Easy crispy oven baked Chinese Chicken tossed in a sticky honey sesame sauce. Who needs takeout Honey Sesame Chicken when it’s faster and so much healthier to make at home?
Chinese Honey Sesame Chicken isn’t huge in Australia. In fact, I rarely see it on Chinese restaurant menus. My first experience was at a hotel buffet (don’t judge me!) in New York. Then in Vegas. (Ok, judge me!)
To this day, I remain perplexed why Honey Sesame Chicken hasn’t made it to our shores. Along with Kung Pao Chicken, which still isn’t huge here though I have seen it on the odd menu in Chinatown.
I mean, crispy chicken tossed in a sweet salty sauce loaded with sesame flavours. Hello. Australia. What is wrong with us? We need to start a Honey Sesame Chicken Revolution.
Honey Sesame Chicken is usually deep fried which gives it a lovely crunchy coating. I don’t deep fry for midweek meals. Too much effort, too much mess, and my waistline can’t afford it.
So this is how I make Honey Sesame Chicken for a midweek meal – by baking it. MOST of the crunch. All of the flavour. Don’t you think this looks lovely and crispy??
One key thing I do to make this nice and crispy – I use chunky strips of chicken rather than small pieces. This way, I can bake and broil/grill it long enough to make it crispy without the chicken shrivelling up into miserable dried chicken.
Then you toss it in the gorgeous sticky sauce….
…then you sprinkle over more sesame seeds (this is Sesame Chicken after all!) and a fresh sprinkle of shallots/scallions….(PS excuse the very pudgy Baby Hands, exceptionally hot muggy day in Sydney today)
And then we have this.
This recipe has the ultimate validation – from a member of my family.
I have a lot of willing taste testers in my life. But I rarely get helpful feedback from them. (“OMG, everybody loved it!” does not count as constructive feedback!)
On the other hand, we have my family – mother, brother and sister. Always respectful, always appreciative when someone cooks. But…..we definitely don’t hold back if we have….erm….. thoughts. ?
Trust me, it goes both ways. I give it as good as good as I get it!
So yesterday (Sunday), my sister happened to drop by and I sent her home with takeaway containers filled with this Honey Sesame Chicken as well as Kung Pao Chicken (coming soon!). That evening, I got a text.
“The chicken was really nice.”, my sister wrote. “But your rice needs work. It was dry.”
Gasp! My rice, dry? Offensive. And so began a string of fiery text messages back and forth about the rice.
But this isn’t about my rice. It’s about the Honey Sesame Chicken. It has my sister’s stamp of approval. Go forth and enjoy! – Nagi x
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Easy Chinese Honey Sesame Chicken
Ingredients
Chicken
- 1 lb / 500g chicken thighs , cut into 1.2cm/ 1/2" slices (Note 1)
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 2 tsp sesame paste OR tahini (Note 2)
- 2 tsp soy sauce
- 1 1/2 tbsp sesame seeds , toasted
- 1/2 cup plain flour
- Oil spray
Sauce
- 1 tbsp Chinese cooking wine (Shaoshing / Shaoxing wine) or sherry (or use chicken broth/stock)
- 3/4 cup chicken broth / stock
- 1 tsp rice wine vinegar or Chinese black vinegar (or ordinary white vinegar)
- 3 1/2 tbsp honey
- 1 1/2 tbsp soy sauce , all purpose ordinary (Note 3)
- 2 tsp sesame oil
Cornstarch
- 1 1/2 tbsp cornstarch / cornflour mixed with 2 tbsp water
To Cook
- 2 tsp oil (vegetable, canola, peanut)
- 2 garlic cloves , minced
Garnish
- 1 scallion/shallot stem , sliced
- 1/2 tbsp sesame seeds , toasted
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 200C/430F with shelf placed on the highest level. Spray baking tray with oil.
- Mix sesame paste and soy sauce in a bowl (to loosen it up, easier to coat chicken). Add chicken, salt and sesame seeds.
- Place flour in a separate bowl and coat chicken in flour, shaking off excess. Place chicken on baking tray.
- Bake for 12 minutes. Remove from oven.
- Flick to broiler/grill as high as it will go with shelf about 15cm/6" from the heat source.
- Turn chicken. Broiler/grill for 5 minutes until golden and quite crispy (Note 4), then remove.
