This Easy Sesame Chicken recipe is seriously so easy that you’ll be tempted to toss those take-out menus. The deliciously sweet and savory sauce takes only a few ingredients, all of which you can keep on hand indefinitely (keep your ginger in the freezer). You know, just in case you need some sesame chicken like, now. Oh, and this take-out fake-out sesame chicken works great for your weekly meal prep, too!
This post contains some affiliate links, which means that we make a small commission off items you purchase at no additional cost to you.
What is Sesame Chicken?
If you’re unfamiliar with this Chinese-American fast food classic, sesame chicken is small pieces of tender chicken that have been coated in an egg and cornstarch, deep-fried until crispy, and then coated in a deliciously sweet, salty, and tangy sauce. The sauce also has a light but toasty flavor thanks to sesame seeds. You’ll find this dish at most Chinese-inspired takeout restaurants across America.
Ingredients for Sesame Chicken
Here’s what you’ll need to make this easy sesame chicken recipe:
- Chicken Thighs: We use chicken thighs for this recipe because they stay juicy and super tender without fear of drying out, and they’re very budget-friendly. You can use chicken breast, if preferred, just be careful to not overcook the chicken.
- Cornstarch and Egg: The combination of cornstarch and egg coats the chicken, keeping it tender and providing something for the sauce to grab onto. This technique of coating meat in a cornstarch mixture is called “velveting.”
- Soy Sauce: The base for the sauce is soy sauce, which provides plenty of salt and umami flavor.
- Toasted Sesame Oil: Toasted sesame oil gives the sauce a deliciously nutty flavor. Make sure to get toasted oil, which has a deep amber color and a much more pronounced flavor.
- Brown Sugar: Brown sugar provides sweetness to balance the salt of the soy sauce and the acidity of the vinegar. Brown sugar has a deep flavor, compared to the more one-dimensional flavor of white sugar. You can also use honey in place of the brown sugar.
- Rice Vinegar: Rice vinegar gives the sauce a nice tangy flavor. Rice vinegar is milder than other vinegar types, which keeps the sauce in balance and not too harsh.
- Fresh Ginger: Ginger gives the sauce zing! Be sure to use fresh ginger, not dried ginger, as it has a much more peppery flavor. Keep fresh ginger in your freezer to always have it on hand without it going bad.
- Garlic: Garlic provides a nice savory base flavor for the sauce.
- Sesame Seeds: Sesame seeds add even more sesame flavor to the sauce and a delicious visual appeal.
- Cornstarch: Cornstarch thickens the sauce into a nice glaze with a translucent, glossy finish.
- Rice and Green Onions: Serve your sesame chicken over a bed of rice with sliced green onions on top for a well rounded meal.
No Deep Frying Required
I specifically wrote this recipe for those of you out there who hate deep frying as much as I do. This recipe uses a very small amount of oil to cook the chicken and because of that, you don’t get super crispy edges as you would with a deep fry, but the trade-off is well worth it in my opinion. No leftover oil to deal with, no cooking oil smell filling your house, and no splattering oil trying to kill you. So worth sacrificing crispy edges.
What to Serve with Sesame Chicken
I like to pair my Easy Sesame Chicken with jasmine rice and a little steamed broccoli. It’s a super simple meal that is very satisfying, and stores well for meal prep! It also goes great with Crunchy Cabbage Salad, Sesame Cucumber Salad, Easy Egg Drop Soup, Savory Coconut Rice.
Easy Sesame Chicken
Servings 4Ingredients
Chicken
- 1 large egg ($0.23)
- 2 Tbsp cornstarch ($0.06)
- 1 pinch each salt and pepper ($0.05)
- 1 lb boneless skinless chicken thighs ($3.23)
- 2 Tbsp cooking oil ($0.08)
Sauce
- 1/4 cup soy sauce ($0.24)
- 2 Tbsp water ($0.00)
- 1 Tbsp toasted sesame oil ($0.33)
- 3 Tbsp brown sugar ($0.12)
- 1 Tbsp rice vinegar ($0.12)
- 1 tsp grated fresh ginger ($0.10)
- 2 cloves garlic, minced ($0.16)
- 1 Tbsp sesame seeds ($0.8)
- 1/2 Tbsp cornstarch ($0.02)
For Serving
- 4 cups cooked jasmine rice ($0.70)
- 2 whole green onions ($0.22)
Instructions
- First, prepare the sauce. In a small bowl stir together the soy sauce, water, sesame oil, brown sugar, rice vinegar, fresh ginger, minced garlic, cornstarch, and sesame seeds. (Grate the ginger with a small-holed cheese grater). Set the sauce aside.
