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This Chinese Chicken Recipe is quick-fried tender diced chicken glazed in a sweet and garlicky brown sugar soy sauce! So impressive but easy enough for any weeknight meal.
Today’s recipe has become my go-to “Asian” night meal. It is so easy and extremely delicious, I guarantee your family will be asking for seconds!
HERE IS WHAT OUR READERS ARE SAYING:
“The sauce is so good! I will definitely be making it again!” – Sandi
It is so good I have been making it at least once a week. I randomly came up with the sauce, I knew Jeremy loved brown sugar, so I thought making a sweet sticky sauce would make him fall in love with me all over again. *wink wink*
The best part is this Chinese Chicken Recipe is so easy too, you can serve it with steamed rice and veggies.
The garlicky brown sugar glaze would also be amazing on grilled pork or salmon!
If you are looking for a recipe that will wow your guests and have them begging for more, you have to try my Chinese Chicken Recipe.
Some of my other favorite recipes with brown sugar that we have on our site include: Brown Sugar Bacon Wrapped Chicken, Brown Sugar Bacon Little Smokies, and Banana Cupcakes with Brown Sugar Frosting.
WHY THIS RECIPE WORKS:
- Easy pantry ingredients make this an approachable meal.
- Double the recipe to feed a crowd
- Even the pickiest eaters go head over heels over this recipe.
INGREDIENTS NEEDED (FULL RECIPE BELOW):
- Chicken breasts
- Cornstarch
- All-purpose flour
- Garlic powder
- Onion powder
- Black pepper
- Vegetable oil for cooking
- Scallions
- Sesame seeds
- Garlic
- Soy sauce
- Light brown sugar
- Rice wine vinegar
HOW TO MAKE CHINESE CHICKEN RECIPE:
- Cut the chicken into 1-inch bite-sized pieces. Place the chicken in a bowl and add the cornstarch, flour, garlic powder, onion powder, and black pepper. Toss until all the chicken pieces are coated.
- In a skillet with deep sides, add enough oil to go about ½ inch up the side. Heat over medium heat until hot. Place about half of the chicken into the oil, in a single layer, and make sure no pieces are touching. Allow the chicken pieces to get brown on all sides, turning as needed. This takes about 5-7 minutes. When chicken is cooked through to 165°F, place them on a paper-towel-lined plate. Cook the remaining chicken and set aside.
- You can make the glaze while cooking the chicken. Place the vegetable oil into a small saucepot over medium heat. Add in garlic until fragrant, stirring constantly, for 30 seconds.
- Whisk in the soy sauce, followed by the brown sugar, vinegar, and pepper. Continue to whisk until the brown sugar is well combined, and bring to a simmer.
- Simmer the sauce until thickened to a syrup consistency, this will take about 10 minutes but keep an eye on it, so it doesn’t burn, stirring every minute or so. When simmering, it WILL bubble up from the sugar, do not be alarmed. If it looks like it will overflow, you can take it off the heat until it dies down, then put it back on.
- In the same skillet you cooked the chicken, wipe out any excess oil that is left over. Place the chicken back in the pan over medium heat and pour the glaze over it. Toss chicken with the glaze until everything is coated. Serve over steamed rice or with your favorite sides, garnish with optional sliced green onions and sesame seeds.
DO I HAVE TO USE CHICKEN BREASTS?
No, you can use boneless skinless chicken thighs or chicken tenderloins.
Just cut them into bite-sized pieces and proceed with the recipe as written.
HOW DO I KNOW WHEN THE SAUCE IS READY?
The sauce is ready when it reaches a syrup/caramel consistency. The sauce will coat the back of a spoon.
If you take the sauce off the heat, it will actually thicken too much as it cools, so you need to keep it warm until you pour it over the chicken.
DO I HAVE TO FRY THE CHICKEN?
No! If you don’t want to coat the chicken and quickly fry it you can prepare it another way.
