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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.
Planning on making this tonight but I do have one question…. Can I use a fryer instead of cooking it on the stove at first?
I used thighs instead of breast… but I plan on trying it with chicken breasts next time. OMG it is so delicious and tastes just like what I would buy… but better because I made it! Easy, affordable, and can be modified to fit different health issues (for example-I did not use salt to season and I used low sodium soy sauce). I am excited to make this again! Thank you.
This looks so Delish! I am about to make it but we’re snowed in so I can’t run out to get cornstarch or sesame oil. Do you think I could substitute flour for cornstarch? And is the seams oil really needed or can it go without? TIA 🙂
I just made the baked honey sesame chicken. It was good (very) but my son and I thought something was ‘off’ with my sauce. I used dark brown sugar–would that make a difference in the taste? Also, is rice vinegar the same as rice WINE vinegar? Last question, I used toasted sesame oil, so could that have given us a less than perfect result?
Made this tonight & the soy sauce was a little overwhelming for us. (We are not huge soy sauce fans) – but we appreciate any yummy Chinese meal that we can make on our own instead of ordering out! If we cut the soy sauce in half, what could we replace it with to ensure enough sauce to cover the chicken? Also, my breading ended up at the bottom of my pan…was my heat too high/low? I’m not auditioning for Master Chef anytime soon 😉 thanks again!
I just made this for dinner, and it was great! The breading didn’t really work for me, but it wsnt bad. I did use apple cider vinegar instead of rice wine vinegar, but it was still delicious. Added broccoli, water chestnuts, mushrooms, and green peppers.
Great stuff!! I made this for 5 adults- everyone LOVED this recipe!
This is good. The technique is excellent. The final result very similar to Chinese restaurant food.
However, I cut back on the amount of honey and brown sugar and still thought this was way too sweet. What would be the best way to cut out on the sweetness while still having enough sauce to cover the chicken (and a little rice)?
Thanks for posting it. I will definitely keep this method in mind.
A really good recipe – the only drama I found was that the sauce didn’t taste enough like honey. Should I add more honey or cut back on some other ingredients?
You could cut back a little on the soy sauce and add more honey for more flavor. 🙂
Breading all fell off! What did I do wrong?
At what point did it fall off? During the browning in the pan or when it was actually baked?
How do you keep the breading on? I am thinking the recipe needs to be reversed. Egg, then starch? Mine all fell off when I was browning it. 🙁
I have made this way to much by now and nope you dip the chicken in the cornstarch and then the egg. I haven’t had the breading fall off before. Did it happen when you were browning the chicken or when it was baking?
Do you cover the chicken when you cook it?
Nope. 🙂
Hello,
did you use light soy sauce or dark one for that?
Just regular or low sodium sauce will be great!
Hi, can you please help me on my soy sauce choice? I have in my pantry: superior light soy sauce (tastes very salty), dark soy sauce (mushroom), ketjap manis (indonesian) and standard ‘maggi’ brand soy sauce (which has it’s own distinct taste imho).. They’re all very different! Thanks for the help! Grtz from Holland
The regular soy sauce in the USA is like the light soy sauce I buy here in Ireland. Dark soy sauce is too strong and has a different flavour. Watering it down can work but it’s not the same. Hope that helps!
Cornstarch first? Then eggs? That seems opposite than usual. Is that a typo?
Nope. Cornstarch first then the egg. This will give it the authentic chinese restaurant breading.
So it calls for 4 chicken breasts. I’m not sure but aren’t chicken breasts sometimes different sizes? How many pounds did you use? I ended up only using 2 because they were really big.They totaled 1.5 lbs. Hopefully it’s enough. It’s in the oven right now. This might be a dumb question but I’m just not sure because I don’t know much about chicken. I was vegan for many years. Thanks!!!
Oh my stars this was amazing! I cut the recipe back slightly to suit the quantity of chicken and I just used watered down white vinegar. My fiancé who is so fussy tried it and said it was beautiful and he really liked it. I’ll be sharing this with everyone! Thank you!