This 20-Minute Sesame Chicken is a cinch to make with NO DEEP FRYING required! Serve it with steamed rice or quinoa and broccoli or green beans for a complete, delicious weeknight meal.
The benefits to living a small town are numerous: wide open spaces, familiar faces wherever you go, minimal traffic…
But a glaring downside where I live is not having good Chinese takeout options within a 45 minute drive. And sometimes, I just want Chinese food NOW.
One of my favorite Chinese restaurant recipes is sesame chicken. It’s sticky, salty, sweet, crunchy, and absolutely addictive.
Usually, sesame chicken is deep fried, then coated in a sweet, soy sauce and sesame oil based sauce.
Don’t get me wrong: I love me some fried chicken. But when I’m cooking at home, I’m not usually one to deep fry things from scratch. There’s too much mess, too much oil, too much terrifying splatter, and it makes your house smell like oil.
So here’s a fun way to make a crunchy coating on the chicken without deep frying!
Just coat the chicken in a thick batter consisting of: egg, cornstarch, salt, and pepper. The batter sticks to the chicken and crisps up in just a couple of tablespoons of oil in a non-stick or cast-iron skillet.
Easy!
My other complaint about sesame chicken is that sometimes it’s just TOO sweet. Like, WAY too sweet. I do love a little bit of sweetness in stir-fry sauces, and I think it’s absolutely necessary to get that well-rounded flavor balance of sweet, acidic, salty, umami that makes some Chinese take-out recipes so delicious!
If you search the internet for “sesame chicken recipes,” you’re sure to find a lot that use a half cup or MORE of sugar in the sauce.
In my opinion, that’s WAY TOO MUCH sugar! Not only is it less healthy, but it overwhelms the balance of the rest of the flavors.
For this sesame sauce, I used 2 tablespoons of brown sugar and 2 tablespoons of maple syrup to get a well-balanced sweetness that wasn’t too sweet and had a deeper flavor than just adding plain white sugar.
You can also use honey instead of the maple syrup, if you prefer.
More on the sauce: please don’t be intimidated by the long list of ingredients. I didn’t have to shop for anything new for it since I already had all of it in my pantry or fridge, and I bet you have a lot of it too.
I added a little sriracha hot sauce in there for some spiciness, but feel free to leave it out if you prefer.
And the addition of sesame seeds directly in the sauce adds to the delicious crunchy texture of this sesame chicken stir fry recipe.
I served this sesame chicken with steamed rice and green beans, and topped everything with some more toasted sesame seeds. It would be great garnished with green onions or cilantro, or even with cauliflower rice, zoodles, or in a lettuce wrap for a lower carb version.
Other Easy Asian-Inspired Recipes
- Skinny Pineapple Chicken with Cashews
- Skinny Orange Sesame Chicken
- Chicken and Cashew Lettuce Wraps
- 20-minute Lo Mein with Chicken Teriyaki Meatballs
- Sweet and Sour Chicken
- Shrimp Sir Fry
And make sure you check out this awesome list of the 7 Best Chinese Stir Fry Sauces so you can up your Chinese food game from the comfort of your own home!
Here’s the printable recipe :-)
20-Minute Sesame Chicken
Ingredients
For the Chicken:
- 1 egg
- 1/4 cup cornstarch
- 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
- 1/4 teaspoon black pepper
- 1 lb. chicken breasts or thighs cut into 1″ pieces
- 2 tablespoons canola oil or other neutral oil
For the Sesame Sauce:
- 1/4 cup low-sodium soy sauce
- 2 tablespoons rice vinegar
- 2 tablespoons water
- 1 tablespoon toasted sesame oil
- 2 tablespoons brown sugar
- 2 tablespoons maple syrup or honey
- 1 clove garlic grated on a microplane zester (about 1/2 tablespoon)
- 1 tablespoon fresh ginger grated on a microplane zester (about a 1 inch piece)
- 1 teaspoon Sriracha hot sauce or more, if you want
- 1 tablespoon sesame seeds
- 2 teaspoons cornstarch
For Serving:
- Cooked quinoa or rice, steamed broccoli or green beans, sliced green onions or cilantro, and more sesame seeds optional
Instructions
- To make the batter, whisk together the egg, cornstarch (1/4 cup), kosher salt (1/2 teaspoon), and black pepper (1/4 teaspoon) in a medium bowl until it's smooth. Add the chicken pieces and stir to coat.
