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!
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!
Sautéed onions, broccoli and peppers. Mixed chicken with veggies and sauce. Served over rice. Delicious. Labor intensive.
145 comments so I thought I’d give this a try.
I typically don’t take the timeout to post comments, but I just wanted to save people the wasted time and aggravation to make this recipe.
Plenty of recipes out there which take a fraction of the time and are much tastier as well.
Hi I made this tonight and everyone liked it but it had so much corn starch. Do u have a sesame chicken recipe that doesn’t use so much corn starch.
It would have been helpful to note that you don’t actually add the remaining marinade to the starch mixture. Instead of being a coating, it was a sludge. It didn’t end up sticking to the chicken so basically I just got a batch of oily chicken and dirty oil. Maybe next time instead of saying “remaining marinade”, add exactly how much is needed, for example a couple of tablespoons at a time
Hi Kaye, I’m sorry you had trouble with this recipe, but you actually DO add the remaining marinade to the starch mixture. Did you use 2 cups of it for the sauce as indicated in step #2? You shouldn’t have an enormous amount of marinade left to add to the starch mixture; it’s just enough to make it kind of shaggy and craggly.
Absolutely delish. However, I do think that mixing the 1/2 flour and the 1 1/2 cup cornstarch was way too much coating, I ended up throwing much of that away. This is definitely a recipe that I printed off and saved on pintrest so I never misplace it.
Made it tonight…absolutely loved it. Thank you so much for your recipes. I’ve made a few, like your snickers cake, ultimate banana bread and chocolate cup cakes. So far none have let me down. :)
The chicken turned out fantastically crispy. The sauce is a little heavy on the soy sauce, a little too salty. But what Chinese food dish isn’t, right?
Just looking at it makes me hungry!
I’m always curious…what do you do with the oil after frying?
Also, any ideas for subbing ground ginger versus fresh?
Hi Emily, I let it cool then pour it down the drain with Dawn. I would recommend subbing ground ginger for fresh – the flavors are completely different.
I made this tonight and by the time my sauce thickend it was brown and it’s super vinegar-y. What type of ‘rice wine vinegar’ do you use?
Hi Kayla, I use Marukan brand.
This was, without a doubt, the worse Asian recipe I ever made. I followed the recipe to the letter. The sauce was NOT red it was dark brown. The sauce had NO flavor. The chicken did not get flavored from the marinade either. The entire recipe was a total waste of me day and all the oil in my professional frier and all the ingredients I used. All of it went into the garbage! It was awful. This tells me you know nothing about Chinese cooking. Anyone who liked it probably enjoys going to horrible “Chinese buffets”.
I have been looking for this recipe for years! I will try to have it be the re-incarnation of the sesame chicken from a restaurant which closed in our city. I will experiment with using the sweetened and salted rice wine vinegar in place of wine, one time, and another time I’ll use the wine. I will serve it on a bed of blanched and drained bean sprouts which were quickly stir fried in hot chili oil in which Arbol red peppers had been fried to black. The bean sprouts, burned peppers and oil are all placed on the plate then the sauced chicken placed atop with all the garnishes.
I made this tonight, and it was delicious! The texture and flavor were spot on. Loved the crispiness of the chicken and the consistency of the sauce. A winner!!!
Hi can i use rice vinegar instead of rice wine? I dont want to include any wine or alcohol in my dish so please help. Thanks
Hi Farheen, Yes, that’s fine!
Hey, I just read this recipe it looks great! I want to make it for a party I’m hosting tomorrow. I would have to like quadruple it 2x…..any comments or concerns I should know about when doing so?
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 ;-)
AWESOME recipe. Yuummmm … :D it is better than Chinese restaurant where i had it first lolz i should share this recipe with them :) i made them with boneless fish fingers, served it with chinese fried rice. Thanks for such awesome recipe.
I made this dish for the first time recently and it was so delicious! Loved the crispiness of the chicken and the thickness of the sauce. Flavors are awesome. This is better than any sesame chicken dish at any restaurant!
Quick question, when it comes to the cornstarch , flour and others part, do I add the marinate to the starches and Mix it until it becomes coarse Cornmeal or is the marinate separate from everything ?
Hi Sharon, Yes, add the marinade to the starches and mix until coarse crumbs form (the mixture will be very shaggy).
I’d recommend those of you trying this recipe out to TASTE your sauce as you’re making it. I found it to be a bit too salty and not sweet enough. Next time I’d cut back on the soy and increase the brown sugar. It didn’t really remind me of restaurant style sesame chicken, but it was a great recipe to start with. Thanks!
