Hi everyone, welcome to Souped Up Recipes. I
am Mandy. Today we are making sesame chicken. As we all know, this is a westernized
Chinese take-out dish but nobody can say no to these crunchy nutty little bites of
chicken that are covered with a glossy sauce. I have made sesame chicken a few years ago.
Nothing was wrong with the previous video, it was just really old. I am making it again with some improved tips. It
is going to taste even better. And I will also explain the Chinese root of
this dish. Let’s get started. I have got here 1 lb of chicken breast.
Normally I am a chicken thigh person but my husband prefers breast meat. Cut it in half then slice it into 1/3
of an inch thick piece. The origin of sesame chicken actually came from Cantonese sweet
and sour pork. A large percentage of the early Chinese Immigrates in the USA are Cantonese.
They brought the sweet and sour pork here but chicken is a more popular and cheaper
meat in the USA. That’s how sesame chicken, orange chicken, and lemon chicken got
spread out in the take-out industry. Alright, marinate it with
1 tbsp of finely minced garlic Some black pepper to taste
2 tsp of soy sauce 1/2 tsp of salt
1/3 tsp of baking soda Crack in one egg and 3 tbsp
of sweet potato starch. Mix thoroughly and set it aside for 20 minutes. During this time, we let me talk about
the coating. Based on my experience, sweet potato starch makes the crispiest chicken.
Then follow up with tapioca starch, potato starch, cornstarch, and all-purpose flour. You can
choose them based on what you can get on hand. I will tell you that, all-purpose flour
is the least crispy option because the gluten makes the breading doughy and the gluten absorbs
the moisture back very fast so the crispy texture doesn’t last long after it is being coated with
the sweet and sour sauce. I am not saying you can not use all-purpose flour. You just have eat
it right away before you lose the crispiness. I am using sweet potato starch. If you get it
from the Asian markets, you will find 2 different forms. One is powder, and the other one is coarse.
The coarse one is kind of like our version of bread crumbs, but it is gluten-free. It feels like
sand and it will give your crispiest chicken ever. Normally I will just coat the chicken
with it but I figured out that not everybody can get coarse sweet potato
starch, so I am going to show you a little trick. Just spread your choice of starch in
a big container. Any starch will work. Get a spray bottom and give it a few sprays.
Wait for 20 seconds then fluffy it with a whisk. Spray again. Wait for another 20 seconds
and whisk again. Repeat this 5 times. Then you will see the starch clump up into
little bits, which is exactly what we want. Alright, let’s add the chicken onto the clumpy
starch one by one. Leave some space between them. Use the chopsticks to stir a little
bit. Then cover the lid and shake well. Remove the chicken. A sieve is very
helpful to shake off the excess starch. Set the chicken aside and
continue to coat the next batch. If you watched my previous sesame chicken recipe,
you will notice that I used a lot more starch in the marinade this time. That is the difference
between using chicken tight and chicken breast. A little bit more starch in the marinade will
create a thicker batter, which will protect the breast meat from drying out as it has less
fat content compared to the chicken tight. Once all the chicken is coated, you want to
let it rest for 15 minutes so the starch has enough time to bond together, and it
will fall off less when deep frying. While waiting, you can heat your oil to 380 F.
We are going to fry the chicken in 2 batches because I don’t like to crowd the wok otherwise
it takes too long to cook, which is a risk of drying out the chicken. They don’t need to
be golden brown because this is the first frying. We just want to cook it through. In a
few minutes, remove the chicken from the wok. And put them in a basket to
drain out the excess oil. Use a sieve to remove any crumbs that are
left in the oil. Otherwise, they will burn when you fry the next batch and
ruin the quality of the oil. A few more minutes later, we are done
frying the second batch of chicken. Let it sit for 15 minutes. The rest of the
heat will continue to cook the chicken. The moisture will redistribute and soften
the crust. During these 15-minutes, we are actually waiting for the crispy
layer to turn soft so we can double fry it. During this time, we can put
together the sauce. You will need 2 tbsp of Honey
3 tbsp of brown sugar 2.5 tbsp of Soy sauce
2.5 tbsp of ketchup 1 tbsp of Chinese black vinegar, you
can use white vinegar as a replacement but Chinese black vinegar has an aged
complex flavor, which I really like. Mix 3.5 tbsp of water with 2 tsp of
sweet potato starch or your choice of starch. Then add it into the
sauce bowl and stir thoroughly. Another reason this is such popular in take-out
restaurants is that it can be pre-prepped in a large batch and assembled with so little
effort. You can make the sauce ahead of time. It will last a few months in the fridge. You just
use it as needed. The chicken can be breaded and deep-fried for the first time. It will stay good
in the freezer for 6 months. Whenever you want to eat sesame again, just take it out of the freezer.
Directly double fry it without defrosting. Of course, the frozen chicken will take a little
longer to fry compared to when it is not frozen. Alright, let’s bring the oil to 400 F and
double fry the chicken to reinforce the crust so it doesn’t turn soft fast after it is coated
with the sweet and sour sauce. This will take 2-3 minutes. Or you can go by the color, once they
are golden, you can take them out. Set it aside. Pour the oil out and leave a couple tsp
in the wok. Add the sauce that we made. Stir until it thickens. Toss in the chicken. Then add a big drizzle of
sesame oil and 1.5 tbsp of roasted sesame seeds. Mix thoroughly. The measurement that I gave
is perfect. The sauce is not too heavy. It is just enough to coat the chicken without softening
the crust. If you order the take-out sesame chicken, you actually get more sauce than
chicken, that’s why they are not crunchy. I have got my rice ready.
Sprinkle some scallion as garnish. I love glossy and shiny food. Listen to this.....
it is very crunchy. The sweet and sour sauce is perfect, with a little touch of nuttiness from the
sesame - this tastes so good. I hope you give this a try soon... As always, you can click the link
in the description and find the printable recipe. Thank you for watching. This video is sponsored
by soup the recipes carbon steel wok. This is the wok that I'm selling and I am proud to recommend
it to you as I have been using it on my channel for years. It is lightweight. It responds to heat
changes quickly and evenly. It can also sustain super high temperature without damage, perfect
for wok cooking. If you like chinese food and you want to learn how to make it at home better than
takeout, you should definitely get one of these as it is the most basic cookware in chinese
cuisine. If you want to buy it the link is in the description, go check it out. Thanks again
for watching and I'll see you next time bye
