)
Wow! I made this Sesame Chicken tonight and it was off the hook!
This is the first time that the Chinese food that I have cooked has tasted REALLY authentic! I am so proud of myself. I can’t wait to try out more of your recipes! <3
http://i39.tinypic.com/foj8qr.jpg
I don’t know why, but mine turned out WAY to salty :-( I know i did make one mistake in step 3. I forgot to add some of the marinade to the corn starch flour mixture. And i didn’t have enough cornstarch. Has anyone else had this problem. Or did i miss something else. I really like sesame chicken and i want to get it right. Thanks
Hi, I thought it was salty too. Next time I will try 1/2 the soy sauce and add more chicken broth I think, to make up the liquid. I had almost enough corn starch (maybe 1/4 cup less) and so I added a little extra flour. Truthfully though, I think you could make it with less and it will be even better. (See my comment below, #75 as of now.) Hope that helps!
Hi , love this recipe, looks delicious ! I am definitely going to try it tomorrow , i just don’t understand one thing :
Should the chicken breasts be boiled first ( for about an hour maybe ) and then marinated (which is not very logical) ? Because i don’t think that 3 min frying in the end is enough for it to get cooked?
thnx
No, definitely do not boil the chicken! It will cook in 3 minutes, as you are cutting it into small chunks.
This looks awesome! What would you recommend to substitute the rice wine vinegar?
Hi Amelie, I really recommend using the rice wine vinegar if you can, it has a very mild flavor and is not overpowering. You could try salad vinegar or cider vinegar.
The chicken looks great! And I agree: I prefer sesame chicken to be crunchy!
Hi! I am making this tomorrow but was wondering for frying, I have a skillet will that not work? I dont have a dutch oven, but I may be able to borrow a wok from a friend if you think its impossible to do it with a skillet! Let me know, thank you :)
Hi Holly, You can’t heat that much oil in a skillet, as this is essentially a deep fry. You could always do some shallow frying, but the texture will be quite different. The batter is not meant to hit the bottom of a pan. You need a deep pot for this, preferably one that is wide.
Did you really mean that I am to use 1-1/2 cups of Cornstarch for the coating mix ???????? That is nearly a complete can from the store. Please check this out.
Yes, that is the correct measurement.
Would this recipe be ok without frying? I love chinese food but wanted to skip the frying step…and also the extra calories haha :)
Hi Heather, The frying gives it the characteristic taste and texture. You can skip the frying, but it won’t taste the same ;-)