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
Personally I found it to be a little dry, might cook again with second batch of sauce to coat at the end.
Tried this for first time last night. It’s pretty good!!! Couple of things: I didn’t get the nice color on the chicken and my pan was HOT. Also, next time I think I’ll add the chicken to the sauce instead of adding the sauce to the pan, the sauce burnt immediately. Served it over fried rice.
Sometimes if the skillet is too full, that will prevent it from browning. So, if you try again, maybe lower the heat just a smidge and coook the chicken in two batches. Hopefully that will prevent the sauce from burning, too. The sauce needs a decent amount of heat to thicken, so I’m not sure if just adding the hot chicken to the sauce will be enough.
Disappointed with this one :/
Just started living on my own, so I’m cooking my own meals 24/7 now. My roommate and I both love this recipe– it’s cheap and easy, and it’s all stuff we already have in the apartment. Thanks!
I make this at least every other Friday night. It’s our special treat meal. Yeah, I can never get my chicken to get brown and it does have the “scrambled egg” thing going on as others have mentioned, but I still like it a lot. It reminds me of Japanese Oyakodon, which I also make sometimes.
This has become a favorite around here too, but I also can’t get the nice brown finish. What are we doing wrong? I can’t help but think the sauce recipe is slightly off on quantities? Has anyone solved it?
I have a problem with this recipe, I’ve tried it twice and both times the same thing happens – when I fry the chicken with cornstarch & egg mixture one side turns into almost a omelette and the other side of the chicken gets no coating at all. What am I doing wrong!
That usually means the skillet is not hot enough. So, if you decide to try it again, try turning up the heat a little and make sure the skillet is fully preheated before adding the chicken. Hopefully that will do the trick!
Gluten free sesame chicken I could stop there but my non gf husband who is constantly wanting chinese looved this…so easy to make I substituted balsamic for rice vinegar…delicious! Can’t wait to try other recipes here!
Tried this for dinner tonight.
Delicious!!
The boys LOVED it!
Will surely cook it once a week.
Thanks Beth M!
Just made this for tonight’s dinner and it looks really good. For the person that commented it looked like chicken and scrambled eggs, did u just dump the whole mixture in the hot oil? I drained the mixture and fried the pieces in two batches so about 1 TBL of the mixture was left to be discarded. Other tweaks were as follows: used white sugar since I didn’t have brown sugar, double/tripled the sauce recipe, didn’t use rice vinegar or sesame seeds in the sauce since my son doesn’t like them, and used a pinch of sesame oil for flavoring. Also used steamed broccoli instead of green onions as the veggie factor.
Turned out great. Was missing fresh ginger. Will make sure I have for next time.
I am just learning how to cook, and my previous attempts usually went to waste. My husband would eat what I’d cook, but would never take the leftovers for lunch the next day. Since finding your website, I’ve made about 6-7 meals and he and I have both LOVED everything we’ve tried to so far. I made this last night and he commented how he wished there were more for his lunch the next day! The recipes are super easy to follow, the ingredients are easy to find, and best of all: they’re budget friendly!
Amazing!!! And so easy. Had trouble browning the meat and with too much oil. Next time I will use less oil and give the chicken a longer cook time. Otherwise, fantastic!
Very good! Makes a mess but smells delicious and is just as good days later for lunch. Not healthy but very authentic.
Hmmm, not seeing anything particularly unhealthy about this recipe? Am I missing something? Want to make this regularly but not if it’s unhealthy
I don’t think this is necessarily unhealthy. If you’re scared of fats or trying to stay away from them, then chicken thighs are probably not your best bet — better off using chicken breasts. Also, instead of using white rice, you could use brown rice of just mix it with some broccoli or other veggies. :)
I’m wondering if I could bake the chicken first, then add chicken and the sauce in a pan to simmer.. Trying it tonight!
I made this recipe yesterday and it is DELICIOUS!! I made twice the amount of sauce and then I made a vegetable stir fry with it (of course, using the rest of the broccoli slaw I bought on sale last week).
I didn’t have rice vinegar so I used white vinegar; next time I’ll use lime juice.
I’ve been trying to spend less money on groceries and this website has been very helpful, thank you.