- In a large bowl, whisk together the egg, 2 Tbsp cornstarch, and a pinch of salt and pepper. Trim any excess fat from the chicken thighs, then cut them into small 1 inch pieces. Toss the chicken in the egg and cornstarch mixture.
- Add the cooking oil to a large skillet and heat it over medium flame. Wait until the skillet is very hot, then swirl the skillet to make sure the oil coats the entire surface. Add the batter coated chicken and spread it out into a single layer over the surface of the skillet.
- Allow the chicken pieces to cook, undisturbed, until golden brown on the bottom. Then, carefully flip the chicken, breaking up the pieces into smaller clumps as you flip. Continue to cook the chicken until golden brown on the other side. Stir the chicken as little as possible to avoid breaking the egg coating from the surface of the chicken.
- Once the chicken is cooked through and golden brown on all sides, pour the sauce over top. Toss the chicken to coat in the sauce. As the sauce comes up to a simmer, it will begin to thicken. Continue to gently stir the chicken in the sauce until it has thickened, then turn off the heat.
- Serve the chicken over a bed of rice and sprinkle the sliced green onions over top.
See how we calculate recipe costs here.
Equipment
- Non Stick Cookware
- Grater
- Color Cutting Boards
Nutrition
Have you tried this recipe?Mention @budgetbytes or tag #budgetbytes on Instagram!Video
How to Make Sesame Chicken
Make the sauce first, so it’s ready to go when you need it. In a bowl, stir together 1/4 cup soy sauce, 2 Tbsp water, 1 Tbsp toasted sesame oil, 3 Tbsp brown sugar, 1 Tbsp rice vinegar, 1 tsp grated fresh ginger, 2 minced cloves of garlic, ½ Tbsp cornstarch, and 1 Tbsp sesame seeds.
Let’s just talk about this toasted sesame oil for a second. You must get the kind that is toasted to get the super vibrant nutty flavor that you want in your sesame chicken. Not all brands actually say “toasted” on the bottle, but you can recognize the toasted variety by its deep brown color. Regular sesame oil will be the color of straw, like vegetable oil. You want the brown stuff. ;) It’s usually in the international foods aisle, instead of the baking aisle with the other oils.
Next, trim any extra fat off of one pound of boneless, skinless chicken thighs, then cut them into small one inch cubes. One pound for me was about three chicken thighs.
Add 1 large egg, 2 Tbsp cornstarch, and a pinch of salt and pepper to a medium bowl.
Whisk the egg and cornstarch together until it is light and frothy. It may seem thick at first, but as the cornstarch dissolves in the egg, it will thin out and get nice and frothy.
Add the cubed chicken thighs and stir them to coat in the egg mixture.
Add 2 Tbsp cooking oil to a large skillet and heat it over medium. Wait until it is very hot. This is VERY important. The skillet must be very hot! Once very hot, swirl the skillet to make sure the oil coats the entire surface, add the chicken, and make sure it’s spread out into a single layer. Let the chicken cook, undisturbed, until golden brown on the bottom. It will kind of cook into a single round pancake, but don’t worry, we’ll break up the pieces next.
Then carefully flip the chicken pieces, breaking up them up slightly into smaller pieces as you flip. Cook on the other side until browned and cooked through. Make sure to not stir them too much, or you can cause the egg to come off the chicken. You can see that some of the chicken pieces are still kind of stuck together at this point. That’s okay. Just do not over stir.
Finally, add the prepared sauce and stir to coat. Continue to carefully stir the chicken as the sauce beings to simmer and thicken. Once it’s thickened, turn off the heat.
Sprinkle some sliced green onions over top and serve with warm rice. :) Doesn’t get better than this.
Easy Sesame Chicken – done in about 30 minutes, and NO DELIVERY FEE! :D
Will I be able to substitute brown sugar with white sugar, rice vinegar with white balsamic, and cornstarch with flour?
No, unfortunately that will taste quite different and have a different texture.
OMG. Go do a Google search for a recipe that has those ingredients. One of my pet peeves — people who substitute everything in a recipe (and odds are, then give it a poor review). Geesh.
