Sweet and Savory Sesame Chicken
Almost everyone I know loves these little crunchy nutty bites of chicken. It is so good and you can make it better than your local takeout. Get some boneless and skin-on chicken breast then cut them into one-inch sized pieces. Marinate with one teaspoon of grated garlic, soy sauce, salt black pepper, baking soda to tenderize the meat and some corn starch. Mix everything until well combine then cover it and let it sit for like an hour.
While waiting for the marination, prepare the coating by adding sole little water into corn starch in a bowl then whisk it. Your corn starch should be clumpy which will give some extra crunch to the chicken. Dump half of the cornstarch in another bowl and add in the marinated chicken pieces by piece.
All your chicken pieces should be evenly coated with the cornstarch. Shake off excess starch. Add the chicken piece by piece to a boiling oil in your wok and let them fry for around two minutes then take them out of the oil. You can always fry your chicken pieces in batches to avoid overcrowding the pan. Let dry chicken set for around 15 minutes then you will double fry them at a higher temperature.
Doble frying will stabilize the crunchiness so it lasts longer. If you dint double fry your chicken will not be crunchy when serving it. To make the sauce, add three tablespoons of brown sugar, two tablespoons of liquid honey soy sauce, ketchup, water, and vinegar then whisk them until well combined.
Put your wok on heat and pour all the sauce in, stir the sauce on medium heat until it reaches a thin syrup texture. Add the chicken pieces in with a drizzle of sesame oil and toasted sesame seeds. Mix everything until well combined then take it out and serve on top of white rice. Enjoy.
Ingredients;
- 1 lb chicken thigh cut into 1.5 inches cubes
- 2 cloves of garlic
- black pepper to taste
- 1.5 tsp of soy sauce
- 1/2 tsp of salt
- 3/8 tsp of baking soda
- 1 egg white
- 0.5 tbsp of starch add it to the marinade
- 1 cup of Potato starch use it to coat the chicken
For the sauce;
- 2 tbsp of Honey
- 3 tbsp of brown sugar
- 2.5 tbsp of Soy sauce
- 3 tbsp of water
- 2.5 tbsp of ketchup
- 1 tbsp of vinegar
- Potato starch water to thicken the sauce 2 tsp of potato starch mixed with 2 tsp of water
- 1 tbsp of sesame oil
- 1.5 tbsp of toasted sesame seeds
- Diced scallion as a garnish
Instructions;
- Cut some boneless and skin-on the chicken leg into 1-inch size pieces.
- Marinate the chicken with 1 tsp of grated garlic, 1.5 tsp of soy sauce, 1/2 tsp of salt, some black pepper to taste, 3/8 tsp of baking soda, 1 egg white, and 1/2 tbsp of starch.
- Cornstarch, potato or sweet potato starch, they all work, depends on what you used for the coating later.
- Mix everything until well combined. Cover it and let it sit for 40 minutes.
- While waiting, prepare the coating by using sweet potato starch to make the crispiest sesame chicken.
- Gently spread a tiny bit of water into the starch a few times. Some of the starch will clump up and create some mini little balls.
- You just wait for 10 seconds to let it set and use the whisk to stir it. Then spread more water, wait for 10 seconds and stir it again.
- After that, if you touch the starch, you can feel those little lumps that will give some extra crunch to the chicken.
- Dump half of the starch into a big container. Spread it out. Add in the chicken.
- Do not throw in the chicken all in once or else they will stick together.
- Try to separate them piece by piece.cover the meat with the other half of the starch.
- Put on the lid and shake for a few minutes. Al the chicken pieces should be coated with flour evenly. Pick out the meat and shake off all the excess flour.
- Heat up the oil to 380 degrees Celcius then add in the chicken piece by piece so they don’t stick together.
- Do it in batches if you need to. In less than 2 minutes, you can feel that the surface is getting crispy and the color is slightly yellow. Take them out.
- Keep the temperature at 380 F, and fry the second batch of the chicken.
- Once you are done, let all the chicken rest for about 15 minutes and we gonna double fry the chicken.
- Double frying will stabilize the crunchiness so it lasts longer.
To make the sauce;
- Take the sauce. In a large bowl, add in 3 tbsp of brown sugar, 2 tbsp of liquid honey, 2.5 tbsp of soy sauce, 2.5 tbsp of ketchup, 3 tbsp of water, 1 tbsp of vinegar. Mix them until well combined.
- Put your wok on the stove and pour all the sauce in.
- Keep stirring the sauce on medium heat. Bring it to a boil and pour in some potato starch water to thicken the sauce.
- Keep stirring until it reaches a thin syrup texture. Introduce the chicken back into the wok, along with a drizzle of sesame oil and 1.5 tbsp of a toasted sesame seed.
- Toss everything until the chicken is coated nicely. Take them out.
- Garnish it with some diced scallion and you are done.