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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.
Wonderful recipe. The batter was wonderfully light and crisp. Next time I do it I might add a bit more cornstarch to the batter to make it just a bit crispier.
Hi Sid, sounds like a good idea. :)
The other thing that I did was to marinade the chicken pieces (dark meat from thighs and legs) with a splash of soy sauce and Chinese rice wine (Shaoxing) and very lightly dusted the meat with 5 spice powder. Those steps really added a wonderful flavor to the meat.
Sounds yummy thanks for trying my Sesame Chicken recipe.
I made this recipe the other night and it was really good. The chicken had little flavor but the sauce was perfect and I wish I had doubled it. I added broccoli to it and it was yummy. I am making it again tonight. This time I doubled the sauce and I am using some of it to marinate the chicken for an hour before I fry it just to give the chicken itself more flavor. I think it would have been fine if I cut the pieces smaller, but I like them a bit bigger and with that they need a bit more flavor. The batter for frying was perfect. Nice and crunchy. I just know it will be glorious and I am super excited for dinner. Thank you for the recipe.
Hi Jennifer, thanks for trying my recipe.
Lovely recipe! I made this last night. The chicken came out crunchy, however, after draining the excess oil on a paper towel, the chicken was soggy. I’m not sure what I did wrong. Nevertheless, it came out delicious with the sauce and my family loved it.
when you fry foods and then lay them on a paper towel lined plate etc. to drain off excess oil. the heat on the bottom of fried item has no where to escape to, (cause the paper towels blocks and absorbs the heat creating a steam) hence the breading gets soggy. try placing a cooling rack inside a rimmed sheet pan,(no paper towels) then place fried foods on it directly from the hot oil to drain into the sheet pan. That way the heat can escape some what. and should prevent soggy breading.
OMG Bee, absolutely superb. This was seriously amazing. I have pretty much stopped using my old methods of cooking and live on your recipes. Living in China, my daughter and I, we love Chinese way more than western food now and I am so happy to be cooking amazing meals everyday. thank you a million times!
Hi Nadine, thanks so much for trying my Sesame Chicken recipe. I am so glad that you love my recipes. They are all delicious, please try more: https://www.666630.xyz/recipe-index-gallery/
Delicious beyond words!! Much better than a takeaway
Hi Samantha, thanks so much for trying my sesame chicken. Please try more recipes on my site: https://www.666630.xyz/recipe-index-gallery/
My first encounter with sesame chicken was in a Hunan restaurant in the late 1980s, and it was significantly different than today’s versions. It was less sweet and had some heat. There was also toasted sesame oil in the sauce. Your recipe is pretty good and easily adapted to our desire for a little more spice and a little more sesame. I toasted the sesame seeds to bring out their flavor–this can be a nuisance, but I always do enough to have plenty on hand, probably 1/2 c at a time, and they will keep several months, I added 3 dried chilis added to the pan with the garlic, cut the sugar in half, added about 1/2 tsp sesame oil to the sauce at the end. OMG–how good! Thanks for this wonderful “backbone” recipe.
Thanks for your comment Janet.
Do you have the recipe to feed a family of 6
You can just double or triple.
I tried this last night and all we can say is wooow it was absolutely lovely and delicious. Thank you so much.
This is the best sesame chicken recipe. Thank you so much.
This recipe is amazing. However, the sauce itself is too sweet for my preference. I tried to cut down half of the sugar from 4tbsp to 2tbsp. I also added more soy sauce, and it was perfect. Thanks for the recipe!
I love to eat this..especially when come to chew those tiny sesame seeds..hehe..omo, i am craving for this..
That’s awesome! My sesame chicken recipe is very good. :)
I tried this last night and all we can say is wooow it was absolutely lovely and delicious. Thank you so much sharing for recipe.
Thanks for trying my Sesame chicken recipe.