Crispy Sesame Chicken Stir-Fry

Make a deeply flavorful fried sesame chicken dish that your whole family will love.

This easy, colorful chicken stir-fry packs amazing flavor. The chicken gets lightly coated and fried until crisp, then tossed with peppers and a glossy honey-soy sauce. It’s a great weeknight dish that tastes like takeout — but better.

When Chaky Rabinowitz, who is known for his amazing fried chicken platters (see bio on how you can order yours) came over one day, he told us about his delicious homemade crispy sesame chicken. Just listening made us hungry. 

It features simple ingredients (plus a new ingredient we haven’t used before and were excited to try–the Calabrian peppers). We knew that the perfect time to feature such a recipe is Chanukah, when deep-fried chicken is something we don’t mind adding to the menu, and it’s the perfect occasion to patchke for guests and family a bit more than you normally would.

This recipe will not disappoint. Chaky came to our photoshoot and showed us step by step how it’s done, and when he was done, we all had a bowl for lunch. It was incredibly satisfying, an elevated and refreshing version of sesame chicken. Velvety, flavorful, and soon to be a family favorite. 

We tested this recipe using both with white and dark chicken. If you want to use dark meat (extra moist), it’s very important to clean it thoroughly by cutting out all the leftover bones and tendons.

Once all the hard pieces are removed, the chicken is so, so much more tender. It’s simple to do this using chicken shears, although some groceries sell dark chicken cutlets already completely clean. Sometimes this cleaner dark chicken is labeled “baby chicken.” Whether you’re using white chicken cutlets or after you’ve cleaned your dark chicken cutlets, cut your chicken into cubes.

Here we are, making both versions side by side. 

Choose which one you know your family prefers!

First we’re going to velvet our chicken. Sprinkle first with baking soda. 

Then add the cornstarch and water.

Mix well using a gloved hand. Let the chicken rest in the fridge (or a cool area) for 30 minutes.

While we’re waiting for the chicken, let’s go ahead and sauté the onions and peppers for a few minutes, until soft and browned at the edges. Remove from pan and set aside for later.

Now it’s time to prepare the sauce. Let’s get the aromatics ready. If you’ve ever wondered how to get that fresh ginger diced finely, first cut into sticks.

Once you have sticks, it’s much easier to dice (note that if you have more fresh ginger than you need for this dish, freeze it! Then you have fresh ginger ready to use for your next dish). 

The only other chopping we need to do for this dish is the garlic. 

Heat the sesame oil over high heat. 

Add garlic and sauté for 30 seconds. 

Add ginger

and stir for another 30 seconds.

Add just one teaspoon of the Calabrian chili peppers.

The mixture should be nice and fragrant at this point!

Add honey and soy sauce.

And finally 1 cup of water.

Prepare your cornstarch slurry.

Add the slurry to the pot and stir until the sauce thickens. Your sauce should now be ready! The sauce can definitely be made ahead of time. 

The final step is frying the chicken. Heat oil in a wide pan or deep fryer. If the chicken batter seems too thin, add 1–2 teaspoons more cornstarch. Add the chicken and fry, breaking apart any pieces so they don’t stick together. 

Fry about 5-6 minutes, then drain, remove and set aside. 

When ready to serve, fry the chicken a second time for 2-3 minutes at a slightly higher temperature. 

Toss hot chicken with vegetables and sauce.

It’s looking good!

Top with toasted sesame seeds. 

Now we’re ready to serve. 

Enjoy hot over Basmati rice. Up until the final frying, you can do all the steps ahead. Then just fry for the final time and toss together when ready to serve.