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This is the best Sesame Chicken recipe with crispy chicken in sweet and savory sesame chicken sauce. It tastes just like Chinese restaurants and takes only 20 mins to make. Serve the chicken with steamed rice for an authentic homemade Chinese meal.
Sesame Chicken Recipe
What is Sesame Chicken?
It’s one of the most popular Chinese recipes found in Chinese restaurants and takeouts in the United States.
Everyone loves this deep-fried and crispy chicken coated with a sweet and savory sesame sauce.
Garnished with white sesame seeds, the crispy chicken and sauce pairs perfectly with a bowl of steamed rice.
This is the BEST recipe you will find online! It’s easy, authentic and tastes the same, if not better than Chinese restaurants!
Sesame Chicken Sauce
The sweet and savory sesame sauce is the star of the dish. It calls for the following ingredients:
- Soy sauce
- Rice vinegar
- Sugar
- Cornstarch
- Water
See the recipe card for full information on ingredients.
How To Make Sesame Chicken
It’s very easy to make the dish at home. First, prep the chicken, frying batter and the sauce.
Next, coat the chicken with the batter and deep fry. The final step is to make the sauce and coat the chicken with it.
This homemade recipe is very easy and fail-proof and takes less than 20 minutes to make.
Cooking Tips
For the best results that is the same as the best Chinese restaurants, please follow my cooking tips below:
- For the crispiest chicken, follow my batter recipe and coat the chicken evenly. The frying batter produces crispy, light and airy chicken. Shake off the excess batter before deep frying the chicken.
- Use chicken breast meat for the best flavor.
- Do not drown the chicken with too much sesame sauce. Too much sauce will make the chicken soggy and not crispy.
Frequently Asked Questions
General Tso’s Chicken is a completely different dish with a spicy and dark sauce. Sesame sauce is sweet and savory in taste but not spicy. Both dishes are equally delicious!
For the best results, you should deep-fry the chicken. However, you can use an air fryer to air fry the chicken.
This recipe is only 306 calories per serving.
What To Serve With This Recipe
This meal is best served with steamed rice or noodles. For a wholesome Chinese meal and easy weeknight dinner, I recommend the following recipes.
I hope you enjoy this post as much as I do. If you try my recipe, please leave a comment and consider giving it a 5-star rating. For more easy and delicious recipes, explore my Recipe Index, and stay updated by subscribing to my newsletter and following me on Facebook, Pinterest, and Instagram for new updates.
Other Recipes You Might Like
Sesame Chicken
Ingredients
- 8 oz. (230g) boneless and skinless chicken breast, cut into strips
- oil, for deep-frying
- 2 tablespoons oil
- 1 clove garlic, minced
- white sesame seeds, for garnishing
Frying Batter:
- 1/2 cup all-purpose flour, sifted
- 1/4 cup cornstarch
- 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
- 1 egg white
- 1/3 cup cold water
- 1 tablespoon oil
- 1 pinch salt
Sauce:
- 2 tablespoons soy sauce
- 1 tablespoon Chinese rice vinegar , or apple cider vinegar
- 4 tablespoons sugar
- 2 teaspoons cornstarch
- 1/3 cup water
Instructions
- Mix all the ingredients in the Sauce until well combined. Set aside.
- Mix all the ingredients for the Frying Batter in a bowl until well combined. Stir a few times to ensure there are no lumps and the batter is smooth. Add the chicken to the batter and stir to coat it evenly.
- Heat 2 to 3 inches (5 to 7.5 cm) of oil in a wok or stockpot to 350°F (175°C) for deep-frying. Gently drop the chicken into the hot oil and immediately loosen them with a spatula to prevent the pieces from clumping together.
- Deep-fry the chicken until golden brown. Remove the chicken from the oil using a strainer or slotted spoon, allowing the excess oil to drain by placing the chicken on a dish lined with paper towels. Discard the oil.
- Heat 2 tablespoons of oil in a wok or skillet over high heat. Add the garlic and stir-fry until fragrant, then pour in the sauce.
- As soon as the sauce thickens, add the fried chicken to the wok or skillet. Stir continuously until the chicken is evenly coated with the sauce. Dish out, garnish with white sesame, and serve immediately with steamed rice.
Video
Notes
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
I love this recipe but I needed to add at least sesame oil to really make it into sesame chicken not just sesame seeds as garnish. Without the sesame oil you its just soy sauce chicken with a sesame seed garnish
Do you put oil in the batter?
Yes, please check the recipe part.
This is delicious!
That’s awesome thanks so much!
Y’all. This is amazing. I did tweak it some. I used boneless chicken thighs, left out the oil in the sauce and added about half a teaspoon of sesame oil and about a half a teaspoon of crushed red pepper. It was delicious but next time I may use half the sugar. This is the best sesame chicken I’ve ever put in my mouth
Hi Katlyn, aww, thanks for trying my sesame chicken recipe, yes, it’s very good!
I’m short on time or I would make this from scratch, but I made popcorn chicken last night and I have so much left over, would it taste horrible to use that as my base and coat it in your sauce?
I think you can try. This sesame chicken sauce is good.
Do you have a fried rice recipe?
Yes, you can find my recipe by searching for the name of the recipe on the top right corner of my website. https://rasamalaysia.com/fried-rice-recipe/
Oh my goodness. This is the best sesame chicken recipe!!! Thank you. Made it for my 5uear old grandson and he loves it.
Can someone tell me how many tablespoon of ketchup?
I can’t see it as I’ve punch a hole at that part of the printed recipe. When I tried to go to the Get Recipe link, it doesn’t work.
There is no ketchup:
2 tablespoons soy sauce
1 tablespoon Chinese rice vinegar or apple cider vinegar
4 tablespoons sugar
2 teaspoons cornstarch
1/3 cup (80 ml) tablespoons water
I made this a few weeks ago and to my surprise my family loved it, even my picky little ones!! I’m making it again tonight & hope it comes out as great as the first time.Thanks so much for sharing :)
Hi Sylvia, thanks for trying my Sesame chicken recipe. I am so glad that you little ones loved it. :)
Wow!!!!!
We are surprised and stuffed. This was a HUGE hit in my house tonight. Even my Philippine neighbor loved it. It was perfect. I highly reccomend a meat thermometer to verify chicken is done ( @170°) but we cooked until golden brown and it was pretty close to the correct temp.
HINT: We really were worried the sause was not going to thicken. However just when it started to boil it almost immediately started to thicken.
Also we used boneless skinless chicken breast and it was so moist….lol. I hate that word but its a true descriptive word for this.
It took us almost 2 hours start to Finnish because we had to 5x the ingredients. Math= extra time but in the end totally worth it. We paired with the copycat for panda express chow mien. Yummy too just read all the comments and make sure you get the correct noodles( not the dry hard usually noodles you think)
Hi Alycia, so happy that you love my Sesame Chicken recipe. Yes, as long as you follow my recipes, you will get amazing and delicious results. :)