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Honey Sesame Chicken is sweet, savory, and perfect for any night of the week. This is so good, it is even better than take out!
Serve this restaurant worthy meal on a bed of rice and with sides such as Wontons, Egg Rolls or Fried Rice for the complete take out from home.
Homemade Honey Sesame Chicken
There are recipes that I make that I hope that everyone tries. This is one of those recipes. It all began with my sweet and sour chicken that changed my life. It is actually possible to make the same quality Chinese food as P.F. Chang’s at home. Then came a spicy version of this delicious chicken, my firecracker chicken. I had died and gone to Chinese food heaven with these recipes. I didn’t think that it could get any better than this. Since I love Chinese food so much my life was complete. But then I created honey sesame chicken. Let me tell you this. This is the best of them all!
It first starts with the breading. The cornstarch and egg combo makes it taste straight from a restaurant. Then there is something about baking this chicken that makes the sauce thicken, the chicken brown and absolutely blow your mind. Seriously I could hardly believe how amazing this was while I was eating it. The sauce has a sweet honey flavor to it and is absolute honey sesame perfection. If you love Chinese and make one thing from my blog, make this!
Sesame Chicken Ingredients
These simple ingredients are probably sitting in your pantry right now. I love that this comes together so easily. You are going to love the luscious sauce.
- Chicken Breasts: About 4 chicken breasts
- Cornstarch: Needed for the breading
- Eggs: The binder
- Salt and Pepper: To taste
- Canola: Just enough to fry in
Honey Sesame Sauce
- Honey: The queen of the sauce
- Soy Sauce: Adds a bit of salty and flavor to the sweet
- Ketchup: Adds a good balance to the sweet
- Brown Sugar: Helps bring out the sweetness of the honey
- Rice Wine Vinegar: The zing to the sweet, you’ll want the tang to balance it
- Sesame Oil: Adds perfect sesame flavor
- Garlic: A necessity in asian food
- Cornstarch: This is the thickener for the sauce
How to Make Easy Honey Sesame Chicken
This could not be any easier. Remember you are just flash frying the chicken, it will finish cooking in the oven.
- Cut: Preheat oven to 325 degrees F. Cut chicken into bite sized pieces and season with salt and pepper
- Bowls: In one bowl place the cornstarch. In the other bowl place the eggs and beat them slightly. Dip the chicken into the cornstarch first, then into the egg mixture.
- Flash Fry: In a skillet heat the oil over medium high heat. Cook the chicken till just golden brown on all sides. Place in a greased 9×13 pan.
- Mix: In a medium bowl mix all of the sauce ingredients till thoroughly combined. Pour over the chicken.
- Bake: Bake the chicken for 45 min stirring every 15 min to evenly coat the chicken.
Trust Me on these Pro Tips!
This is the same method as my Baked Sweet and Sour Chicken so it shares my same tips.
- Method to the Madness: Make sure you first coat your chicken in the cornstarch and then the egg. This method makes the perfect breading for the chicken. You can also use a large gallon ziplock bag to coat the chicken in the cornstarch.
- Fast: Do not cook the chicken all the way through before baking. You just want to get the chicken lightly brown on the outside, and then it bakes to perfection.
- Low and Slow: Baking the chicken at a low temperature will not over cook the chicken. This helps to cook the chicken all the way through and thicken up the sauce.
Tips for the Best Honey Sesame Chicken
Besides taking time to cook in the oven this baked honey chicken comes together really quickly. Cut your chicken when it is still partially frozen to make it easier to cut. But wait to bread and cook them till thawed.
- Chicken: You can use chicken thighs if you like. Just make sure your pieces of chicken are cut evenly so they cook at the same rate.
- Vinegar: If you don’t have rice wine vinegar you can easily substitute apple cider vinegar without ruining the taste.
- Vegetables: You can add in broccoli, peppers, mushrooms, zucchini or other vegetables to round out the meal a bit more.
- Serve: This is definitely delicious on its own but we love to serve it over rice. You can also try quinoa, brown rice or ramen noodles.
- Side Dishes: Serve this luscious dish alongside Air Fryer Egg Rolls, Grilled Pineapple, and Vegetable Stir Fry.
- Sauce: If you want more sauce, make a double batch of the sauce. Pour half over the chicken to bake and heat the other half in a small saucepan over medium heat till thickened. Pour the extra sauce over the chicken once done, or over individual portions. This will help it not get soggy while it cooks, but gives you extra sauce.
Storing Leftovers
Leftovers are some of the best. The sauce really melds into the chicken. The breaded chicken will lose a bit of its crispy tender outside, but the taste is still amazing.
- Fridge: Place leftovers in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 3-4 days.
- Freezer: This can be frozen too. Just place in a freezer safe container or bag and freeze for up to 3 months.
- Reheat: Sweet and Sour Chicken is best reheated on the stove. Reheating it in the microwave can make the chicken rubbery and overcooked. Place leftovers in pan on the stove top and heat on medium heat, stirring often, till heated through.
More Asian Inspiration for Dinner
Asian food is a staple around here at our house. We love to make our favorites at home, instead of getting take out. It always tastes ten times better and when making it at home you can customize it to your tastes. Cooking these take out favorites is actually easier than you think too. I have plenty of tried and true favorites here on the blog, but these favorites are a good place to start.