- Meanwhile, mix together Sauce in one bowl and Cornstarch in another.
- Heat oil in a wok or skillet (I used a skillet) over medium heat. Add garlic and cook for 30 seconds until fragrant but not browned.
- Add Sauce and bring to bubble. Add Cornstarch and cook for 30 seconds until it thickens into a thick syrup.
- Remove the Sauce immediately from the stove and pour over the chicken.
- Toss chicken in Sauce then sprinkle over Sesame Seeds and Shallots/Scallions to serve. Serve with rice.
Recipe Notes:
Nutrition Information:
Got a thumbs up from the crew last night as an alternative to taco Tuesday. They did say it was too sweet so I will reduce the honey next time and add in some more greens. Really easy and quick to make. I “dunked” the chicken in the sesame separately so it had a great coverage
Wow! Once again a winning meal for the whole family. My 3 and 6 year old couldn’t get enough of this, I should have made double! Will definitely be making it again. I love all of your recipes Nagi, so easy to follow and the notes are super helpful. Thank you!
I made this for dinner last night, exactly as written. I did substitute peanut butter for the tahini/sesame paste. It was delicious! I have two autistic boys who have a difficult time when it comes to food due to sensory challenges, so dinner time is hard. One of my boys is in therapy for feeding because of his extreme sensitivity to food. I tell you all this because BOTH of my boys tried and ate your Honey Sesame Chicken for dinner last night! I literally cried. Thank you, Nagi, for an incredible recipe!
Woah that’s the best Sheena!!! I love hearing this – I’m so glad it was a hit! ❤️ N x
Hi Nagi, I’m currently in lockdown in Victoria (rip) and I’ve tried a few of your recipes, all of which turned out great!! But I just tried this one and it turned out a bit tasteless, I wonder why? Did i use too little salt or was my sesame paste bad..? 🙁 Any ideas?
Hi Anastacia! The “salt” in this comes from the chicken stock, soy and Chinese wine – did you use all three of these?? 🙂 N x
Hi Nagi, wow thank you for the quick reply!! Yes I did — I used Campbell’s chicken stock, kikkoman all-purpose soy sauce, and a random brand shao hsing wine. Could it be that I let the sauce bubble for too long? ☹️ Or used too much flour? (There were still tiny bits of white particles — just a bit — when the chicken came out of the oven)
Wait i did use chicken breast instead of thigh though — could that be why? Sadly my local woolies ran out of chicken thighs
OMG every recipe I have made so gar has been AMAZING!@ Your recipes are incredible, my whole family loves you. This was something else.. brilliant
My family loved this recipe! Made it exactly as written (ok, I added more sliced scallions to the sauce as I tossed it with the chicken). The chicken had great texture. We only broiled it for maybe 2-3 minutes, 5 would have been too long as it was getting dark on top.
I’m so glad you enjoyed it Linda! N x
The sauce is the magic and Nagi knows how to do this. For followers you have learned her trinity to make amazing sauce and you will see them missing in other recipes that have gobs of soy sauce. This is a hit…I fried it…we’re in isolation and I wanted it fried LOL
Hi Marnie, looks like we both made this last night! Nothing wrong with a little indulgence in these stressful times, treat yourself!
Wahoo! Even better Marnie!! N x
Nagi, this was another winner for adults and kids! My 5yr old finished his meal by licking his plate clean! Thanks!
That’s the best!!! 😂
Yum. A hit with 3yo and 7yo AND the in-laws!
I didn’t have tahini so just left this stage out and instead sprinkled the sesame seeds on when I transferred chicken from the oven to the grill (and it saved me having to toast the sesame seeds).
Served with stir fried veg and basmati rice. Have been asked to cook this again next week!
Perfect Sarah! I’m so happy it was a hit! N x
I have bone in thighs. Do i need to take out the bone?
Cooked this for dinner this evening, I found the paste and sesame seeds too thick to coat the chicken properly so ended with chunks, next time I would probably add some extra water and a bit of honey to spread the paste. My wife absolutely loved it, I found the sauce a tad bland.
I’m resubmitting this comment because I think I forgot to rate this 5 stars and it deserves it. This is the fifth recipe I’ve used on this blog and they’re all incredible. I moved to Israel and I’ve missed American Chinese takeout and this was absolutely perfect. Thanks for all the amazing recipes.
Thanks so much Leora!