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My Most Popular Chinese Recipes ❤️
Tips, tricks, and recipes for perfect Chinese dishes
FREE EMAIL BONUS:
My Most Popular Chinese Recipes ❤️
Tips, tricks, and recipes for Chinese dishes
What Is Honey Sesame Chicken?
Honey chicken is one of the most popular Chinese recipes on Rasa Malaysia.
I created that recipe two years ago and many readers have requested variations of that recipe.
Today, I am creating a new recipe called honey sesame chicken, which is quite popular on Pinterest (remember to follow me). It features best of both worlds of sesame chicken and honey chicken.
The Best Way to Prepare This Meal
To make this chicken, all you need are a few everyday ingredients that you can get at any food store or supermarket. This recipe is super simple, and you can make it anytime you want.
While most people don’t like to do deep-frying at home, I strongly urge you to do so with this honey sesame chicken recipe and other Chinese recipes on Rasa Malaysia.
The reason why we all love Chinese takeouts and dishes so much is because of the deep-fried chicken coated with rich and savory sauce.
Eat them with some warm steamed rice and you have your guilty pleasure.
So I say forget about baked chicken, let’s fry the chicken and give your stomach and palate a treat.
We all deserve to indulge once in a while.
Ingredients
- Chicken Breast
- Egg White
- All-Purpose Flour
- Apple Cider Vinegar
- Baking Powder
- Sesame OIl
- Garlic
- Ketchup
- Sesame Seeds
- Cornstarch
- Honey
How to Make Honey Sesame Chicken
Step 1: Whisk all the “Frying Batter” ingredients together until smooth. Set aside. Drop in the chicken cubes, mix well until they are well coated. Set aside.
Step 2: Mix all the ingredients of the “Honey Sesame Sauce” together and set aside.
Step 3: Heat up a saute pan and add about 2-inch of oil on medium to high heat. When the oil is fully heated, gently drop in the battered chicken cubes, one by one, making sure it is spread out to prevent sticking together. Continue to fry until the color changes to golden brown. Dish out and drain on paper towels.
Step 4: Transfer 2 tablespoons of the frying oil in a wok or skillet, stir-fry the garlic until aromatic. Add in the Honey Sesame Sauce, and bring to a light simmer or until the sauce thickens.
Step 5: Drop in the chicken, stir-fry a few times to combine the sauce and chicken, add the sesame seeds, dish out and serve immediately with steamed white rice, or Chinese fried rice.
How to Fry the Chicken
The sweetest thing about this recipe is that you don’t even really need to deep fry the chicken, as a shallow fry works very well at home.
You don’t need a deep fryer, or 6 inches of oil to deep fry a batch of chicken for dinner.
You just need a small saute pan (non-stick preferably for ease of cleaning and frying), about 2 inches of oil, a pair of long chopsticks, and you are good.
There is no wastage of oil, no splattering oil, but gloriously fried chicken pieces ready to be cooked with the sweet, tangy, and savory honey sesame sauce.
Easy, breezy, and no fuss!
How Many Calories per Serving?
This recipe is only 416 calories per serving.
What Dishes to Serve with This Recipe?
For a wholesome meal and easy weeknight dinner, I recommend the following recipes.
Honey Sesame Chicken
Ingredients
- 1 lb. (500g) boneless chicken breast, cut into 1-inch (2.5cm) cubes or long strips
- oil for deep-frying
- 2 cloves minced garlic
- toasted sesame seeds to garnish
Frying Batter:
- 1 egg white
- 1/2 cup all-purpose flour (sifted)
- 1/4 cup cornstarch
- 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/2 cup water (ice cold)
- 1 tablespoon oil
- 1 pinch salt
Honey Sesame Sauce:
- 1/3 cup pure honey
- 1 teaspoon apple cider vinegar
- 1/2 tablespoon ketchup
- 1 teaspoon sesame oil
- 1 tablespoon corn starch
- 1/2 cup water
- 1 teaspoon salt
Instructions
- Whisk all the "Frying Batter" ingredients together until smooth. Set aside. Drop in the chicken cubes, mix well until they are well coated. Set aside.
