White meat chicken is cubed, and coated lightly. It is then browned, and finished in the oven with a sweet and tangy sauce. This Honey Sesame Chicken Recipe is a keeper and will have your family wanting seconds.
If you are looking for a new chicken dinner to try out, this recipe is for you! The meal has all the tasty flavors of honey sesame with a little less calories from not deep frying it.
Making Honey Sesame Chicken
This Better Than Takeout Baked Honey Sesame Chinese Chicken is tastier, and fresher than the greasy, fried, dark “mystery” meat chicken most eateries serve. I feel comforted in knowing that the meat used in my Baked Honey Sesame Chinese Chicken was all white meat and not overly fatty.
I used a combination cooking technique to get the chicken crispy but without all the fat and grease. A quick pan toss to get the chicken’s corn starch coating golden brown, and an oven bake produced some of the tastiest and moist honey sesame chicken.
Ingredients
Chicken:
White Meat Chicken – You can also use boneless, skinless thighs for a little more flavor. You will want to cube them into smaller, bite-sized pieces as shown.
Corn Starch – This is the coating that will provide the chicken with a nice, golden brown outer.
Oil – You can use coconut oil, canola, or vegetable oil for this recipe. This is used to brown the chicken in your large skillet. If you do not have a large skillet, you may need to repeat this process twice.
Sauce:
- 8 tablespoons of honey
- 5 tablespoons of ketchup
- 4 tablespoons of sugar
- 2 tablespoons brown sugar
- 3 tablespoons white vinegar
- 4 tablespoons soy sauce
- pinch of salt
- 1 1/2 teaspoons of garlic powder
- 1/2 teaspoon onion powder
- 3 tablespoons of cornstarch mixed with 2 tablespoons water
Garnish:
- Green onion, diced
- Toasted sesame seeds
Directions:
In a bowl, mix cubed chicken with the 1 cup of corn starch; coat thoroughly. Shake out the pieces to not have extra clumps of cornstarch stuck to them.
Heat a skillet with oil and brown chicken pieces until slightly golden, but NOT fully cooked (about 3-5 minutes). You just want to give the chicken a nice crisp coating, and golden brown color.
In a large bowl mix sauce ingredients. Pour ingredients into a small saucepan and heat until sauce bubbles. Remove from heat and set aside until chicken is done being browned.
Once chicken is done being browned, place it in a greased baking dish and pour the sauce over it.
Bake at 375 degrees Fahrenheit for 25 minutes.
Once done, garnish chicken with toasted sesame seeds and scallions/green onion.
This Better Than Takeout Baked Honey Sesame Chinese Chicken is so darn good, and you will not even miss the takeout! Plus, since you use way less oil you are not getting all that fat!!!
Side Dish Ideas
Storing
Refrigerator
If you want to store your Honey Sesame Chicken in the refrigerator, just follow these easy steps.
- Allow chicken to fully cool.
- Place chicken in a microwave-safe bowl with an airtight lid.
- This chicken can be stored in the refrigerator for up to 4 days for best flavor.
- To reheat, microwave until warm. Chicken may be a bit soggy after reheating.
Recipe
Follow the recipe below to make Honey Sesame Chicken. This recipe makes enough for six people, but you can adjust the recipe card for other serving sizes.
Better Than Takeout Chinese Honey Sesame Chicken
Equipment
- large skillet
- 2-quart casserole dish
- Sauce pan
- Mixing bowl
Ingredients
Chicken
- 2 pounds white meat chicken raw, cubed
- 1 cup cornstarch
- 2 tablespoons oil your choice*
Honey Sauce
- 8 tablespoons honey
- 5 tablespoons ketchup
- 4 tablespoons sugar
- 3 tablespoons white vinegar
- 4 tablespoons soy sauce
- ¼ teaspoon sea salt
- 1 ½ teaspoons garlic powder
- ½ teaspoon onion powder
- 3 tablespoons corn starch mix with 2 tablespoons warm water
Instructions
- In a bowl, mix cubed chicken with the 1 cup of corn starch; coat thoroughly.
- Heat a skillet with oil and pan fry chicken until slightly golden brown but NOT fully cooked (about 3-5 minutes).
- In a large bowl mix sauce ingredients. Pour ingredients into a saucepan, and heat until it just bubbles form. Remove from heat and set aside.
- Once chicken is done being browned, place it in a greased baking dish and pour the sauce over it.
- Bake at 375° F. for 25 minutes uncovered.
- Garnish chicken with toasted sesame seeds and green onion before serving.
Notes
Storing leftovers
Refrigerator
If you want to store your Honey Sesame Chicken in the refrigerator, just follow these easy steps.- Allow chicken to fully cool.
- Place chicken in a microwave-safe bowl with an airtight lid.
- This chicken can be stored in the refrigerator for up to 4 days for best flavor.
- To reheat, microwave until warm. Chicken may be a bit soggy after reheating.
Sesame chicken is my favorite take-out indulgence, but I know what you mean about the stomachaches afterward! I’ve been looking for a healthier homemade version, and this could be it! I’m looking forward to trying this :)
I hope you love it! I know I am ready to make it again!!
Using a Non GMO Cornstarch also helps a lot to stop stomach upsets and such. I will never use another GMO corn product again was such a good thing for my tummy.
i have leaned more cooking from yr receipts and i love it
So glad you are learning new tips & tricks Betty!
