Sesame Chicken

Fried chicken turned through a sesame glaze added off the heat at the last moment.

Chicken, Egg. Not vegetarian — contains chicken.

Ingredients

• 700 g boneless chicken thighs, in 3 cm pieces
• 1 tablespoon Shaoxing wine
• 1 egg white
• 4 tablespoons cornflour
• 1 litre vegetable oil, for deep frying, which is poured off
• 4 tablespoons sesame seeds, toasted

Glaze

• 3 tablespoons light soy sauce
• 2 tablespoons rice vinegar
• 2 tablespoons honey
• 1 tablespoon sesame oil
• 2 cloves garlic, grated
• 1 teaspoon cornflour mixed with 2 tablespoons water

Method

1. Toss the chicken with the wine and egg white, then the 4 tablespoons of cornflour, until each piece is thinly coated. A thin smooth coating, unlike the craggy one on the plain fried chicken: this one has to hold a glaze without going soggy, and a rough shell soaks it up and collapses.
2. Heat the oil to 180C and fry in batches for 3 to 4 minutes until pale gold. Drain on a rack.
3. Stir the glaze ingredients together apart from the cornflour slurry.
4. Pour all but a tablespoon of the oil out of the pan. Warm the glaze in it over a low heat for 30 seconds, then add the slurry and stir until it thickens — 20 seconds, no more.
5. TAKE THE PAN OFF THE HEAT, then add the chicken and toss it through the glaze with the sesame seeds. Off the heat, because the glaze will scorch and the coating will soften if it sits over a flame with sugar on it.
6. Serve within a minute or two. This one does not wait.

Our own recipe. This one was written for this site rather than taken from anywhere, so there is no source to point you at. The quantities and the order of the steps are choices, not the only way to do it.

Filed under China · All recipes