Sticky Sesame Chicken – 🧡🥢 Better-than-takeout sticky chicken at home in 20 minutes! This is a FAST and extremely EASY recipe for breaded chicken that’s coated in the best homemade sticky sweet sauce which is made to be sopped up with rice on the side! A great no-fuss weekday dinner recipe that the whole family will LOVE!
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Easy Sesame Chicken Recipe
The next time you’re craving takeout, make this instead in just 20 minutes!
This recipe is so fast and easy, and uses frozen popcorn chicken to save time. While the chicken bakes, you make a sticky sweet-and-savory sauce with soy sauce, honey, sweet chili sauce, rice vinegar, and sesame oil.
Pouring the sticky sauce over freshly baked chicken gives this quick Asian-inspired dinner recipe its better-than-takeout vibes!
It reminds me of a cross between Panda Express’ Honey Sesame Chicken and Trader Joe’s Orange Chicken, minus the the orange flavor.
But the saucy nature of the dish, the breaded chicken that’s a mix of white and dark meat, the sweetness of the sauce (which is perfect over rice!), this is a guaranteed picky-eater approved dish!
If you’re wondering if you can make this recipe without using a convenience product like frozen popcorn chicken, you sure can. In fact, my recipe for Better-Than-Takeout Sticky Chicken creates a lightly breaded sticky chicken dish using bite-sized pieces of diced boneless skinless chicken breasts.
Read the FAQs below if you’re a “must do it from scratch” person for how to do just that!
Ingredients in Breaded Sesame Chicken
You’ll need the following easy-to-find fridge and pantry ingredients including the following:
- Frozen popcorn chicken (thaw and bake for about 15-20 minutes, or according to package directions)
- Olive oil or vegetable oil
- Garlic
- Honey
- Soy sauce (I always use lite or low sodium soy sauce)
- Ketchup
- Light brown sugar
- Rice vinegar
- Cornstarch
- Toasted sesame oil – toasted has a richer flavor than if it’s not toasted. I get mine at Trader Joe’s where they only sell toasted sesame oil. Don’t skip this ingredient because it adds a ton of authenticity and depth of flavor to the overall dish.
- Sweet chili sauce – this is not really ‘spicy’ in the small amount used and it adds sweetness more than heat. Use the rest of the jar and make my viral Sweet Chili Chicken and Roasted Vegetables sheet pan dinner!
- Sesame seeds, green onions – optional for garnishing
Note: Scroll down to the recipe card section of the post for the ingredients with amounts included and for more complete directions.
How To Make Honey Sesame Chicken with Breaded Popcorn Chicken
This is a very easy number to whip up. It feels very Sandra Lee and “semi homemade”. If you know who she is, then I hope you are smiling at the memory!
- Bake the chicken according to package directions, about 15-20 minutes.
- When the chicken is in the last 5 minutes of baking, to a large skillet add the olive oil, garlic, and cook for about 1 minute, or until fragrant.
- Add the honey, soy sauce, ketchup, brown sugar, vinegar, cornstarch, sesame oil, whisk to combine, and heat over medium heat for a couple minutes, whisking very frequently.
- Add the baked chicken to the sauce and toss well to combine.
- Optionally garnish with sesame seeds, green onions, and serve immediately! For a spicier flavor, add some red pepper flakes.
what to serve with sesame chicken
I suggest serving this craveworthy breaded popcorn sesame chicken with rice to soak up all that sticky sesame chicken sauce!
- White rice (use a packet of precooked rice – great to always keep on hand)
- Brown rice
- Basmati rice
- Jasmine rice are all great
- Or make one of my homemade fried rice recipes! (click on the photos above for the recipes)
Storage
In the Refrigerator: This recipe will keep in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 5 days. Note the leftovers won’t have the same freshly made texture but that’s just the nature of breaded chicken – breaded anything actually. But the flavor is still good!
In the Freezer: This recipe will keep airtight in the freezer for up to 3 months. However, I wouldn’t make this recipe with the intention of freezing it. Since you’re starting with frozen popcorn chicken – kind of defeats the purpose of cooking it!
To Reheat: I use my microwave for quickness and ease and reheat my leftovers for about 30 seconds on high, or as needed. But you can use your stove or oven, whatever is best suited for you.
Sesame Chicken FAQs
If you don’t want to use frozen popcorn chicken that you bake according to package directions, or it’s not a product available in your area, and you prefer to DIY – that’s great! My recipe for Better-Than-Takeout Sticky Chicken creates a lightly breaded chicken dish using diced chicken breasts. Follow the coating, dredging, and cooking directions in that recipe. You can use either boneless skinless chicken breasts or dark meat from boneless skinless chicken thighs.