- Heat the canola oil (2 tablespoons) in a nonstick or well-seasoned cast iron skillet over medium-high heat. Add all of the batter coated chicken and spread out in a single layer.
- Cook the chicken for 2 minutes until browned without moving it. Flip it over and cook for another 2 minutes without moving it.
- Continue cooking for another 10 minutes (or until fully cooked and browned), breaking it up as you go and stirring/flipping it occasionally.
- While the chicken is cooking, whisk together all the ingredients for the sauce.
- Once the chicken is done, add the sauce to the skillet and stir to coat the chicken. Continue heating and stirring until the sauce is thickened and coats all of the chicken.
- Serve the chicken over cooked rice or quinoa with steamed broccoli or green beans on the side, sprinkled with extra sesame seeds and garnished with sliced green onions or cilantro.
Notes
- Money Saving Tip: Dark meat is cheaper than white meat, so if you’re trying to save some money, use chicken thighs instead of breasts!
- Time Saving Tip: You can mix up the sauce ingredients a few days in advance to save on prep time, and you can probably find already cooked rice in the freezer section of your grocery store.
- If some of the batter falls off the chicken while you’re cooking it, don’t stress. It happened to me! The pieces of batter create little crunchy bites throughout and are delicious, even unattached to the chicken pieces.
- The provided nutrition information does not include any added sodium from seasoning to taste, any optional ingredients, and it does not take brands into account. Feel free to calculate it yourself using this calculator or by adding the recipe to Yummly.
Nutrition
Nutrition Information Disclaimer
The provided nutrition information is my best estimate and reflects one serving of the recipe (total servings indicated at top of recipe card). It does not include any added sodium from seasoning to taste, any optional ingredients, and it does not take brands into account. I use an automatic API to calculate this information. Feel free to calculate it yourself using one of these tools:
Cindy F
This was easy and delicious – 10 out of 10 will make again. I sweetened with maple syrup and brown sugar as suggested, but I think next time I will use Hot Honey.
Elizabeth Lindemann
So glad you liked it! Love that idea of using hot honey!
mavee125
This 20-minute Sesame Chicken recipe is definitely worth a try. So love it! Even the whole fam loves it, too! Will definitely be cooking this again on the weekends.
Elizabeth Lindemann
So glad you liked it!
Trish
Made the sauce as directed, but upped the recipe for it by half as we like a more saucy dish. Also, didn’t use the batter for the chicken-just sautéed it until cooked then added the sauce. It turned out great! I think next time I would sauté the vegetables with the chicken as more of a stir fry for our family. It was amazing…thank you for the recipe!
Elizabeth Lindemann
Glad you liked it! Not battering the chicken is a great way to make this healthier and so much easier to make. I’ve done that before as well!
Susannah
This is awesome!! I used some chili garlic sauce (since I was out of sriracha) and it was so delicious. THANK YOU- I had pretty much given up frying in general, for many of the reasons you mentioned- and this was such a great alternative. Also, thanks for specifying maple syrup OR honey, as I was out of syrup too :) Honey worked perfectly.
Elizabeth Lindemann
So glad you liked it and great idea to use chili garlic sauce!
Emma
Amazing. I made the recipe exactly as is and it came out perfectly. Will make again.
Elizabeth Lindemann
So glad you liked it!
Erin
Made this for dinner – so good! At first I wasn’t sure about the egg/cornstarch mix but it was on point. We added more sesame oil to the sauce but that was our only deviation. So good and loved that this is gluten friendly!
Elizabeth Lindemann
So glad you liked it!
Summer
What is the serving size
Elizabeth Lindemann
This recipe serves four, if I were to estimate serving size it would be about 3/4 cup. A pound of chicken breast is usually two breasts, so you can also think of the serving size as half a chicken breast. Hope that helps.
Summer
I have no eggs in my house can I still make the recipe?
Elizabeth Lindemann
Hm, this is untested, and a bit unconventional, but you might want to try using a little plain yogurt or some mayo as a substitute. Milk may also work. Basically, you want a really thick coating on each piece of chicken, and the egg thickens everything up and helps it bind together. Hope that helps!
Sonya Brandt
Elizabeth, I am in the same boat as far as good Chinese food is concerned–it’s a 30-minute drive for us. I made this last night, and the whole family loved it. Thanks for the great recipe!
Elizabeth
So glad you liked it! Thanks for the comment :-)