Easy Sesame Chicken

A delicious, easy sesame chicken recipe that is great for a weeknight dinner. Lots of flavor with not a lot of time required. A big hit with all the kids. This is one of my go-to recipes for a busy weeknight. 

It can be put together and cooked in 30 minutes or less.  You can even prep the chicken ahead of time to cut down on the time during the dinner rush.  This recipe makes enough for dinner for my family of five with a little leftover for weekday lunches.  The kids will often take leftovers to school for lunch in a thermos. 

My kids especially like it when I serve this dish with Japanese-style cucumbers.  I’ll post that recipe shortly and update this post with a link.

Print Pin Post

Easy Sesame Chicken

A delicious, easy sesame chicken recipe that is great for a weeknight dinner. Lots of flavor with not a lot of time required. A big hit with all the kids.

Course Dinner, Main Dish, Chicken

Prep Time 15 minutes minutes

Cook Time 15 minutes minutes

Servings 8

Ingredients

Chicken

• 2 lbs boneless skinless chicken breasts or thighs, trimmed
• 4 tablespoons corn starch
• 2 large eggs
• ⅛ teaspoon salt
• ⅛ teaspoon pepper
• 3 tablespoons neutral oil for cooking such as canola or vegetable
• 3 green onions thinly sliced

Sauce

• 6 cloves minced garlic (you can also use a garlic press)
• 1 tablespoon fresh ginger peeled and finely minced or grated
• 2 tablespoons sesame seeds
• 6 tablespoons brown sugar
• ½ cup soy sauce I recommend low sodium
• ¼ cup water
• 5 tablespoons rice vinegar
• 2 tablespoons dark sesame oil aka toasted sesame oil
• 3 tablespoons corn starch

Instructions

Make The Sauce

• In a small bowl or a two-cup glass measuring cup, mix together all of the ingredients for the sauce. The chicken will cook quickly so it is good to have this all done before you start on the chicken.

Make The Chicken

• In a large bowl, whisk together the egg and corn starch until well mixed and frothy. Add the salt and pepper and give it one more good whisk.
• Cut the chicken into 1-1½ inch pieces and mix the chicken into the cornstarch-egg mixture.
• Heat a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add the oil to the hot skillet. When the oil is very hot add all of the chicken-egg mixture and spread the chicken out to make a single layer.
• Without stirring, cook the chicken for about 5 minutes until the bottom of the chicken is golden brown. Carefully flip the chicken over, let cook for 1-2 minutes. without knocking off the egg coating, begin to break the chicken up into smaller pieces.
• Once the chicken is golden brown on all sides and cooked through, pour the sauce over the chicken. Stir gently to coat the chicken in the sauce. Simmer for 1-2 minutes until the sauce has reached the desired thickness. Sprinkle the green onions over the top of the chicken. Serve with rice.