And then you can either make that sauce (so just follow and use that recipe) OR you can make the sauce that I’m featuring in this recipe today. The difference is the sauce in this recipe is a little sweeter and makes less quantity of sauce, overall. But all-in-all, they’re very similar.
As written, no it’s not spicy. There are 2 tablespoons sweet chili sauce, which isn’t very spicy. Chili garlic sauce IS spicy though! Make sure you grab the right one. However, even at 2 tbsp of chili garlic sauce, it still wouldn’t be a very spicy dish. If you want it spicy, add a pinch of cayenne pepper to your sauce, slowly and to taste.
In my world, yes they are the same. Rice vinegar is milder though than other vinegars (white, apple cider, balsamic) and lends the perfect acidic touch to this otherwise pretty sweet sauce. This is another product that I always buy at Trader Joe’s because it’s inexpensive and works great. If you don’t have rice vinegar, perhaps 1 tbsp of apple cider vinegar will do the trick.
Yes you do because corn starch helps to thicken the sauce quickly. Without it, your sticky sauce won’t get the proper viscous and thick nature. Sauces always appear thinner when they’re still a hot skillet. When taken off the heat, they will thicken quickly so even though your sticky sauce may not seem overly thick after a few minutes of simmering, chances are it’s fine.
This is a quick and easy chicken dinner recipe that’s really best served hot and fresh. While the leftovers will keep for up to 5 days, the texture does change and there’s no way around it. Anything that’s breaded is prone to that – especially when it’s all sauced up! So make this and then plan to serve it immediately.
Yes. You can easily scale my sesame chicken recipe up or down, as desired.
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Sticky Sesame Chicken
Ingredients
- 24 ounces popcorn chicken*, (1 ½ pounds frozen chicken that's been previously cooked and you bake it according to package directions. See Notes for alternatives)
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 2 to 3 cloves garlic, finely minced
- ¾ cup honey
- ⅓ cup reduced-sodium soy sauce
- 3 tablespoons ketchup
- 2 tablespoons brown sugar
- 2 tablespoons rice vinegar
- 2 tablespoons sweet chili sauce, plus more to taste if desired
- 1 tablespoon cornstarch
- 1 tablespoon toasted sesame oil
- 2 tablespoons sesame seeds, for garnishing
- 2 tablespoons green onions, sliced thin; optional for garnishing
Instructions
- Bake the chicken on a sheet pan according to package direction, generally about 15 to 20 minutes. In the last 10 minutes while the chicken is baking, make the sauce.
- To a large skillet (make sure it's big enough to hold the chicken that you will add later on), add the olive oil, garlic, and saute over medium-high heat for about 1 minute, or until fragrant; stir continuoulsy.
- Turn the heat to medium or medium-low, and add the honey, soy sauce, ketchup, brown sugar, rice vinegar (sometimes called rice wine vinegar), sweet chili sauce, cornstarch, sesame oil, and whisk to combine. Allow the mixture to barely come to a simmer and simmer for about 2 to 3 minutes. Taste the sauce and make sure the flavor is what you want, adjust if necessary to taste. Flavor Tips – The sweet chili sauce doesn't really add heat/spiciness and actually adds sweetness, but of course, add it to taste. I usually add closer to 1/4 cup of it since we like things saucie and sweeter. The cornstarch is used to thicken the sauce, you cannot omit it. Toasted sesame oil is preferred to non-toasted but it's also an ingredient that's not optional because it adds authentic flavor to the dish which is why it's called sesame chicken. I also add about 2 heaping tablespoons rather than 1 because I love the flavor, but add to taste. If you feel the dish lacks salt, of course add it, to taste.
- Add the baked chicken to the sauce and stir, toss, and combine well to coat evenly.
- Garnish with sesame seeds, and optionally garnish with green onions, and serve immediately.
- Storage – This dish is best hot and fresh but leftovers will keep airtight in the fridge for up to 5 days, noting anything breaded never has quite the same texture after it's been refrigerated and microwaved briefly to reheat it. I don't recommend freezing leftovers (since you started with frozen popcorn chicken – there's no point in my opinion to freezing it), but you technically can freeze it, for up to 3 months.
Notes
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
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More Skillet Asian Chicken Recipes:
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I made this and my husband said it was delicious and better than the restaurants here, coming from him that was high praise
Thanks for the 5 star review and I am so glad to hear this was a big hit and got the ‘better than a restaurant’ vote from your husband!