This Honey Sesame Chicken recipe is made of bite-size crispy chicken pieces that are battered, fried and then coated in a sweet Asian sticky sauce sprinkled with sesame seeds. If you are a Chinese food lover, then next time you want take out, I highly recommend you make this homemade version instead.
This Honey Sesame Chicken is at the top of my family's favorite list! It is better than Chinese takeout and fare more budget friendly.
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❤️ Why I Love This Recipe
✔️ This Crispy Honey Sesame Chicken recipe is an easy-to-make, budget-friendly, finger-licking favorite!
✔️ These delectable bites are coated with an easy to make savory honey sesame sauce that the whole family will love.
✔️ The sticky honey sesame sauce makes this a family favorite!
Ingredients
Boneless skinless chicken breasts or chicken thighs.
Corn starch and all-purpose flour to coat the chicken.
Cooking Wine, helps tenderize the chicken and adds flavor.
Sesame Oil: This is an important ingredient, it gives a certain flavor to the sauce that marinates the chicken pieces and should not be skipped.
Sweet Chili Sauce: You can find this in the grocery store near the hot sauces.
Oyster Sauce: No substitutions recommended. If you cannot use Oyster Sauce due to fish allergies, I just recommend leaving it out without a substitution.
🔪 Instructions
To batter the chicken
- In a medium bowl, whisk together the soy sauce, wine, sesame oil, and sugar until combined. Add the chicken and marinate for 1 hour.
- In a small bowl, mix together the flour and cornstarch and place in a large ziplock bag. Drain the chicken and add to the flour mixture. Shake gently to coat.
To fry the chicken
- Add the oil to a deep fry pan over medium high heat and bring to 350 degrees.
- Gently place the chicken in the hot oil and fry until the chicken is cooked through and the batter is golden brown.
- Drain the chicken pieces on paper towels.
To make the sauce
- In a small bowl, mix the sweet chili sauce, ketchup, honey, oyster sauce, soy, sauce, and water in a medium saucepan.
- Bring the sauce mixture to a boil, then simmer for 3 minutes, until the sauce begins to thicken.
- Toss the sauce with fried chicken pieces. Sprinkle with sesame seeds and green onions (if using).
🙋 Recipe FAQ's
Rice flour, potato starch, or arrowroot starch are good substitutes and will give the same crispy results as cornstarch.
Yes, you can. Strain any sediment from the oil and store it in an airtight container. After about 3 uses, the oil should be discarded.
💭 Top Tips
- Use a candy thermometer to keep track of the oil temperature. It should not go higher than 350. If it drops below 350, allow the oil to reheat before resuming frying the chicken.
- Marinating the chicken pieces imparts the flavor you want and will helps to tenderize the meat.
- Use a paper towel lined dish to drain the chicken pieces on allowing it to absorb excess oil.
📖 Variations
- Substitute medium shrimp for the chicken.
- Low-sodium soy sauce or coconut aminos can be substituted for regular soy sauce.
- Seasoned rice wine vinegar can be substituted for cooking wine.
- Maple syrup or brown sugar can be a substitute for honey.
- Stir ½ - 1 teaspoon of red pepper flakes into the sauce mixture to amp it up to a spicy sauce.
🍽 Equipment
Storage
Refrigerate leftovers in an airtight container in the fridge up to 3 days.
To make this ahead of time, the chicken can be fried and stored in the freezer up to 3 months. Just reheat the cooked chicken in the oven or air fryer and coat with the sauce when ready to serve.
🏫 What I've Learned
Dark meat has more flavor than whit meat and usually less expensive. For this reason I recommend using chicken thighs over chicken breasts. This recipe can be made with both types of chicken, whatever your preference may be.
3-4 inches of oil is all you need to deep fry the chicken pieces.
Serving Suggestions
Serve this Honey Sesame Chicken recipe with a side of Garlic Scallion Noodles or brown rice, crab rangoon, Venison Potstickers, and air fryer egg rolls.
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📖 Recipe
Honey Sesame Chicken
Equipment
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Ingredients
for the chicken
- 12 ounces boneless skinless chicken thighs cut into bite sized pieces
- 1 tablespoons soy sauce
- 1 tablespoon cooking wine
- ½ tablespoon sesame oil
- 1 teaspoon sugar
- 1 tablespoons flour
- 1 tablespoon cornstarch
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ¼ teaspoon black pepper
- 2 cups oil for frying , enough to bring level up to 2 inches of oil
for the honey sesame sauce
- 1 tablespoon sweet chili sauce
- 2 tablespoons ketchup
- 1 tablespoons honey
- 1 tablespoon oyster sauce
- 2 tablespoon soy sauce
- ¼ cup water
- 1 tablespoon toasted sesame seeds , optional
- 1 tablespoon green onions , green part only (optional)
Instructions
- In a medium bowl, whisk together the soy sauce, wine, sesame oil, and sugar until combined. Add the chicken and marinate for 1 hour.
- In a small bowl, mix together the flour and cornstarch and place in a large ziplock bag. Drain the chicken and add to the flour mixture. Shake gently to coat.
- Add the oil to a deep fry pan and heat to 350 degrees.
- Gently place the chicken in the hot oil and fry until the chicken is cooked through and the batter is golden brown.
- Drain the chicken pieces on paper towels.
- In a small bowl, mix the sweet chili sauce, ketchup, honey, oyster sauce, soy, sauce, and water in a medium saucepan.
- Bring the sauce mixture to a boil, then simmer for 3 minutes, until the sauce begins to thicken.
- Toss the sauce with fried chicken pieces. Sprinkle with sesame seeds and green onions (if using).
Kels says
You mention water in the sauce instructions but not in the ingredients, how much water?
Shelby Law Ruttan says
Water is listed in the sauce ingredients list, it is 1/4 cup of water and is right below the soy sauce.
Teresa says
There appears to be an error in the sweet chili sauce measurement. How much sweet chili sauce?
Shelby says
3 Tablespoons. Thanks for letting me know. When I moved to a different printable recipe I must have cut that part off!
Brenda says
Was quite nice, but sauce had a too-strong flavour for us. I did double the sauce and used medium sherry in place of cooking wine. Probably would have to reduce soy and oyster sauces in the overall sauce. I think after those changes, this will be awesome! Will definitely be trying this again. Thanks for the recipe.
Kristin @ Dizzy Busy and Hungry! says
What a great recipe! I am glad you were on an Asian kick and came up with this great recipe!
Carlsbad Cravings says
This sounds incredible! I am loving all the flavors going on here - anything with oyster sauce is calling my name!