It tasted TERRIBLE! This does not taste like ANY sesame chicken I ever ate. Very disappointing after all that work. I also think its cheaper to just buy it from a restaurant. Too much SOY and not sweet enough, didn’t even resemble sesame seed chicken. BOOO HISSS! Don’t waste ur time or money on this recipe
My sister and I just made this, and it was amazing! It looked just like the picture. Thanks for posting!
I am so excited that I found this! I’ve been wanting to make my own sesame chicken for a while now and I’m totally trying this tomorrow!
My 13 year old daughter and I made this tonight for dinner! It was awesome! She loves to go out but I wanted to try at home. It was a little messy and we used veg oil rather then sesame, powdered ginger, 3 tbsp white vinager and red pepper flakes because to was a totally improptu meal and we went with what we had in the house. We loved it and would make again. I would make the sauce in a skillet next time rather then a sauce pan to save on another dish to wash. I also only used 2-1/2 cups of canola oil to fry in for less of a mess. All worked great. Thank you!
How much marinade goes into the coating mixture?
Adam, Please see step #3 – the remaining marinade is used.
My sauce turned out really dark! I’m sure I used all the ingredients properly, but I was wondering what could have been the problem, other than using too much soy sauce as I only had a small amount left so that couldn’t be it haha! I’ve read through the other comments and no one else seemed to have my problem, in fact people are stating it looked exactly the same :O
Hi Emma, Perhaps you cooked it a little longer, which would cause it to darken?
This turned out really good! My hubby loved it & said it tasted like Authentic Chinese. I used a deep-fat fryer to fry to chicken…turned out crispy, just the way I like it!…Thank you! :)
Is there a substitute I can use instead of sesame oil? I know that sounds silly seeing as its sesame chicken but would veg oil work?
Hi Sarah, You can use vegetable oil, but obviously you lose the sesame taste.
made this tonight- it’s absolutely delicious!
I made this last night for my Chinese take out loving boyfriend and 10 year old son-it was perfection! Mine looked just like your photos and tasted far and away better than any Chinese restaurant I’ve ever had. Although it was several steps, it was actually pretty easy. The coating was perfect-my boyfriend actually made the comment that he had never seen something that was homemade and fried where the breading didn’t fall off, and he wanted to know what the secret was. I love to cook and have loved to since I was a kid, and I get so much inspiration from this website, and I wanted to thank you for that. You cook the way I love to! It’s so nice to know we can make homemade versions of foods we’re fond of and make them even better than their restaurant counterpart.
Could I substitute the cornstarch for arrowroot? I’m allergic to corn but love this recipe.
Hi Amanda, I think you could do that without a problem. Enjoy!
This looks AMAZING. Question though… I don’t have a deep fryer. Think there’s any way to cook it in the oven, or in a heavy skillet?
Hi Lindsay, I don’t have a deep fryer either; I use my large Dutch oven for all of my frying. You can use any large, heavy pot at your disposal, preferably one that is at least 5 quarts or larger.
I used a wok, with only 2 cups of oil and it worked perfectly!
FINALLY! Made this tonight and it was delish. I didn’t have any marinade left to put in the flour, etc. I used water and a little marinade from the chicken. Regardless it came out wonderful. Question: What’s the purposed of making the coating into coarse meal? Mine just clumped together. LOL but it all turned out okay. Thanks again for a great recipe. I will be making it again.
The coarse meal texture is to give the chicken that crunchy texture.
Hi Michelle! SCRUMPTIOUS!! EVERY recipe of yours is so yummy! Question, can you suggest as to how I could make this into Sesame Orange Chicken? Thank you so much!
Hi Noreen, So glad you enjoyed it! I am actually planning on making Orange Chicken, so keep an eye out!
OMG this looks delicious!! I don’t think I have ever had sesame chicken before. I’m going to try it out though :) You should try and make Szechuan chicken or mongolian beff mmmh yummy!!!! Okai now i’m going to stalk your site since this is the first recipe of yours I have seen.
Made this tonight and it was soooo good! Just a bit of a process and messy too. Will make again!! Love your recipes!
Oh yum! My favorite is Hunan Chicken. I love all the veggies in it!
Made this last night and it was a huge hit! I was a little confused about 1 step. Was I supposed to re-batter it before re-frying or just re-fry it? What is the purpose of re-frying? I did it, but tasted before and after and didn’t notice a difference in it.
Thanks for your awesome recipes. I have been making 1 or 2 new ones every week!
Hi Dalaina, I’m sorry if you were confused, but you aren’t supposed to fry the chicken twice. The instructions are for you to fry half of the chicken, then let the oil come back to temperature before frying the second half of the chicken. I’ll try to re-word the instructions so they are more clear.
hilarious. well, it was still awesome. Twice fried and all!
I the sesame chicken yesterday and it was so good. It was the first recipe of yours I have ever tried, I am excited about trying more.
