This Sticky Garlic Sesame Chicken is seasoned chicken cooked in a skillet with a tangy garlic and honey sauce with sesame seeds and topped with green onions. Better than any Chinese takeout from Asian restaurants. You’ll LOVE this quick and easy lightly pan-fried chicken recipe coated in a thick sweet and tangy sauce. We’re celebrating the Chinese New Year with this easy to make dish.
Our family loves chicken as much as we love Asian inspired recipes that pack a lot of flavors. Often times, we love to cook chicken with a delicious sauce and this Sticky Garlic Sesame Chicken hits the spot everytime. Weeknight dinners can be hectic, but I promise that this dish won’t disappoint. It’s quick to make and easy to prepare with just a few ingredients at home.
There is something about Asian inspired dishes that are naturally satisfying, enriching and comforting. It’s no wonder why because there are so many sauces that can be made to fit any dish for versatility.
I’ve been using soy sauce to flavor dishes for years. In fact, our family loves to marinate meat with Kikkoman Soy Sauce because it’s a natural browning sauce and a flavor enhancer for a variety of meats like chicken, beef, fish, and seafood. We love to use it with steak to give it an extra kick and this chicken is no different. Soy sauce is a versatile ingredient that can be used to cook many different types of cuisines. I like to make Sticky Garlic Sesame Chicken a few times a month as it’s just the perfect dish to prepare for the family.
Garlic Sesame Chicken Ingredients
■ CHICKEN: I like to use chicken breasts in this recipe. Cut the chicken into cubes/pieces then toss them in the seasoned flour coating.
■ SOY SAUCE: I like to use Kikkoman soy sauce. The soy sauce is typical in Asian recipes and turns ordinary chicken into a totally cravable recipe.
■ GARLIC: You’ll want to be sure to add plenty of garlic as it makes the dish pop with robust flavor.
■ HONEY: Sweetens the sauce perfectly with the soy sauce.
■ SESAME: Both sesame seeds and sesame oil add a ton of flavor to this classic dish.
■ SEASONING: Onion, pepper, rice vinegar, and green onions.
How to Make Garlic Sesame Chicken
- Cut chicken breasts into cubes.
- Toss chicken into a bag with seasoned flour mixture.
- Make the garlic sesame sauce.
- Lightly pan fry the pieces of chicken.
- Pour in Asian sauce.
- Cook and reduce sauce until thickened.
- Let sit for 5 minutes to thicken.
- Serve with green onions, sesame seeds, and steamed rice.
To make this dish, heat a few tablespoons of olive oil in a skillet. Cut the chicken into 1-inch pieces. Next, add the flour, pepper, red pepper and onion seasoning to large ziplock bag. Add the chicken and shake it around. Add it to the skillet and allow it to brown for about 10 minutes, flipping it half way through cooking.
Make sure to get a nice brown coat on it before flipping as this will make it more crispy. Meanwhile, cook rice according to box directions. Add Kikkoman Soy Sauce and honey to small bowl. Grate garlic and add to sauce. Mix everything well. Add it to the chicken once it’s done browning on both sides. Turn heat to low and cook on each side about 5 minutes, making sure to coat the chicken well. The sauce will become thicker the more it cooks. Make sure not to heat it too high, as the sugar may start to burn.
After cooking for 10 minutes, allow chicken to rest for 5 minute, coating it half way through. Once done and mixture has gotten thicker, dish up the rice and add the chicken to the top. Add sesame seeds and chopped green onions.
Chinese New Year Celebrations
Over the years, I’ve learned a few things about the Chinese New Years, especially since New Orleans celebrates the occasion. My friends have told me that it’s a must to visit Yonghe Temple and burn incense sticks then make a wish for the family.
Equally important is having dinner with family. Even better, it’s important to make dumplings with company. Use things like nuts, peanuts, candy in a few dumplings as it’s a tradition and is thought to bring good luck. Have someone read you your zodiac sign as they can have different meanings. Find out if the new year will bring you good luck or not.
As always, celebrate the new year with fireworks with family and friends. Most cities celebrate the Chinese New Year with at least a parade. Make sure to watch it with others as the community is very proud of the culture and puts a lot of time into this unique parade. As the story goes, they say to put money under your pillow after the fireworks to keep away the monsters.
Chinese New Year Party Ideas
Our family loves to head to a local party store to pick up Chinese New Year items like fans, costumes, chopsticks and what not. Pick up a few red fans and other items to ring in the new year. Just be sure to pick up items to match the zodiac sign of that year.