- Slow Cooker Honey Garlic Chicken
- Skillet Sesame Chicken and Broccoli
- Sesame Orange Chicken
- Honey Lemon Ginger Chicken
- Slow Cooker Honey Teriyaki Chicken
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Baked Honey Sesame Chicken
Ingredients
- 4 chicken breasts
- 1 cup cornstarch
- 3 large eggs
- salt and pepper
- 1/4 cup canola oil
Sauce:
- 3/4 cup honey
- 3/4 cup soy sauce
- 1/2 cup ketchup
- 1/2 cup brown sugar
- 1/2 cup rice wine vinegar
- 1 teaspoons sesame oil
- 1 teaspoons minced garlic
- 1 Tablespoons cornstarch
- additional sesame seeds for garnish
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Cut chicken breasts into bite-sized pieces and season with salt and pepper.
- In separate bowls, place cornstarch and slightly beaten eggs. Dip chicken into cornstarch then coat in egg mixture then back into the cornstarch. I have also found that you can put the chicken pieces in a gallon size bag and shake to coat.
- Heat canola oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat and cook chicken until browned. Place the chicken in a 9 x 13 greased baking dish.
- In a medium sized mixing bowl, combine honey, soy sauce, ketchup, brown sugar, rice wine vinegar, sesame oil, minced garlic, and 1 T cornstarch. Pour over chicken and bake for 45 minutes or until chicken is cooked through.
- I stirred the chicken every 15 minutes so that it coated them in the sauce.
Video
Notes
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
Hi! I just made this and the breading on the chicken didn’t turn out right … egg pieces just fell off while I fried it. Do you have any suggestions about how I can improve this? The taste was great and I’d love to get it right!
Try coating the chicken in egg first, THEN in cornstarch. The cornstarch then egg method didn’t work for me either – I just had scrambled eggs and chicken. Coating the chicken with egg, then cornstarch gave me the puffy “Chinese takeout” breading.
These recipes are really life changing. Thank you so much for sharing this! I love them so much!
This was outstanding! Tasted like it was from a restaurant and we loved it!! Thank you for sharing the recipe.
This is delicious! I don’t think I’ll ever buy takeout again. It’s simple , quick and delicious. To the sauce I added a splash of katsu sauce and hoisin sauce. Thank you so much for this recipe! I am in love!!
EXCELLENT RECIPE! My husband and I made it last for my father who hates trying new foods. He absolutely loved it and went back for seconds! This will become a household dish.
This is hands down the nicest chicken recipe I have ever had, Asian style or otherwise!! Absolutely amazing. I made half the quantity of sauce and even with 3 chicken breasts found that was plenty. You really do need to give it the full time in the oven to let it thicken up. I used a couple of extra teaspoons of sesame oil in the actual sauce as well as adding some into the cooking oil because I love the taste of it. I also used soft dark sugar and a little bit less honey than in the recipe as I didn’t want it to be too sweet. Delicious, so delicious I am making it again tonight (only made it 2 days ago!!!)
I personally don’t eat meat but I made this for my lovely husband tonight and he scarfed it down in 3 minutes! He said it was to die for! I’m definitely putting it in my recipe book now. It was so easy compared to most recipes and it actually pretty fun to make. 🙂
Best Sesame chicken ever! The whole family loved it, and we agreed it was way better than the restaurant. Easy to prepare, and cook. I’d definitely recommend it.
I made it today! It come out very delicious! Thank you for the recipie
I just finished eating this! Mmmmmm! It was soooo good, I wish I wasn’t full right now so I could eat more! 🙂 Thanks for the recipe!!!
Just curious are we cooki.g the chicken breastwhole and then cutting it up before servi.g?
You are going to cut the chicken into about 1 inch pieces. You will coat the chicken in the cornstarch and egg mixture to get the breading on the outside.
I made this last week and my family loved it! It was fantastic. I’m trying the firecracker chicken tomorrow, though I’m tempted to just make this again since it was so good.
This recipe is perfection. My chicken came out delicious, tender and tasty. I served it over basmati rice with a side of Brussels sprouts. Family loved it!! I did have to add more oil for sautéing. Other than that it was Perfect!! Better than any restaurant I’ve been to. Thanks for the recipe! Definite repeat.
I made this recipe last night, and was quite nervous after making a terrible orange chicken recipe a few weeks back. I made the recipe exactly as stated and it came out amazing. The only thing I did differently was turned up the temperature on the oven to 350, and then for the last 15 minutes up to 400 to thicken the sauce up even more. I paired it up with rice from my rice cooker and it tasted just like something from a restaurant. I’m definitely going to make this recipe again, it was really easy and very good!
I was in the mood for a homemade Asian something-or-other and was sitting in the grocery store parking lot and searching the web on my cell phone looking for inspiration before heading in to get supplies, when I stumbled upon this recipe. I already had most of the ingredients at home already, so I thought I would give it a try tonight.
Not only did I think it was delicious, but it was even more of a home run with my boyfriend. He loved it! I will definitely be adding this to my regular recipe rotation. Such a dynamic dish! Thank you so much for sharing!
I am going to try your Firecracker Chicken recipe next! 🙂
LOOKS AMAZING, EASY TO MAKE. LOVE IT. THANKS.