Sesame Chicken

I have a feeling this meal is going to be making a lot of appearances in my house from now on. Not only is it delicious, it takes absolutely no time to put together, and tastes like real take-out sesame chicken. It can also be served in a million different ways – as a rice bowl with veggies, over Asian inspired greens as a salad, as an Asian burrito with Sriracha as the hot sauce, with the chicken cut into longer strips and served as chicken fingers – you get the idea. Not only that, I am pretty sure the base of this recipe could be used with lots of different flavor combinations. For example – what if we added dijon mustard, rosemary, garlic, and lemon juice to the chicken stock?

Weight Watchers Sesame Chicken
Points: 5 Weight Watchers Points plus
Servings: 5
Serving Size: 1/5 recipe (about 6 oz chicken)
Nutritional Info: 180.1 calories, 6.5g of fat, 2.1g carbohydrates, .4g dietary fiber, 28.2g of protein

Ingredients

1.5 pounds boneless, skinless chicken breasts, cut into pieces
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp pepper
1 tbsp whole wheat flour flour
1 tbsp toasted sesame oil
1/2 tablespoon olive oil
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 tbsp low-sodium soy sauce
1 tbsp brown sugar
1 tbsp white vinegar
1/2 cup low-sodium chicken stock
1 tbsp sesame seeds
1 tbsp black sesame seeds (you can also use all regular)

Instructions

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.
In a small bowl, whisk the chicken stock, brown sugar, sesame oil, garlic, soy sauce, and white vinegar together. Set aside.
In another bowl, toss the chicken with salt, pepper, and flour.
In a large pan (make sure it’s oven safe) heat the olive oil over medium heat. Once hot, add the chicken in one layer. Cook for three minutes on one side until seared and then flip and cook for another three minutes on the other side.
Turn off the heat and pour the chicken stock mixture over the chicken, stirring to combine.
Place the entire pan in the oven and cook for 20 minutes. Then toss the chicken with sesame seeds and serve.

**Recipe adapted from How Sweet Eats

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17 Response to Sesame Chicken

Darlene Kidman on November 7, 2012

Loved the sesame chicken! I coupled it with yu choy carrots beans and brown rice.
Thank you, love your recipes!
Allie on November 8, 2012

Oh my goodness! I made this last night, paired it with steamed broccoli, and for a minute I thought I was eating out at a Chinese restaurant! I don’t think I used enough chicken-I had more sauce than it looks like you do in your pictures, and I couldn’t find black sesame seeds, but we LOVED it! I was sad that we didn’t have any left overs, because I was looking forward to having them for lunch today
Allison on November 13, 2012

OK. I thought Allie was crazy thinking that this tasted like take out, but……. I made it (w/o sesame seeds, but I will buy them) and it was fantastic!!!! It is probably the most authentic Asian recipe I have found. My kids (3 & 5) loved it too. Bravo!!!!
Ashley H. on December 10, 2012

Can you use just regular sesame seeds?! I don’t have black ones.
- Kristen on December 10, 2012
  
  Regular ones will work perfectly. Hope you like it. It’s one of my favorites.
Kat on February 5, 2013

I too seemed to have lots of sauce even when using a bit more chicken than specified. Is the sauce thin and abundant for everyone else?
Traci on February 15, 2013

I made this for dinner. My husband and youngest absolutely loved it.
Petra on February 25, 2013

OH my gosh! I just made this for a quick wfh lunch (it was that quick!) with half leftover for later! Served with leftover white rice re-energized w/ some water in the microwave.

Alterations, scaled down to one chicken breast (cubed halfway through defrost, so it was quicker to thaw), eyeballed the sauce and flour ratios to scale down, and only left in the oven for 16 min.

I also added a whole bunch of asparagus that I’d sliced into 1″ pieces…added the big husky stalk pieces 5 min into chic bake time, and the more delicate stalks and tips after another 5 min. Right as I was nuking aforementioned rice, I just randomly sprinkled plain sesame seeds over the chic and stuck back in the oven so the heat would reinvigorate them a bit too.

PERFECT! HEALTHY! FAST! YUMMY!!!!

THANK YOU!
Heather on March 12, 2013

I tried this tonight and the sauce is very runny and there’s a lot of it. In your photo it looks a bit carmelized. The only thing it didn’t specify in your recipe is if you had a lid on or off in the oven. I had a lid on, I’m assuming this is the problem. Would you mind clarifying? thanks.
- Kristen on March 12, 2013
  
  Sorry to hear that the sauce came out runny. I think you are right that it is because you placed a lid on the pan in the oven. Next time leave the lid off and the sauce will reduce and caramelize more.
Beth Barker on April 15, 2013

I made this tonight and served over “cauiliflower-fried rice” ! My huband LOVED it! Thak you so much for the recipe!
Melissa on April 16, 2013

Hi, I cooked this tonight and it was so so good my husband and 7 year old loved it thank you for sharing! I have a question, and maybe I plugged something in wrong but, when I plugged all the ingredients in the points plus calculator I am getting 7 p+ per serving with 5 servings Are you taking into account we don’t consume all the liquid is that why it is less or do you think I might be doing something wrong I am just trying to keep it all straight. If it is 7 it was still worth it thanks so much:)
Melissa on April 17, 2013

Ok I have to apologize I figured out what I was doing wrong! I was adding cooked chicken in recipe builder instead of adding raw so sorry it kept bugging me so I sat there until I figured it out! BTW I LOVE this site and I am so happy I found it! You cook real food, things people actually like to eat!!!! Thanks again and this was by far my favorite thing I have tried that was weight watcher friendly! Can’t wait to try more from your site! Is the serving of chicken 6 oz raw or cooked? Thanks again
- Kristen on April 17, 2013
  
  Don’t worry about it, I was just about to send you a screen shot. I am actually really grateful when people share comments like this in case I made a mistake somewhere. Thanks so much!
Amelia on May 3, 2013

Made this for dinner tonight. It was pretty good. And super duper easy to make. The thing that took the most time was dicing up the chicken. I didn’t think the sauce was thickening enough so I added a tablespoon of flour to the chicken and sauce halfway through cooking in the oven. It thickened very nicely. Next time I make this I will add a little orange juice. I think that will give it a nice extra bit if flavor. I served with some veggie fried brown rice. Very nice meal. Every bit was eaten (yea!) but that means no leftovers for lunch tomorrow (boo).
Jovan Gonzales on May 8, 2013

Hi,

I’d like to say THANKS for this awesome recipe! I definitely cheated a lot, but I used the same thing and it came out GREAT! I added onions and extra garlic to the chicken while it was cooking. I also added the flour after the chicken cooked along with a bit of butter. I didn’t do the oven (I felt like that was doin the most!), so I added a bit more chicken stock and let it simmer on the stove for about 5-10 mins till extra thick. It was so good and it impressed everyone that I cooked for. I felt like an awesome chef! Thanks again for this recipe! It is such a great one!

-Jovan
wendy on May 10, 2013

I’ve made this a couple of times now, with a few modifications to make it paleo-friendly… so good! Thanks for the recipe