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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.
It says sauce. What kind of sauce is it????
Yes it says sauce: And then the ingredients for the sauce are listed below.
I found this recipe on Pinterest and decided to make it for my Try it Tuesday dinner last night. After I had already planned my menu I found out that we were having out of town guests for dinner. Normally I would not have served a recipe I had not yet tried to guests but I decided to go for it. I am so glad that I did. One of the guests said that it was the best homemade Chinese food she had ever eaten. Thanks so much.
Omg…I am craving this right about now!! Good-bye Panda Express, hello Homemade recipe!
Ok so after you put the chicken through the egg and into the hot oil, I get fried egg covered chicken. How do I combat this?
Honestly, right in the beginning stage it will look like a fried egg type breading over the chicken. Just let it brown up a little and then bake… let me know how it turns out!
Ok… I tried to experiment a little when I made this. I dipped them in the cornstarch and the egg and just tried to shake the excess off a little bit. I also had to turn the heat down when frying, I guess I had it too high. 🙂 The first time I just had giant yellow puffy balls of egg. After I fixed it, they were delicious in the end, I just had to play with the heat a bit.
This turned out Great! Not exactly looking like yours though. It was much darker I am a foodie blogger myself so I’ll be sharing this. I did tweak it slightly to my liking 😉 Never tried doing chicken in the corn starch then egg, but I was shocked how well that worked!
I am thinking of trying this. I have all of the ingredients except canola, I have veggie oil. My thing is this I never done it like using cornstarch, and you say dip in cornstarch then in egg. SO nothing after the egg just fry them up?
1 t sesame oil
1 t minced garlic
1 T cornstarch
Just wanted to chicken the above measurements. Are they teaspoons or tablespoons?
really looking forward to trying this. Thanks!
t = teaspoons, T = tablespoons (this should help anyone in the future)
Hello,
I’m a guy and not the most seasoned cook. The prep time says 30 minutes but it took me over 1 1/2 to 2 hours to batter and brown the chicken (used 4 breasts cut in bite size pieces). For me, this meal is for the weekends and not during the week. Is this a guy thing or am i doing something wrong?
The prep time(30 minutes) just includes setup and battering the chicken with cornstarch and then eggs. The cook time is 1 hour (15 minutes for browning the chicken in the wok, 45 minutes for cooking in the oven). I found these times to be pretty accurate.
Hi there I’m not sure why but my sauce turned out really dark brown even though I followed the recipe and the measurements accurately? The sauce was good but wasn’t really honey though.
I was in the same boat. I believe we should try a light soy sauce the next go around. Post your results if you do!
I just made this for dinner tonight. It was awesome! My husband said “You DEFINITELY have to make this again.” My 11 year-old pickier than the pickiest eater I’ve ever known loved it! Thank you!
Made this last night for dinner, it was ok. Too sweet and salty, I would definitely cut back the soy sauce and ketchup, it over powered everything, we couldn’t taste sesame at all..
I’ve made your sweet and sour chicken many times and it’s a huge hit in our house. I knew I couldn’t go wrong with this recipe since it’s similar. It was really good, but next time I think I’ll cook it for an hour like you do with the S&S chicken just to make sure it’s good and sticky! As it sat out after dinner, it thickened up as well, so I’ll be having leftovers for lunch tomorrow. Thanks for another great recipe! Oh and by the way, we haven’t ordered Chinese food since I started making the S&S chicken. 🙂
I made this recipe last night. I was skeptical about my ability to make it, I am a baker and used to making cookies and cakes. Meat is definitely not my strong point. So I was very pleasantly surprised to find that this recipe was actually quite easy easy and BOY was it delicious! I have three picky children and they all were raving about how good it was. I paired it with your easy fried rice and snow peas. Definitely a keeper recipe for us. Thanks so much for sharing this!:
Amazing dinner i have made it twice now and love it when making sauce it looks yuck but once cooked oh yum. 🙂
Hi,
I was wondering… I have a son who loves Honey Chicken, as well as Sesame Chicken. To make a traditional Honey Chicken, would I just substitute Olive Oil or something similar for the Sesame Oil so it doesn’t seem like Sesame Chicken without the extra Sesame Seeds?
Hi there,
We made your honey sesame chicken and fried rice tonight. And I have a couple of questions.. I only used 3 large chicken breasts instead of 4 and my son has celiac disease, so I have to use gluten free soy sauce. The sauce tasted very salty, but otherwise LOVED the chicken and fried rice. Could you give me so insight for my next go around with this meal? (my sauce was MUCH darker than yours in the picture) Thanks a lot for any suggestions you may have;)