This website may contain affiliate links and advertising so that we can provide recipes to you. Read my disclosure policy.
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
Pin this now to find it later
Pin It
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.
Thank you so much for an awesome recipe! I live on an American Military base overseas and Chinese food is hard to come by. This is just what the doctor ordered! I will be making this again and again…well, until my jeans feel too tight! 😉
Going to use chicken tenderloins from the freezer dept..
you can make a batter without eggs
flour, cornstarch, baking powder, salt, pepper, and sugar and water
and you can fry then without baking if the chicken pieces are not to thick and large
I can’t believe my partner ate seconds. He is beyond fussy and gave it 2 thumbs up. I used low sodium soy and it was perfect. Thank you so much for a winner. Can’t wait to try another.
Haha! My husband TOO! I was like…UMMMM our kids didn’t eat yet!
Made this last night and it was a hit! It tasted just as great warmed up for lunch today too. Thanks for the recipe!
The chicken was nice and tender. I was concerned about frying plus 45 min in the oven, but that all worked well. The reversed from normal process for breading the chicken is not a mistake as people keep questioning. Trust this. In fact it is a lot less messy than the other way around. Not sure how people are ending up with egg falling off/scrambled eggs? I followed the recipe exactly, however I was disappointed in the flavor. The ketchup/vinegar taste combined with overwhelming sweetness was not pleasant for me nor reminiscent of any sesame chicken I’ve ever had.
Hi. I would like to know whether the degrees refers to Fahrenheit or Celsius? As 325 degrees Celsius sound to hot?
It is fahrenheit.
I made this tonight. It came out wonderful. I had to use regular sugar, but it was still great. Thanks!
Hi,
Is that teaspoon or tablespoon for the mixed garlic, cornstarch and sesame oil. Thank you.
Hi,
I cooked this recipe last night, but it came out very dark in colour with a strong soy sauce flavour, thought I must have read the recipe wrong but the honey and the soy sauce are the same quantities. Love honey chicken and yours look amazing, have you got any idea of what I am doing wrong please..
Thanks..
I don’t know what happened, but my chicken sauce came out WAY too “soy-sauce-y” and salty and it looked nothing like the picture (it was much darker brown). What could I have done wrong? I followed the recipe exactly 🙁
Did you use dark brown sugar or light? I used light and mine was fine.
this is so great because it is Gluten-free so my celiac child can eat it!! Thanks!!
Made this recipe… it is awesome!!! Love it and the left overs taste great the next day.
I think I did something terribly wrong. When I browned the chicken after dipping in cornstarch and egg, I got what seems like chicken coated in thick scramble eggs.
Thats kind of what it should seem like. It is just a breading for the chicken but once baked everything turns out fantastic.
I really like the base of this recipe but I would personally make some tweaks based off me and my wife’s taste preferences. I’m not sure why but I did not get the same golden color as you show in your picture. The sauce recipe is very dark so it looked basically the same as your Baked Sweet and Sour recipe.
The recipe seemed to have a strong vinegar and ketchup taste. The honey was right on so I wouldn’t change that. Perhaps I would dial the ketchup and vinegar back to 1/4 cup each.
I would be open to recommendations on how to achieve a lighter sauce color too. Perhaps a light soy sauce?
I made this along with the veg fried rice last night and it tasted AMAZING! My family thought both were better than what we get at chinese restaurants. I’m a beginner cook and I usually get overwhelmed trying to follow recipes but yours was so easy to follow! Going to try out your cinnamon pancakes next!