Chinese Honey Sesame Chicken isn’t huge in Australia. In fact, I rarely see it on Chinese restaurant menus. My first experience was at a hotel buffet (don’t judge me!) in New York. Then in Vegas. (Ok, judge me!) To this day, I remain perplexed why Honey Sesame Chicken hasn’t made it to our shores. Along with Kung Pao Chicken, which still isn’t huge here though I have seen it on the odd menu in Chinatown. I mean, crispy chicken tossed in a sweet salty sauce loaded with sesame flavours. Hello. Australia. What is wrong with us? We need to start a Honey Sesame Chicken Revolution. Honey Sesame Chicken is usually deep fried which gives it a lovely crunchy coating. I don’t deep fry for midweek meals. Too much effort, too much mess, and my waistline can’t afford it. So this is how I make Honey Sesame Chicken for a midweek meal – by baking it. MOST of the crunch. All of the flavour. Don’t you think this looks lovely and crispy??
One key thing I do to make this nice and crispy – I use chunky strips of chicken rather than small pieces. This way, I can bake and broil/grill it long enough to make it crispy without the chicken shrivelling up into miserable dried chicken. Then you toss it in the gorgeous sticky sauce….
…then you sprinkle over more sesame seeds (this is Sesame Chicken after all!) and a fresh sprinkle of shallots/scallions….(PS excuse the very pudgy Baby Hands, exceptionally hot muggy day in Sydney today)
And then we have this.
This recipe has the ultimate validation – from a member of my family. I have a lot of willing taste testers in my life. But I rarely get helpful feedback from them. (“OMG, everybody loved it!” does not count as constructive feedback!) On the other hand, we have my family – mother, brother and sister. Always respectful, always appreciative when someone cooks. But…..we definitely don’t hold back if we have….erm….. thoughts. 😉 Trust me, it goes both ways. I give it as good as good as I get it! So yesterday (Sunday), my sister happened to drop by and I sent her home with takeaway containers filled with this Honey Sesame Chicken as well as Kung Pao Chicken (coming soon!). That evening, I got a text. “The chicken was really nice.”, my sister wrote. “But your rice needs work. It was dry.” Gasp! My rice, dry? Offensive. And so began a string of fiery text messages back and forth about the rice. But this isn’t about my rice. It’s about the Honey Sesame Chicken. It has my sister’s stamp of approval. Go forth and enjoy! – Nagi x
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