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
So good!! I’ve been making the original recipe for a few years, and was excited to try the update – it’s even better! LOVE! I often make this with chicken breast instead of thighs, and it turns out great.
Thank you for all of your wonderful recipes!!
Delicious recipe! I tried it on the recommendation of my sister (thanks, Nat). The whole family loved it! Thanks!
I made this recipe and it tasted amazing. I was wondering the how much chicken and rice I should give per serving, though!
I don’t usually measure the volume of the chicken because they have unusual shapes, I just divide the chicken into four equal portions. For the rice I usually serve one cup per person.
Sesame chicken has always been my favorite Asian dish since I first had it as a kid. Making this was so much fun and it was probably the best tasting sesame chicken I’ve had to boot! It honestly shocked me how perfectly balanced the flavors were (even with my haphazard measuring) and I will definitely be making this many times in the future. Thank you so much for creating and sharing this recipe: it even inspired me to do meal prep this week with the dish and I don’t think I’ve been looking forward to lunch as much as I am now!
I made this as a quick weeknight meal on Thursday and it turned out great! My husband loved it too, I wish I would have doubled it because we finished the whole pan!
I tried this tonight and wow…it really is an awesome recipe. thank you! I substituted the real deal ginger with something out of a tube. I also used regular white vinegar. I didn’t shop for the ingredients before making it, which I will do next time. I look forward to trying it as the creator laid out. Because even with those small substitutions, it was extremely tasty and rivaled any good sesame chicken served in a nice restaurant!
Do you have to use rice wine vinegar or can you substitute with apple cider vinegar?
Rice wine vinegar is much more mild than apple cider vinegar, so if you use apple cider it may throw the flavor balance off a bit.
I was so excited to make this for dinner tomorrow, since my family is coming over, until my husband reminded me that he can’t have chicken on Fridays during lent. :(
So I guess now the plan is to make half sesame chicken and half sesame tofu. Do you think that will work?
This works great with tempeh, too. I like the texture of tempeh better than tofu for this. Here is my Sesame Tempeh recipe. :)
Awesome recipe the whole family loved it. Will definitely be making this again.
I may have commented previously, but grabbed this recipe last night for another go round. One thing–I always toast the sesame seeds–it takes a few minutes, but increased flavor is worth the time–a couple of tablespoons in a dry 8 or 9″ skillet over medium high heat and keep them moving either with a utensil or by tossing them in the pan. Remove them from the pan as soon as they are golden–if you leave them in the hot skillet, they may scorch even when you take the pan off the heat. The other thing this recipe needs is another kind of heat–when we discovered this Hunanese recipe in an Austin restaurant in the late 80s, it was really spicy. As its popularity in the US has grown, it has become bland. I like to toast some whole dried chilis, but a pinch of crushed chili flakes will work well, too, and is much easier to control–ie, start with a little and add a more if needed. I served with broccoli florets, but anything green is beautiful and delicious. I’ve used green beans, spinach, sliced zucchini, snow peas, and even carrots which are not green and provide less color contrast, but are cheap and yummy. I used chicken breast last night which is cheaper in my location than thighs
Totally agree with you, toasted sesame seeds are worth the extra effort.
I do a large amount then pop them in a container in the freezer. They don’t freeze, but it keeps them fresh and on hand when you need them.
Can you use boneless chicken breast rather than chicken thighs?
You can, but the chicken pieces won’t be quite as tender. And just be sure to cut them into very small pieces.
I cooked the original recipe with boneless chicken breast, never had a problem.
Hey Beth!
I just had to comment and tell you what a delicious and oh-so-easy recipe this was!
My family and I thoroughly enjoyed eating this dish, and I even wrote a post on my blog about my adventure making it with my kids (pictures and all!)…that’s how much we loved it!
We look forward to trying many more of your recipes…thanks for sharing your culinary talents with the rest of us!
xoxo, Erica
http://www.heykidswhatsfordinner.com
Thank you, Erica!
Not very Seasame flavored in my opinion. Tastes more like an orange chicken sauce. Good, but was expecting less sweet and more seasame flavor.
Made this to recipe the first time, this time I’ve added 1/4 glass of water, 1/4 of a shredded cabbage and a bit of chopped eggplant with the lid on the pan to stir fry in with the chicken. Came out well. 👍
I made this for dinner tonight. I thought it was great. My husband wanted more coating on the chicken. I will definately make it again.