I don’t know what possessed me to make this on a weekday night! (there was chicken with a near best-before date and some egg whites in the fridge, but still). This is probably the best chicken main dish on the whole blog, hands down. Everybody in the family loved it and wouldn’t stop praising it, but… it just takes so much work! When I put the last batch of chicken into the hot oil, I looked around my messy kitchen and I was about ready to cry. I could definitely try this again, but on weekend, when I can rope some more people into helping me :D I don’t make Chinese often and I don’t have much experience with deep fried dishes, but I think it came out perfectly. I loved the crunch of the chicken bits and the sticky sauce coating. It goes perfectly with some raw vegetables, like rocket and lemon-garlic tomatoes.
“rocket and lemon-garlic tomatoes?”
I’m stumped with the “rocket” and would love the lemon-garlic tomato recipe. How is it prepared?
We made this on the weekend. It was fabulous and everyone loved it, including my super fussy in-law.
Any chance you will put a video up of this recipe, as the coating bit was a nightmare and I wanted to check how you made it.
Thanks again :)
For the coating to make it easier, I did the egg white step as written then for the flour mixture I put it in a Ziploc bag and then just added my chicken to the bag to coat the chicken. I hope that that tip helps you out a little.
I had trouble with the consistency of the coating, instead of using a fork I rubbed it in-between my hands and it turned out great. Not sure if that was your problem, but thought I’d see if it helps anyway :)
I never comment of recipes but lord…..you knocked it out of the park with this one!!! Better than takeout for sure!! No problem with the sauce thickening at all. WINNER WINNER CHICKEN DINNER!
Every Friday we order Chinese food for lunch and this is my go-to order. I try not to think about what I’m eating it always tastes so good. I look forward to making my own at home.
Just made this for dinner!! Delicious!! Thanks for another great recipe.
I wish you would make a distinction between Americanized Chinese food and real Chinese food. To call this stuff “Chinese” seems almost wrong. I’m not even sure this stuff exists in other Westernized countries…
Personally, my favorite dish to get at a Chinese restaurant is an enoki tofu hotpot. If I’m in a more carnivorous mood, I’ll get the goat with tofu skin sticks — also delicious. I just love the way they serve it over an open flame in a tiny wok. It’s so cute!
This sounds yummy! Since we are gluten-free at my house I am going to try it with GF flour. I make my fried chicken with it so it should work!
hi, grate recipe! can I use tofu insted of chicken?
I’ve never eaten or cooked with tofu so I honestly have no idea how it would hold up to the marinating, battering and frying. If it’s something you often use in place of chicken, then you can certainly try it, I just can’t guarantee how it’ll turn out.
so can you do some tofu recipes for us? I’m a big fan and would like to see what you gonna do with it.
I don’t eat tofu, so it’s not something I plan to incorporate in any recipes in the near future, but you never know, that could always change!
Using an extra firm tofu with the water pressed out, the tofu should deep fried easily. Try this for a more authentic recipe: http://userealbutter.com/2013/01/24/sesame-tofu-recipe/
If you like the clinging sauce, it can always be thickened with a simple cornstarch slurry.
thank you!
Oh! Sesame chicken totally tops my list. My kids call it sticky chicken. We never order take out because there honestly aren’t any restaurants here worth ordering from (boo.) BUT! I love making take out fake outs at home. This is gorgeous! My little boys will be sooooo thrilled.
My favorite has got to be the orange chicken from panda express… this looks a lot like it. i didnt eat much chinese food in college either… that came much later for me
This looks so wonderful!
I made this dish tonight. The hubs and the son loved it! I enjoyed it as well. However, the coating step was difficult, and my sauce never thickened. I am not sure what I did wrong with the sauce. Everything still tasted good. My son insists that I make it again, and I will. But would love if it you have any insight on why the sauce did not thicken or pointers for making the coating a little bit easier to use.
Thank you for such a wonderful recipe. It is really, really hard to please my 12-year old!
Hi Stacey, Make sure that there isn’t any cornstarch left on the bottom of your bowl. I used a spatula to make sure I got every last drop of it. It takes a little bit of time, at least 5 minutes, for it to thicken up. It should be the consistency of syrup.
Thank you!
I had no problems with the sauce. However, I agree with Stacey: it was a little hard to cover the chicken bites with the batter. But in the end everything was delicious! Thanks a lot for sharing this amazing recipe!
Hi as someone who does Asian sauces and chicken pork tofu etc..the problem with coating the protein will be resolved by simply lightly coating the meat/tofu with flour BEFORE using mixed batter recipe…it needs flour or corn starch/potato starch/tapioca starch or a combo of any of these so the liquid like batter has something to grab onto…This will work and always resolve any frying coating help stick to protein.
