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!
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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
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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
Did you follow the instructions when you made the recipe?
Few issues:
1. The video and recipe picture end result look nothing alike. Mine comes out more like the video. It’s not a rich brown flavor and it tastes more like chicken than sauce.
2. When the chicken is done cooking and I add the sauce, it just immediately clumps up. I’m slightly above medium heat.
Any ideas?
Try turning down the heat before you add the sauce. Some skillets transmit heat better than others and if it’s too hot it will congeal too fast and too hard. (Someone else made this video for me and I wasn’t there to oversee, which is why they don’t look similar. That being said, I do want to update this recipe to refine it a bit and make my own video)
Delicious!!
If I wanted to fry up a good amount of veggies with this should I double the coating recipe and throw them in with the chicken? Sorry to ask a probably dumb question, but I don’t know how to cook -_-
For veggies I want to add carrots, zucchini, and okra.
Probably put them in when thechicken seems almost done. You want the veggies to soften a little and absorb the sauce but they don’t need to cook for as long as the chicken. Leaving them in for a min or two should be fine. And give the veggies their own half of the coating mixture so the chicken doesn’t take it all. I’m also not that great at cooking so apologies if this doesn’t work out.
Great looking recipe cannot wait to try it out. The prices posted are wonderful if they were true to where most of us live. Boneless skinless chicken where I live costs between $3 & $4 per lb. Great that you try and add prices to make it seem more affordable for all. But realistically not everyone has the same prices as to where you live.
Breasts, maybe, but thighs? Where do you live? I’ve never seen boneless skinless chicken thighs for more than $2.00/lb. I grab a bunch when they’re on sale for less than a dollar a pound and freeze. Recommend doing that for all great meat deals really.
I love eating asian cuisine i think they have the best cuisine by far simple fragrent and always good eating any thing with sesame soy and garlic is def a winner
What is the best technique to ensure that the breading and chicken don’t fall apart while cooking? As per your instructions, I didn’t stir much at the beginning, but to be able to cook the chicken thoroughly it does need to be stirred, but then all the breading falls off! I want this recipe to be a success but can’t figure out what I’m doing wrong.
Beth, what do you suggest to do to keep the breading on?
I would suggest trying to increase the heat under the skillet a bit. That will help the coating cook and solidify a little faster and hopefully grab on a bit better.
I flower my meat then egg then crumb adding the flower first creates a stickier surface for the crumb to stick
I followed the recipe exactly and this turned out great! The whole family enjoyed it. This is going in our recipe box.
This came out great. I used soy curls instead of chicken and no egg. Just added the wet soy curls straight into the cornstarch. I served it over a veggie lo mein. My kids loved it. Thank you for such a wonderful recipe.
I needed a quick recipe for dinner to use with chicken, and stumbled on this recipe. It was so easy and a big hit! I did put a twist on it and added broccoli. This is one of those keeper recipes to use whether you have time or not. I also used the “Savory Coconut Rice” from this website. Check it out! Thanks for posting these recipes.
Delicious! East to make. Will make it again and again.
Its looking yummy and tasty. I will be definitely try this recipe. Thank you.
I’ve made this dish a number of times, and it’s always so delicious. I intended to make it last night but discovered last minute I didn’t have any boneless/skinless chicken, but I did have wings! I cooked the wings on a wire cooling rack to keep the skin a bit crispy, made the sauce (minus the sesame seeds) and thickened it on the stove in a small sauce pan, then tossed the cooked wings in it. Not as quick as the original recipe, but man it was good. Served with jasmine rice and a simple veggie stir fry, and it was a great variation on this already great recipe.
Another winner! This is sooo flavorful and delicous! I think people trying this recipe really need to make sure they are using the amount of chicken called for in the recipe and you shouldn’t stir the chicken at all until it’s almost done. No, it won’t be thickly battered and syrup-y sweet like what you find in Chinese restaurants. But this is even better! So tasty and much healthier. We really enjoyed it!
Love this recipe, I make it exactly as written except I use toasted sesame seads and I add a tbsp of dark soy sauce as well, for a little more depth of flavor. I serve it with brown rice and steamed broccoli. Its a great quick weeknight meal (as long as I remember to start the rice) and it’s become a family favorite! We cook a lot of Asian inspired dishes, so I had all the ingredients on hand, which is a great cost saving plus!