This is the best and easiest sesame chicken recipe I’ve ever made. It is one that you don’t have to buy a special product for. After I fried the chicken I used the last bit (about 2tbls) of coconut oil and fried some leftover cold brown rice I had with a dash or two of soy sauce. It’s healthier to which is always a plus. I will definitely be keeping this for a go to recipe.
Great to hear!
Thank you for trying it and then posting. I was looking for a comment like yours to decide if this is dinner tonight or not. Thanks to your great comment, it will be! Sounds amazing. (We always love to make fried rice from our leftovers, too. I add an egg to the pan after the rice is fried and scramble it in the pan off to the side then toss it through the fried rice the way they do at hibachi grills. Yummy!)
What a great recipe and easy to make too. Many thanks from a very happy family in Ireland! :)
Thank you! :)
I love originally made chinese dishes..but this one is very near the top..and all the ingredients are usually around
I am so impressed by this recipe that I am going to comment twice upon it….love the main dish..the sesame is a bonus
I want to try this chicken dish. Unless I missed it, you didn’t mention when you add the sesame seeds and scallions. Is it after the chicken is removed from the oven?
Hi! After before eating :)
It says to add them after the chicken comes out of the oven!
This sounds great, but I could not print it because of the page layout…too much crap on the left side of my screen that I could not delete. This is a problem with the Yummly site. I hate technology so cutting and pasting is not worth the time, even if I knew how to do it. Wish they would lay it out like other sites, because I have had to ignore lots of great recipes.
Same problem here
Can you do a screen shot? That’s what I do and it’s very easy to get the recipes.
hi,
I just highlight the recipe, then put the curser on it, right click, then click on copy. then open up Microsoft word, then right click and click on paste. real easy, then ” save as ” with my title on my recipes folder. real easy.
no extra stuff.
Overall this dish was really good. The chicken really was moist and perfect! I am definitely printing this out and adding it to our rotation!
For someone who is relatively “new” at cooking make sure you fry your chicken in batches if you have to so as not to over crowd the pan.
I have one tiny little complaint… my sauce tasted a bit .. powdery/ corn starch-y. Was I supposed to add the 3 tablespoons of cornstarch mixed in 2 tablespoons of water onto my sauce? Because that is what I did… Anyone have any opinions on if this would still come out good without that in the sauce?
This recipe was not “laid out” very well especially for those who are new to cooking. Most recipes would have a heading “Sauce Ingredients”, “Sauce Directions”, this one did not and relied on the cooks knowledge of the ingredients. Having had some experience with sauces, I believe the problem you had was the fact that it does not tell you to put the sauce ingredients in a pan and heat them to almost boiling (bubbles around the edge of pan) and then add the cornstarch mixed with water and stir until thickened. When added to the heated sauce ingredients, the cornstarch becomes the thickener. Also the recipe didn’t say when to add the sesame seeds and scallions and it did not explain how to toast the sesame seeds for those new to cooking. Someone obviously did not review or edit the recipe to ensure it was accurate and ready for print. For the most part, the recipe sounds delicious, and I will be trying it today.
You are correct. I had a plugin issue that messed with my recipes and put them horribly out of order ( I no longer have it). I have adjusted this recipe to the correct steps. Thank you for bringing this to my attention. It is now correct.
Hi, the recipe sounds tasty, but has far to much sugar in it. should only have natural sweetener like honey or maple syrup or coconut sugar. this make the carb content way to high for a meat dish. once you quit using white and brown sugar, this would probably hurt my teeth and give me a sugar high. I would like to see some way to cut down on the sugar and still taste nice.
thanks.
same problem COULD NOT PRINT
I would like to receive your free savvy content weekly. Your baked honey sesame Chinese chicken sounds delis, can’t wait to try it.
Thanks Elsa
I don’t see any PRINT button on this recipe. I would really like to print it out for my recipe book.
Thanks.
If you can do a screenshot, it’s very easy to print.
Could I make this the day before and just pop it in the oven the day of?
I do not advise because it would get mushy and gummy!
I love this recipe, I find that it freezes beautifully. What sides do you recommend. I always use saffron rice but am stuck on what to use since I don’t have an egg roll recipe
Thank you, so much for stopping bye!
For us, I serve baked crab rangoons! I love this recipe: https://www.sizzlingeats.com/oven-baked-crab-rangoons-recipe/
Wayy too sweet for my liking. I didn’t achieve the crispiness I can see on your picture either. It just came out all soggy and with a super thick sauce. Couldn’t taste the ginger.
I think baking the chicken and keeping the sauce in the saucepan would benefit the chicken and help it get crispier. That’s what I’m going to try next time. I don’t think it needs all that sugar and honey either, so I’ll probably reduce it a little. My fiance loved it. Thanks for the recipe!
Made this tonight, even though I had to mix 2 types of honey (which I was worried about), the dinner came out delicious! Will def keep this recipe and share. Sauce was nice and thick and stuck nicely to chicken pieces.
I made stir fried rice to go with it.
There are only 2 pieces of chicken…..hubby loved it
We’re very glad to hear. Thanks for the feedback, Brenda!
What is the best oil to use,and how much do I use?
Hello, 2 tablespoons as noted of your choice. You can use vegetable, olive oil, coconut or canola.