Stop going out for your Chinese sesame chicken: this recipe is easy to make, healthier than takeout, and takes only a few minutes to prepare: the oven will do the rest! I love making this Chinese sesame chicken recipe on the weekend in double portion. That way I can eat it for dinner that day and have leftovers the next day. I just change the rice to noodles, or steamed veggies and have 2 delicious meals.

Equipment needed to cook this Chinese sesame chicken
There are some things that make cooking easier 😉
Here are some of the equipment you’ll need to make this yummy Chinese sesame chicken recipe:
- good Kitchen knife is important. I love this one 😉
- cutting board, or cutting mat. These are thick, flexible, and come in different colors for different needs (meat, fish, veggies, etc)
- wok to fry the chicken
- kitchen utensils
- rice cooker – we have and LOVE this one. It has tons of great review on Amazon too!
- nice set of bowls to serve it in (these Asian bowls look nice).
- chopsticks: you can get some bamboo ones or go for some really nice stainless steel chopsticks 😉
Chinese Sesame Chicken Recipe
Prep time: 20 mins
Cook time: 1 hour
Total time: 1 hour 20 mins
Servings: 4

Chinese Sesame Chicken With Rice
Ingredients
- 4 pieces chicken breasts boneless, skinless
- 1 pinch salt and pepper to taste
- 1 1/2 cup cornstarch
- 3 eggs beaten
- 1/4 cup canola oil
- 1 cup granulated sugar
- 4 tbsp ketchup
- 1/4 cup apple cider vinegar
- 1 tbsp soy sauce low sodium
- 1 tsp garlic powder
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 325 degrees.
- Cut chicken breasts into bite-sized pieces and season with salt and pepper.
- In separate bowls, place cornstarch and slightly beaten eggs. Dip chicken into cornstarch then coat in egg mixture.
- Heat canola oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat and cook chicken until browned.
- Place the chicken in a 9 x 13 greased baking dish.
- In a medium sized mixing bowl, combine sugar, ketchup, apple cider vinegar, soy sauce, and garlic powder. Pour over chicken and bake for 1 hour.
Variations for Chinese sesame chicken
I love changing things up often. Here are variations I used for this yummy recipe
- use chicken thighs (I actually like it better this way, but we alternate versions becasue my husband likes the original )
- replace the garlic powder with real garlic: it will take it up a notch. this is perfect if you make the recipe on the weekend when you have more time. For a weekday dinner, I just use the powder
- instead of rice, eat it with noodles, roasted veggies, and you can even try mashed potatoes 😛
- ditch the vinegar for yet another variation
- try sesame oil instead of canola oil
If you come up with any other variations you love, please come back and share.

How many does this serve?
4 servings. not too big, but just enough 😉
Where do the sesame seeds come in? I don’t see it in the recipe!
Hi Martha!
Whoops! Sorry about that oversight, and THANK YOU for brining it to our attention, we will update the recipe. In the meantime, we would add a 2-4 Tbsp.(approx 1/2 – 1 Tbsp. per chicken breast) of toasted sesame seeds sprinkled over the dish at the end.
You can dry toast sesame seed until golden in an iron skillet or other pan, or, toast in a toaster oven, until golden. You don’t have to but taking the extra few minutes to toast them really enhances the flavor.
Hope this helps. Please let us know how it turns out for you.
Happy Cooking!
LeAura
My husband and I really liked this! Thank you for sharing it. I think I will try next time without the vinegar or with less as it seemed a bit strong for me, though my husband didn’t seem to mind. Would you just use water in place of it?
I didn’t want to make a side dish, so I got lazy and added broccoli, bell pepper and onions cut bigger than bite size and put them in the pan before adding the chicken. I used extra sauce, then baked as you instructed and it turned out really well.
Hi Danny’s Mom!
Great to hear from you and SO GLAD you and your husband enjoyed the Chinese Sesame Chicken!
For less vinegary taste I would try either:
1. to sub with 3 Tbsp. ACV and 1 Tbsp. wine vinegar, as it can be less potent than ACV. (Adjust it slowly so it’s not a dramatic change.
OR
2. Sub with same 3 Tbsp ACV and 1 Tbsp. chicken broth
Just depending on what you have on hand to use as extra liquid. If neither of those, then yes water would work.
GREAT that you added the veggies to the same dish. That works really well, and I’m like you…one dish meals are great!
You could even try it with some pineapple in future with the bell peppers, onions and tomatoes for more of a sweet & Sour veggie diesh.
Let us know if you try any of that. We’d love to see any pics you’d like to share too.
Take care!
LeAura
This recipe is really good! Instead of bite size chicken, will chicken cut up into strips work? The last time I made this recipe, I was in the kitchen for a lengthy time cooking the bite size chicken.
Hi Chantraale!
SO GLAD that you made and enjoyed this recipe! And yes, absolutely, strips will work. Just keep in mind that smaller pieces can provide more seasoning-to-chicken ratio for more flavor, but so long as your strips aren’t too large it should work fine. Please keep us posted on how it goes and feel free to send a photo of your creation and we can add it here.
Cooks@RecipesAndMe.com
BEST!
LeAura