I LOVE sesame chicken, and honestly, this recipe is VERY simple to make. Even though the chicken thighs were small, I had to use seven pieces to stretch it out. I couldn’t find toasted sesame oil, so I had to use regular sesame oil, and the chicken tasted just like sesame! I served the sesame chicken over a bed of regular rice-since jasmine rice comes in a five pound bag, and it wasn’t cheap. My sister and I LOVE your blog. Thank you for this recipe, Beth! :-)
Love this recipe. So simple and absolutely as good (if not better) than take out. I double the sauce and I tend to use chicken breast because that’s what I have.
Hey Beth,
Gave this recipe a crack tonight. Results were quite good! The girlfriend loved it with the jasmine rice.
Just some observations:
-The egg batter calls for 1 tbsp of cornstarch in the ingredients section, but the instructions section for that step say 2 tbsp. It threw me for a loop, but 1 egg and 1 tbsp seemed to be a decent ratio.
-I don’t think it was quite listed, but perhaps turning off the heat to the skillet and using the residual heat to thicken the sesame sauce would work. I think my skillet was too hot and instantly carmallized some of the sauce. The sweet crunchy bits were still good though, but it meant I couldn’t toss the chicken easily.
All in all, love the recipe. 5/5 for taste, 3/5 for budget (because getting a bunch of Asian food oils and sauces isn’t part of my bulk purchases), and 4/5 for being relatively easy to make.
Thanks Beth!
Hmm, are you looking at the 1 Tbsp cornstarch listed for the sauce? The ingredient list has 2 Tbsp listed for the batter and another 1 Tbsp listed under sauce. Oh well, as long as the 1 Tbsp still worked out well for you, I guess it’s all good! :D
I’m looking forward to making the sesame chicken next week. Unfortunately, I couldn’t find toasted sesame oil, so is it possible that I can use regular sesame oil? My sister and I LOVE your blog!! Thanks!
Regular sesame oil is much more mild than toasted, so it probably won’t lend the same strong sesame flavor to the sauce. It will be more like a teriyaki sauce. :)
Used chicken breast and extra batter and sauce; used toasted almond slivers since I didn’t have sesame seed. Delicious, will definitely do it again.
This was really, really good. I made it with chicken breasts. The only thing I messed up was the egg batter. I should have patted the chicken with a paper towel before mixing it into the batter because it sloughed off midway through cooking. I also will make a little bit more sauce as well. Thanks for the recipe, Beth!
The egg also tends to slide off if the heat in the skillet is not high enough. :)
Probably the best recipe I’ve tried thus far! Definitely making this a regular dish.
It was pretty good! I’m not sure if I used too much chicken, but I found there wasn’t enough sauce. However, it turned out okay and my boyfriend enjoyed it. Will definitely be making this again. Thanks!
I’m still in the process of cooking it but I double the egg batter because I had more chicken pieces. It looks as though I’m making egg foo young. I must have done something wrong.
Tried this tonight as a quick dinner…. OMG!! It was delicious and SO easy! Hubby asked if it was takeout…lol…will be a regular meal at our house for sure!!
Hi Beth!
I’ve been a fan of your recipes for a really long time, and I’ve always pleased a crowd with them :)
How long should I cook the chicken? I have this weird phobia about under cooking meat. Thanks!
It’s really going to depend on a few things (type of skillet, size of chicken, heat of skillet), so I can only give you an estimate (7-10 minutes), but here are some tips. Make sure the chunks of chicken are not huge. Keep them to about 1 inch pieces. Make sure the skillet is nice and hot before adding the chicken and make sure you have a skillet big enough to hold all the chicken without over crowding (the chicken pieces should fit in one layer on the bottom of the skillet with a little room to move around). You will know the chicken is done when the pieces are firm and the breading is golden brown. :) The more you cook chicken, the more comfortable you’ll get with telling when it’s “done”. The texture tells you a lot!
Beth!
I tried this tonight for my family and they loved it! Thank you so much for the chicken tip you gave me :) I had to ask my mother if it was cooked fully, but she told me you were right and it was good! Beth, you’re amazing!!!
Awesome! So glad it worked! :)
I made it. They liked it. I made a double batch, and I agree it needed a smidge of honey. I used about 1/2 Tbsp in the double batch, and a sprinkle of salt.
I have no idea why I am so shocked. Every time I select something from this site to prepare, not only is easy but the taste is amazing!! Tonight I cooked the sesame chicken and I fell in love. I did add extra indgrdient such as honey, crushed red bell peppers and onion salt! Hands down my favorite!
Great recipe. Thank you. Marry me, Bet!