One of the easiest ways to celebrate the Chinese New Year is to get involved with traditions. A lot of these traditions come from my friends living in Asia. When they visit here, we always make sure to attend a parade and eat traditional food. Even Asian inspired food is a great way to celebrate the day.
Can I double the sauce? You can, try the recipe first without doubling the sauce. Next time, double the sauce if needed.
Is this like Panda Express fried chicken recipes? It’s way better than ANY Asian takeout, period. The chicken is lightly pan-fried. The chicken is lightly dry breaded in a seasoned flour mixture then pan-fried in a little oil.
Sauce is not thickening, what can I do? Turn the heat up to crystalize the sugar in the sauce. Cook for a few more minutes then take it off the heat and let it sit for a few
Do you have more recipes using the same garlic sesame sauce as this one? Love this Sticky Garlic Sesame Chicken? Try these Slow Cooker Sticky Garlic Sesame Meatballs next! For more garlic sesame recipes using this same delicious sauce, try these recipes. Here are a few more recipes.
- Garlic Sesame Chicken Lettuce Cups
- Garlic Sesame Chicken Egg Roll Bowls
- Garlic Sesame Chicken Zucchini Boats
Want to make more or fewer servings? Hover over the serving size and choose how many servings you’d like to make. The recipe will update the correct measurements, however, the nutritional facts are based on the full servings that I’ve stated!
Sticky Garlic Sesame Chicken
Ingredients
- ¼ cup all-purpose flour
- ½ tsp onion powder
- ¼ tsp ground black pepper
- ⅛ tsp red pepper
- 1 pound chicken tenders, cut into pieces
- 2 tbsp olive oil
- ¼ cup + 1 tablespoon honey
- 1 tsp rice vinegar
- 3 tbsp soy Sauce
- 2 large garlic cloves, minced
- ⅛ tsp red pepper flakes
- ½ tsp sesame seeds
- 4 green onions (chopped)
- 1½ cups rice
Instructions
- Heat 2 tablespoons olive oil over medium heat.
- Combine flour, red pepper, and onion powder in a large ziplock bag and shake. Add chicken pieces. Shake bag to coat everything well. Carefully place coated chicken pieces in skillet to start to brown.
- In a medium bowl, whisk together honey, rice vinegar, minced garlic, red pepper flakes, and Kikkoman Soy Sauce.
- After 5 minutes, flip chicken and brown the other side. Once chicken has a nice brown on both sides, add sauce mix and reduce heat to low.
- Allow to heat for about 10 minutes, flipping once.
- Make rice according to package directions.
- After 10 minutes, turn stove top off and allow chicken to sit for at least 5 minutes.
- Sprinkle with sesame seeds then chop up green onions and place over the top. Serve with rice.
Nutrition
I was selected for this opportunity as a member of Clever Girls and the content and opinions expressed here are all my own.
44 Comments
Erin @ Thanks for Cookin'!
02/10/2016 at 11:00 pmThis looks amazing! When I first saw the picture I figured the sauce had to complicated with a lot of ingredients, but nope! I have all the ingredients for this one already. I love that you had the patience to get the chicken good and brown, too. I have to remind myself how much extra flavor you get just by giving the chicken TIME! This is a really beautiful dish.
Jessica Knott
02/11/2016 at 12:23 pmThanks, Erin! Such an easy dinner to make!
Jessica Knott
02/15/2016 at 11:45 pmLove browning the chicken as it adds additional flavor. Thanks, Erin!
Rebecca B.
02/14/2016 at 4:04 pmHappy Chinese New Year to you too and what a way to celebrate with your Sticky Garlic Sesame Chicken!! We love asian food and have a similar dish to this one regularly! I will try yours next time. YUM!
Sam | Ahead of Thyme
02/14/2016 at 4:16 pmThis looks sooo good!! I will have to give this recipe a try. Thanks for sharing 🙂
Jessica Knott
02/15/2016 at 12:27 pmReally loving this dish right now, thanks Sam!
Ali @ Home & Plate
02/14/2016 at 9:30 pmI think my boys would love this recipe. They have recently discovered Chinese food and I’d like to make more at home. This one is a keeper.
Jessica Knott
02/15/2016 at 12:27 pmChinese food is not half bad…I bet they’d love this recipe!
Rebekah | Kitchen Gidget
02/15/2016 at 5:28 amThis is definitely going on the weekly dinner menu! Love that it’s not deep fried like Chinese takeout.
