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Asian Five-Spice Chicken - deeply flavorful and moist pan-fried skillet chicken marinated with Asian spices & sauces. So easy and so good!
Five-spice powder is my secret weapon in my kitchen. I love it and it’s one of my most-used spices. It’s a mixture of star anise, cinnamon, cloves, fennel, and Sichuan pepper.
The unique scent and aroma is great as a marinate to meat, especially chicken.
You can buy the five-spice powder from any Chinese or Asian stores. They come in a small bottle (like ground pepper) and last a long time.
If you can’t find it at stores, you can certainly purchase them easily online.
The chicken goes so well with steamed rice, or noodles.This recipe is very versatile, you can make it on a skillet, grill it outdoor on a grill, or bake it in the oven.
Either way, it’s an excellent dish that you can make in a jiffy.
Frequently Asked Questions
This recipe is only 289 calories per serving.
What To Serve With Asian Five-Spice Chicken
For an easy and wholesome weeknight dinner, I recommend the following recipes:
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Asian Five-Spice Chicken
Ingredients
- 3 chicken thighs, deboned, and cut into halves
- 2 cloves garlic, minced
- 1/2 teaspoon five-spice powder
- 1/2 teaspoon sesame oil
- 1 teaspoon Chinese rice wine, or Japanese cooking sake, optional
- 1 teaspoon oyster sauce
- 1 teaspoon soy sauce
- 1 teaspoon sugar
- salt , to taste
- 1/2 tablespoon oil
Instructions
- Debone the chicken thighs while keeping the skin. You may also use skinless and boneless chicken thighs if preferred.
- Marinate the chicken with garlic, five-spice powder, sesame oil, rice wine, oyster sauce, soy sauce, sugar, and salt for 15 minutes, or ideally for 1 hour.
- Add oil to the skillet over medium heat. Pan-fry the chicken on both sides until browned and crispy, ensuring the inside is cooked through. Remove from the skillet and serve immediately.
Video
Notes
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
I order all my Asian spices and marinades from Amazon. Having Prime gets the product to me in 2 days. I always find everything I need including 5 spice.
Yep correct!
I marinated it for one day and added a little more soy, sugar, and a little chicken stock powder. I seared it on both sides for 4 minutes on high for the first 1minute and medium for the next 3 on each side. Then I baked it at 400F for 15 minutes. It was really good :)
Great to know, glad that you liked my Asian five-spice chicken.
I know the recipe says that you can bake it. Do you need to sear or brown the outside of the chicken thighs before popping it into the oven or just directly? The recipe looks amazing regardless!
Yes you can sear first before baking and they will taste better. :)
I found the Chinese 5 spice at Walmart!
Whenever I’m browsing through Pinterest, I’m always drawn to the Asian recipes, and when I look further, they’re usually yours! Your recipes are so flavorful and easy to make. What else is nice is that they’re for a smaller number of servings, which is great since I only cook for myself. What would be awesome is if you could put some nutritional information with your recipes, at least calories and fat grams. Thanks!
Hi Susan – thanks so much for your sweet comment. Yes, my recipes are all easy and delicious and everyone can make it and Nutritional data will be available soon!
That is great news about the nutritional data! I know it will be very helpful to me and I’m sure lots of other people. I look forward to getting more of your recipes.
I love you recipes!! They all look so yummy and I miss the Malaysian food so much!! This is without a doubt the best place to find great recipes. Me and my sisters have just started a new blog, and you can expect lots of linking to your homepage, when we use your recipes ;)
The grocery stores where I shop don’t seem to carry Asian Five Spice can you let me know if I can create these spices myself and how. Because this chicken in this recipe looks delicious and I would like to try to fix this for my family.
Thank you
I order all my Asian spices and marinades from Amazon. Having Prime gets the product to me in 2 days. I always find everything I need including 5 spice.
I’m from Singapore and the shockingly, the best 5 spice powder I’ve found is from Williams Sonoma. Fresh, most aromatic and not expensive since it lasts a long time.
Interesting, thanks for sharing!!
I meant what is in five spice powder.
What is in five spice sauce?
a mixture of star anise, cinnamon, cloves, fennel, and Sichuan pepper – as mentioned in this article…