Easy Sesame Chicken

5 from 9 votes

This easy sesame chicken recipe is made with extra crispy and flavorful bite-sized chicken pieces tossed in a delicious sweet and savory honey sesame sauce and tossed with toasted sesame seeds. If you're looking for a Chinese takeout dish for your takeout night, then this will be it! Try it today, and you may never want to order out again!

Prep Time30

Cook Time30

Total Time1

Course: Main

Cuisine: Chinese

Servings:

Calories: 412kcal

Author: Joyce Lee

Ingredients

1 lb chicken (approx. 4 boneless thighs or 1 chicken breast cut into 1 inch cubes)
1½ tablespoons sesame seeds

Chicken Marinade

2 cloves garlic (approx. ¾ tablespoon)
1 slice ginger (approx. ½ tablespoon)
¼ small onion (or 1 shallot, approx. 2 tablespoons)
2 tablespoons soy sauce
½ tablespoon Shaoxing cooking wine (or dry sherry, if you don't have this, omit it)

Batter

1 cup corn starch (divided in half)

Sesame Chicken Sauce

1 tablespoons oil
1½ tablepsoons butter
3 tablespoons honey
1 tablespoon sugar
1 tablespoon soy sauce (low sodium)
1 tablespoon rice vinegar (or white vinegar)
¼ cup water
1 tablespoon sesame oil (mix in at the very end after the sauce is done)

Instructions

Marinate the Chicken

Cut the chicken into 1 inch bite sized pieces and set it in a bowl.
In a food processor, blitz the 2 cloves garlic, 1 slice ginger, ¼ small onion (or 1 small shallot), 2 tablespoons soy sauce, and ½ tablespoon Shaoxing cooking wine, and add the blitzed marinade into the bowl with the chicken.
Alternatively, you can also grate the ginger, garlic, and onion if you don't have a food processor and add the soy sauce and Shaoxing wine directly into the bowl with the chicken.
Mix everything well and let it marinade for a minimum of 1 hour.

Toast the Sesame Seeds

In a small pan or frying pan, add 1½ tablespoons sesame seeds and set the stove to medium-low heat.
Toast the seeds until they turn golden brown.
Remember to keep the pan moving, by gently swirling and shaking the seeds every 10 seconds so that the seeds don't burn.
Set the toasted sesame seeds aside for later.

Batter the Chicken (2 Step Process)

Once the chicken has done marinating, take the corn starch and divide it in half. Mix one half directly into the chicken with the marinade and mix well until everything is well coated. Let this sit for about 5 minutes until all the starch has absorbed the marinade. It should look moist and gummy.
Place the second half of the cornstarch in a large plate or bowl and dip each pieces of chicken directly into the cornstarch one by one until it is well coated, and shake out any excess cornstarch. This step will create the crispy exterior batter.

Deep Fry the Chicken

If you are using a deep fryer, set the temperature to 350F (180C) and wait for the oil to reach that temperature.
If you are using a frying pan or a shallot pot to deep fry, set the heat to medium high heat. Make sure there is at least 1 inch of oil in the pan. To test if the oil is ready, use a wooden chopstick or the back of a wooden spoon and dunk it in the oil, once it starts bubbling the oil is hot enough to use.
Add a few chicken pieces in at a time, but do not overcrowd the pan.
You may need to do this in a few batches. If the oil temperature drops too low, your chicken won't get crispy, and might turn oil logged and soggy.
Cook each pieces of chicken for about 3-4 minutes or until it is golden crispy and brown.
Set the chicken pieces aside on a rack over a cookie sheet or a cookie sheet with papertowel or newspaper to absorb some of the oil.
Once the all the chicken has finished deep frying, add them all back into the oil and deep fry it again for 1 minute.
This Korean method of double frying will make your chicken extra crispy and crunchier!
Remove the crispy fried chicken and let it drain on a rack or a plate with something absorbent like newspaper or paper towel. I highly recommend a rack over a cookie sheet because the air flow will keep the chicken crispy.

Make the Sesame Chicken Sauce

In a small bowl, pre-mix 1 tablespoon soy sauce, 1 tablespoon rice vinegar, 3 tablespoons honey, 1 tablespoon sugar and ¼ cup water and set it aside.
In a small pot, add 1 tablespoons oil and 1½ tablepsoons butter into it and set the stove to medium heat.
It's important to use a small pot for this because if your pot is too large, the sauce will spread out too much and the sugar will reduce quickly and will burn.
Once the butter has melted, add in the pre-mixed sauce and mix well. Let it simmer for about 3-4 minutes to reduce it. It should start to bubble with large bubbles.
Once it starts to foam up, mix it again with your spoon, the foam will have smaller bubbles than before. The foamy small bubbles will be a darker brown color (takes around 3-4 minutes).
Coat the back of a spoon with the sauce to see the texture, it should be syrupy like a thin maple syrup or table syrup (not thick).
Make sure you don't cook the sauce for more than 4 minutes because it will turn the sugar to a soft candy.
Turn off the heat.
Mix in 1 tablespoon sesame oil and stir for 2-3 minutes to cool and thicken the sauce further.
Your sauce should be a syrupy consistency like maple syrup or table syrup. You don't want it super thick.
Don't worry if it doesn't look like a lot of sauce. This is a very concentrated sauce, and it will be too sweet if there is too much or if it's too thick, you just want to lightly coat the chicken with the sauce.

Put It Together

Once the sesame sauce has finished cooking, add in the bite-sized crispy chicken and mix it well until each chicken has been fully coated.
Make sure you do not have the stove on for this step. Mixing the chicken into the sauce over direct heat will make the chicken batter soggy, and the chicken will lose some of its crispiness.
Alternatively, if you don't have enough room in your pot to mix the chicken, you can also put your crispy chicken into another bowl and drizzle and toss the sauce over the chicken until it has coated the chicken. (This is my preferred method)
At this point, you can slowly sprinkle in 1½ tablespoons sesame seeds that you previously toasted directly onto the chicken and coat each piece of chicken with toasted sesame seeds (this is my favorite way to do it, and I find it gives this dish a lot more flavor).
Alternatively, you can plate it and sprinkle the toasted sesame seeds on top as a garnish, but add a lot for the best flavor.
You can also garnish it with finely minced green onions/scallions as well. Enjoy!

Notes

Mix the Sesame Oil After You Turn Off the Heat - To get the best sesame flavor, you don't want to cook it. You just want to mix it into the sesame sauce after it is done, and after the heat has been turned off because cooking it will break down some of its delicate flavors.

Don't Cook the Chicken In the Sauce For Too Long - To retain the crispiness of the chicken, add the crispy battered chicken into the sesame sauce after you turn off the heat. When you cook the chicken with the sauce, it makes the batter soggy and it loses it's crispiness.

Toast the Sesame Seeds - It's a very simple and quick step that makes a huge difference in flavor. I highly recommend you lightly toasted the sesame seeds before you use it.

Don't Overcook the Sauce - When you are making the sauce and reducing it, you're essentially toasting the sugar to give the sugar a bit of caramel flavor. It adds so much more flavor and depth to the sesame chicken sauce. But be careful not to simmer and reduce the sauce for more than 4 minutes, if you cook sugars for too long, it will eventually turn the sauce into a thick candy once it has cooled.

Toss the Sesame Seeds With The Chicken and the Sauce - Instead of sprinkling the toasted sesame seeds on top, toss it right after you sauce it and coat every piece with to give each delicious bite a nutty sesame flavor.

Nutrition