Jessica Knott
02/15/2016 at 12:26 pmTotally not deep fried but tastes just like the real thing! Thanks, Rebekah!
Jim
05/10/2016 at 10:38 amJessica: Mega-confused by this recipe. “Cloves” in the flour bag — no cloves in ingredients. Rice wine vinegar — where to add in the prep? Would like to give the dish a whirl, but need clearer instructions. Many thanks!
Jessica Knott
05/10/2016 at 12:13 pmHi Jim, I’ve update the instructions to include the rice vinegar. The garlic will go in the same bowl as the honey/soy sauce mixture. Sorry for the confusion and I hope you enjoy it!
Adrienne Mather
02/19/2017 at 9:03 amDo you have the calorie contents? Nutritional Info
Jessica Knott
04/11/2017 at 3:31 pmHi, Adrienne! I’ll look into and see what programs are available to me, thanks!
Holly S
12/11/2017 at 7:16 pmA hit in my house. Easy to make, tastes delicious and not too expensive. A winner. Also added about 1″ piece of ginger to the soy sauce/ honey mixture. So good!
EricSuegel
12/28/2017 at 7:07 pmMy 19 year old son (the apprentice) and I made this recipe for dinner. We tripled the recipe and modified the sauce only by adding a half teaspoon of ground ginger and a half teaspoon of sesame oil.
We brined the chicken for an hour in a standard brine that also contained garlic and onion.
We made a side of stir fried vegetables (only a little sesame oil for seasoning).
Fantastic!!!
Jessica Knott
12/29/2017 at 11:12 amThis sounds amazing! Thanks for the tips!
Aivaras
12/31/2017 at 7:44 amNice recipe, very deliscious. Thank you!
Kristina
03/03/2018 at 1:50 pmThe recipe says “Combine flour, red pepper, cloves and onion powder in a large zip lock bag”
What do you mean by “cloves”? I see the garlic cloves are used in the sauce…
Jessica Knott
03/10/2018 at 4:34 pmHi Kristina,
sorry for the late response, I’ve been out sick. The garlic just gets added to the liquid mixture. I’m changing the recipe now. Thanks.
Stephanie
03/07/2018 at 8:57 pmStill confused about the 2 garlic cloves in the flour mixture. Are they cut up?
Jessica Knott
03/10/2018 at 4:34 pmHi Stephanie, sorry for the late response, I’ve been out sick. The garlic just gets added to the liquid mixture. I’m changing the recipe now. Thanks.
Julia
05/02/2020 at 5:42 amLove this, made it twice now, second time I used Tapioca flour which was a winner as the sauce stayed nice and glossy! Great dish, so easy served with jasmine rice , sliced snow peas and coriander! Kids said crushed roasted peanuts would be good sprinkled on the top 👍
Judy LeMone
05/18/2018 at 5:09 pmI’m making this again tonight for company. It is so easy and delicious. I toasted the sesame seeds in a dry iron skillet first! AMAZING! Thank you for the recipe.
Jessica Knott
05/20/2018 at 12:29 pmHi Judy, We’ve been making this a lot lately, too! Hope everyone enjoys, thanks!
Dawn
06/26/2018 at 9:21 amI tried this for the first time last night and it was delicious! I’m definitely going to make this again! One question… the flour mixture says to add red pepper, do you use cayenne pepper or paprika or ???
Sue
06/27/2018 at 5:44 pmI made this tonight and it was fabulous! I added broccoli at the end! OMG delicious!
Julie
02/08/2019 at 7:33 pmBest ever!!!
Ashlyn
09/30/2019 at 8:52 pmThis was super yummy! Definite do-over. Wouldn’t change a thing 👍
Rhonda
04/14/2020 at 2:54 pmDelicious! Kid and adult approved.
BetsyD
05/23/2020 at 4:34 pmWonderful recipe! Thank you! Question for you that has nothing to do with the dish, but your dishes! 🙂 What kind of white dishes are used in the picture? Love them!
Jessica Knott
07/04/2020 at 3:42 pmPioneer Woman plates!
Vicki
10/16/2020 at 7:45 pmI normally don’t leave comments about recipes, but this is definitely an exception!! I love this dish!! Easy to make and absolutely delicious!!! This will be made again and again!! 😁❤️😁
Jessica Knott
10/20/2020 at 12:39 pmIt is truly a staple in our home. Too easy and delicious not to make. Glad you’ve enjoyed it as much as we have!