A quick and saucy Baked Sesame Chicken dish you can whip up in a hurry. The flavor is excellent and the sauce is simple, this sesame chicken can’t be beat!
I love a good sesame chicken. I worked at a Chinese restaurant all through high school and had my fair share of all of the “traditional” Chinese dishes. Orange chicken, kung pao chicken, general tso’s chicken (try it in the crockpot with my Slow Cooker General Tso’s Chicken recipe!), and yes – sesame chicken. To be honest, I have some pretty high expectations for sesame chicken. I guess you could call me a sesame chicken snob. We’re friends, you can call me a snob.
The thing about a lot of sesame chicken recipes I’ve tasted, is that they just don’t have enough sauce. I’m a sauce person, I need a bucket of sauce with every meal, especially ones of the Asian variety. I eat rice the way most people eat pasta and I needs lots and lots of sauce on my Chinese dishes to seep down into the spaces between the rice. Weird? No way! I just know what I like, and I like a mother load of sauce on my sesame chicken.
This chicken is perfect for me, it has plenty of sauce, lots of flavor, and comes together so easily. It’s just lightly braised on the stove before being tossed into the over for a good 25 minutes. I think that letting it cook like that in the oven helps to get the chicken to absorb the flavors of the sauce, without getting soggy – I love it. If you don’t have a go-to sesame chicken recipe, this is the answer to your prayers. And if you do have one, try this one anyway, there’s a good chance it’ll steal your heart!
What people are saying about this Baked Sesame Chicken
“This was AMAZING! I had my guy look through your visual recipe index and pick out something that looked and sounded good. He chose this one, so we tried it first. And as always, he complained… But ONLY that I didn’t make rice. Other that that, he said he loved it and would eat it again — no changes required!! Seriously a miracle! You are a SAINT for saving our homemade dinner dilemmas and we’re probably going to try just about every other Chinese recipe you have. Because I refuse to go out to the sub-par restaurants around here when I can cook your fabulous recipes and make him happy instead. So thank you!!! 
” – Amy
“Unbelievably good and more wholesome than the takeout version as this is baked instead of frying. I skipped 2 tablespoons sugar and added 2 of a little teriyaki sauce. Yummy!” – Regin
“My husband absolutely loves this! He asks for it all the time!” – Stephanie
“This is absolutely delicious! Though slightly too sweet. But I loved it and will definitely make it again.” – Shan
If you liked this, you’ll love my Sticky Sesame Chicken recipe!
Baked Sesame Chicken
Ingredients
- 3-4 chicken breasts - cut into bite size pieces
- 1 cup corn starch
Sauce
- 6 tablespoons honey
- 4 tablespoons ketchup
- 3 tablespoons sugar
- 1 tablespoon brown sugar
- 2 tablespoons white vinegar
- 3 tablespoons soy sauce
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon garlic powder
- 1 tablespoon cold water
- 2 tablespoons corn starch
- sesame seeds, for topping
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 375 and spray a 9×13 inch baking dish with cooking spray.
- In a bowl, whisk together all sauce ingredients, set aside.
- Add chicken and 1 cup corn starch to a large ziplock bag. Seal and shake to coat chicken. Transfer chicken to a large pan or skillet drizzled with oil. Saute chicken over medium high heat until browned (2-4 minutes).
- Toss chicken in the prepared sauce. Transfer to baking dish. Bake for 20-25 minutes until chicken is cooked through. Serve with sesame seeds and green onions for garnish if desired. Enjoy!
I’ve made this twice. First time it was great but tonight is was gloppy and defunitely not saucy. Followed the recipe to a T and used 3 chicken breast. Any ideas of what might have happened?
Hi! Hmmmmm, it’s hard to say but it’s definitely strange that it worked for the the first time but then not the second time! Did you use too much corn starch by chance?
Just made this. The texture of the chicken was good but the sauce was waaaay too sweet. I did taste it first, and added some extra garlic and soy sauce but I think next time, I’ll skip the sugar altogether and reduce the honey to just a few tablespoons. It also needed more flavor elements so maybe next time a tiny bit of sesame oil and minced garlic instead of garlic powder. Maybe a bit of worcestchire sauce too. Anyway, thanks for the recipe, just wanted to share feedback.
We luv it
I made this and it was gorgious. I did not have cornflour so used some arrowroot and flour mix. Also did approx half the sauce recipe as this was only for 2 people. I also did my own homemade special fried rice to go with it. Oh and had shop bought prawn crackers and beet yum yum!
If you saute in an oven safe pan, no need to use two dishes. I like using a ceramic coated cast iron skillet. I know we all hate washing dishes!!
I made it and it was a bit salty for me, but that will be easy to adjust next time. I’ll omit the added salt, which I usually do with any soy sauce recipes anyway.