- Mix all the ingredients of the "Honey Sesame Sauce" together and set aside.
- Heat up a saute pan and add about 2-inch of oil on medium to high heat. When the oil is fully heated, gently drop in the battered chicken cubes, one by one, making sure it is spread out to prevent sticking together. Continue to fry until the color changes to golden brown. Dish out and drain on paper towels.
- Transfer 2 tablespoons of the frying oil in a wok or skillet, stir-fry the garlic until aromatic. Add in the Honey Sesame Sauce, and bring to a light simmer or until the sauce thickens.
- Drop in the chicken, stir-fry a few times to combine the sauce and chicken, add the sesame seeds, dish out and serve immediately with steamed white rice, or Chinese fried rice.
I always go to restaurants for my Asian as I normally cant cook it, tried the honey sesame recipe tonight it was so easy to do, taste was great, batter was perfect, nice and crisp and golden. I believe it was better than what I ate in 85% of Asian restaurants I visited, the other 15% are in Asia. My wife and her family are Slovakian so very traditional with their food but they loved this recipe. Highly recommend, yummy, will be trying the other recipes thanks so much.
Thanks for your sweet comment, I am so glad that you love my Honey Sesame Chicken recipe. It’s very good. Try more of my recipes, they are all amazing! :)
I stumbled across this recipe while bored from our typical meals and was trying to find something my husband would enjoy. I have made this at least 3 times in the last few months and will be making it again tonight for company. The batter on the chicken stays crispy with the oil that is transferred to the honey sauce. I serve with coconut milk rice and roasted broccoli. I think I need to check out some other recipes on your site…. Thanks for sharing this delicious recipe.
Hi Christina, thanks for your comment. Yes, this honey sesame chicken is delicious. Try out my other recipes here: https://rasamalaysia.com/recipe-index-gallery/
This is the best batter recipe I have come across in a long time. I have made this recipe at least 4 times in the last few months. Thanks for sharing!
Thanks Tiffany!
The sauce was too thin for my liking. I added extra cornstarch and it was perfect! Very yummy. Thanks for the recipe!
I am assuming 2 garlic, means 2 garlic cloves right?
Two cloves garlic.
Just made it and tasted so yummieee!! Used chicken thigh coz I was afraid it would taste dry with breast. Love your recipes here in Holland, makes me feel like I’m in KL ;-)
Thanks Mandy. :)
Thankyou for sharing such a delicious recipe! Made this for my family exactly to the recipe and it turned out so well, I was munching away on the chicken before it hit the honey sauce! I used tenderloins which was so lovely and tender, thanks again
Thanks Kim for trying this recipe I am so glad your family enjoy my honey sesame chicken recipe.
What is agave syrup???
It’s a type of plant-based syrup.
Tequila is made from agave.
I just made this the other night and it was a hit. Super easy recipe to follow and the result was incredible. I struggled with making asian dishes at home. I’ve tried tons of recipes from various cookbooks and websites and none of them were all that good. They all seemed to be missing “something” and I kind of gave up trying to cook asian food at home until I found your website. My boyfriend and I have tried about 5 different recipes so far and EACH one was AMAZING. Thanks so much for sharing all these recipes online, they are fantastic.
Hi Melissa, thanks so much for your sweet comment. Please do check out my new e-cookbook “Easy Asian Takeout” and you won’t need to have another Asian meals at restaurants. https://rasamalaysia.com/easy-asian-takeout/ :)
I made this and substituted agave syrup for the honey, it was very nice indeed!
Good idea on the agave substitute. :)
I made this tonight and my whole family LOVED it. Only thing I did differently was frying in coconut oil. Will definitely add this to my “to make again” list.
Nichole, great that you loved this honey sesame chicken. :)