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
Excellent! This was a hit with everyone in my family. I will make this again and again.
This recipe was the best! The entire family loved it from age 7 to over 60, Including a rather fussy 16 year old. The only complaint was they wanted MORE. I am definitely making it again and again.
Just a side note. The second time I made this with reg soy. It was definitely too salty for us with the regular soy but I also preseasoned the chicken.
The next time and there will definitely be a next time, I’ll go back to the low sodium soy and will not preseason.
Can you use regular sesamie oil instead of toasted? What would the difference be?
Nope, you need toasted for this one. Regular sesame oil has a very light flavor that won’t be detected in the recipe. Toasted sesame oil has a very strong nutty flavor, which is what you need. :)
Any alternatives for rice vineager?
Looking forward to trying this out!
You really want to get rice vinegar for this one because it has a uniquely mild acidity and neutral flavor. If you use another vinegar in its place it will throw off the flavor balance.
After a couple bites, my husband told me that this may be the best chicken he’s ever had! And while he is often complimentary of my cooking, he doesn’t just throw around statements like that! A 5 star recipe for sure. And truly easy, so this is one I’ll make again often. Thank you for sharing another delicious recipe, Beth! I’ve used a few of your recipes and they’ve all been hits in our home.
Excellent recipe, yummy i woll definitely make it agaon.. only thing for me was the rice vinegar was over powering so i think next time i will reduce it…
but it is a huge hit. thank you
My fiance and I found this recipe a few months ago when we were looking for options that are cheaper (and healthier) than take out. We LOVE it!!!!!! I’ve made it for my parents and siblings now too, and it was a hit.
I was wondering if anyone has experience freezing this after it has been cooked? I’m heading back to my last semester of college and student teaching, and I’d like to meal prep on the weekends. Does it freeze well? Does anyone have tips for freezing it?
We’ve frozen this in individual portions before and it worked well. Fully cooled it in the fridge then moved it to the freezer the next morning.
Delicious.
It even works perfectly with cauliflower instead of chicken. Just double the egg and cornstarch batter. Absolutely wonderful. People-ask-for-the-recipe level good.
In list of ingredients for sauce, it shows 1/2 TBS. cornstarch, but further down in step by step photos, it says 1 TBS. DEFINITELY NEED the full TBS. or sauce too thin! Thought it needed a little more sweetness, so drizzled some honey over chicken when finished cooking. Everything else very well balanced..will make again!
I really enjoyed this recipe, sauce is fantastic! I had a bit of a problem with the batter running to one side when frying, any tips for frying that I may be missing? Thanks!
Yes, try increasing the heat slightly so the egg firms up before it has a chance to run off as much. :)
Any tips for making this recipe taste less salty? I omitted the pinch of salt but this recipe still had an overly salty taste.
You can use a low sodium soy sauce. Almost all of the saltiness in this recipe comes from the soy sauce. :)
This recipe was such a hit with my family! So much so that my dad requested it for dinner again the next night! He couldn’t believe how much it tasted like real chinese takeout (which we haven’t been able to do since COVID)
I made it with chicken breast because that’s all my grocery store had but it still worked
Can you make it with chicken breasts instead?
You can, but the thighs tend to stay more tender. :)
Excellent! Doubled the recipe hoping to have leftovers, but we ate every bit of it! Even my picky kid liked it! This is going in the regular rotation.
This was quick and easy. My husband and kid loved it. I used ground ginger instead of grated fresh and it still turned out really well.
I started making this when our local Chinese restaurant was closed for COVID. My kids and I both love it. I’ve even made it with pork chops instead of chicken and it’s still great. As a busy single dad, here’s my hack for making this even easier… I buy a bottle of P.F. Chang’s Sesame sauce and skip making the sauce. Stir it in, let it simmer and you’re good to go.