Good luck!
I love when it is crunchy too! I would love a homemade chicken fried rice recipe!
Oh my gosh… This looks amazing and truly authentic! Worthy of its own place… “The Sesame Chicken House!” lol… anyways, I think some good recipes would be orange chicken, mandarin chicken, mushroom and string bean chicken, and honey chicken…. That stuff is amazing.. Do you think you can recreate any of those?
Also, I am not sure if you have ever tried these, but they are sort of Chinese sweet dessert thingies… Have you ever tried the mango and/or coconut pudding for dim sum places? Or the sweet tofu in ginger “soup”? And also, these sweet rice cakes–they are white and airy and fluffy–that they sell at most hot deli food places in Chinese markets… Have you tried any of those? If so, would you ever consider recreating them?
Thanks!
I love your blog! :)
-Grace :)
P.S. I made your chocolate chip cookie dough brownies and they are absolutely amazing! Props to you on that! I wanted to devour the entire batch! Lol… but of course I didn’t :P
P.P.S. Would you ever consider making healthy recipes? Like low carb/sugar/calorie/sodium recipes? Or just recipes using whole and natural ingredients? Thanks :)
Looking good!
Looks great! My kids aren’t big fans of Chinese food, but this seems like something that will please all of us. Thanks!
I love Sesame Chicken!! This looks absolutely divine. Thanks for sharing!
Sesame chicken is one Chinese dish my whole family agrees on. This looks amazing, way better than take out!
This looks delicious! I love the taste of Chinese food, but the Chinese restaurants around here have a reputation for being filthy so I never order take-out. Going to have to make this ASAP. Thanks for the recipe!
I love sesame chicken – I wish I had this in front of me right now! It’s always better homemade than at a restaurant so I’ll have to try this out!
Michelle,
I have all the ingredients and will try this tonight. What I would like is a recipe for chicken lo mein ( like they make at Giant Eagle ) I just can’t get the sauce right. Thank you
Hi Nancy, I’ve never picked that up from Giant Eagle, I’ll have to try it and see if I can recreate it!
This looks so delicious! Chinese food is my absolute favorite cuisine! I have too many favorite Chinese dishes to choose just one. When we order Chinese takeout we order several different dishes and sample little bits of everything and then munch on leftovers for a few days. Szechuan dumplings (steamed dumplings in a spicy peanut sauce with fresh bean sprouts) is probably my favorite little bite if I had to choose one.
OMG this makes my mouth water! Pinned it! :)
So impressive! There are some things that I just assume I could never replicate at home and Chinese food is totally one of those things. This looks doable though! And actually pretty dangerous since I would want it every single day.
I used to cook so many stir fries and Chinese food in general during undergrad. They were so easy and I just dumped in whatever meats or veggies I had available with some sauce. Sesame chicken is one of my favorite Chinese dishes, I’ll have to try this! I’ve done a slow cooker version but haven’t tried making it for real.
I love sesame chicken and always order it when I go out. But everyone knows that homemade is better than store bought or restaurant meals any day! I’m going to have to keep this recipe in mind the next time I have a sesame chicken craving!
Wow! This looks AMAZING! Sesame Chicken tastes great at restaurants but yours looks WAY better!!
Sesame chicken is my favorite and I have yet to find a place out here (in Phoenix) that makes it the way I like! Your chicken looks like it is EXACTLY what I’m looking for. Even though I’m not a fan of deep-frying I might have to give in just once for this amazing-looking chicken! Thanks for the recipe and (as always) the gorgeous pictures!
This recipe looks yummy for sure. I would love for you to re-create a recipe for spicy green beans. Thet is a great Chinese place near my home that makes this delicious dish. The beans have a sticky sweet sauce that is also spicy and very garlicky. I have tried to make them but they just don’t seem quite right. Any help would be appreciated!!
Hi Nancy, I have never had that dish, but I’ll see what I can dig up!
Me toooooo!! I keep tryin but not the same!! Please try! All the recipes I try are da BOMB!!
This looks amazing Michelle! Even though we just got Chinese take-out last night I’m totally itching to make this tonight :)
This looks great! I also want to decrease my dependence on the local Asian restaurants. I’m definitely going to try this with chicken and shrimp.
Sesame Chicken is my husband’s favorite! I will totally make this one!
Oh yummy! This looks awesome. I’m a sucker for good chinese food. I haven’t had it in ages so I could definitely go for some sesame chicken right about now!
Yum! Do you deliver? haha Seriously gorgeous photos!
Oh yum! Sesame chicken is my go to dish when we order Chinese. Never made it at home! Definitely going to try this out!
Mmmm! That looks Delicious!!!
This sounds so good! Would love to try it out – although I probably would reduce the brown sugar a bit for my husband.