If you are not frying the chicken, do not add the cornstarch and flour. Still season the chicken with the garlic powder, onion powder, and black pepper. After that, you can simply sear it in the pan in a little oil or grill the chicken, then toss it in the sauce to serve.
HOW TO STORE:
Store any leftovers in the fridge for up to 3 days. You can also freeze any leftovers in an airtight freezer-safe container for up to 3 months.
To reheat, you can microwave it until warmed through or place it back in a skillet with a splash of water or chicken stock until warm.
TIPS AND TRICKS:
- Use chicken thighs or chicken tenderloins in place of chicken breast.
- This can be frozen, see above on how to do that.
- You can cook the chicken in different ways, see some of my ideas above.
- This can easily be doubled or tripled to feed a crowd.
- The sauce is ready when it is a caramel consistency and coats the back of a spoon.
Looking for a delicious, quick, and easy Asian recipe that the whole family will love? Then you’ll absolutely adore this Chinese Chicken Recipe.
If you like this recipe you might also like:
If you’ve tried this CHINESE CHICKEN RECIPE let me know in the comments how it turned out! You can follow me over on PINTEREST, INSTAGRAM OR FACEBOOK to find some more of our mouthwatering recipes!
Chinese Chicken
Ingredients
- 1 pound chicken breast boneless, skinless
- 2 tablespoons cornstarch
- 2 tablespoons all purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon garlic powder
- 1/2 teaspoon onion powder
- 1/4 teaspoon pepper
- vegetable oil for cooking
- thinly sliced scallions for garnish
- sesame seeds for garnish
For the sauce
- 1 tablespoon vegetable oil
- 2 cloves garlic minced
- 1/4 cup soy sauce
- 1 Cup light brown sugar packed
- 1 & 1/2 teaspoons rice wine vinegar
- 1/2 teaspoon black pepper
Instructions
- Cut the chicken into 1-inch bite-sized pieces. Place the chicken in a bowl and add the cornstarch, flour, garlic powder, onion powder, and black pepper. Toss until all the chicken pieces are coated.1 pound chicken breast, 2 tablespoons cornstarch, 2 tablespoons all purpose flour, 1 teaspoon garlic powder, 1/2 teaspoon onion powder, 1/4 teaspoon pepper
- In a skillet with deep sides, add enough oil to go about ½ inch up the side. Heat over medium heat until hot. Place about half of the chicken into the oil, in a single layer, and make sure no pieces are touching. Allow the chicken pieces to get brown on all sides, turning as needed. This takes about 5-7 minutes. When chicken is cooked through to 165°F, place them on a paper-towel-lined plate. Cook the remaining chicken and set aside.vegetable oil for cooking
- You can make the glaze while cooking the chicken. Place the vegetable oil into a small saucepot over medium heat. Add in garlic until fragrant, stirring constantly, for 30 seconds.1 tablespoon vegetable oil, 2 cloves garlic
- Whisk in the soy sauce, followed by the brown sugar, vinegar, and pepper. Continue to whisk until the brown sugar is well combined, and bring to a simmer.1/4 cup soy sauce, 1 Cup light brown sugar, 1 & 1/2 teaspoons rice wine vinegar, 1/2 teaspoon black pepper
- Simmer the sauce until thickened to a syrup consistency, this will take about 10 minutes but keep an eye on it, so it doesn’t burn, stirring every minute or so. When simmering, it WILL bubble up from the sugar, do not be alarmed. If it looks like it will overflow, you can take it off the heat until it dies down, then put it back on.
- In the same skillet you cooked the chicken, wipe out any excess oil that is left over. Place the chicken back in the pan over medium heat and pour the glaze over it. Toss chicken with the glaze until everything is coated. Serve over steamed rice or with your favorite sides, garnish with optional sliced green onions and sesame seeds.thinly sliced scallions, sesame seeds
Video
Notes
- Use chicken thighs or chicken tenderloins in place of chicken breast.
- This can be frozen, see above on how to do that.
- You can cook the chicken in different ways, see some of my ideas above.
- This can easily be doubled or tripled to feed a crowd.
- The sauce is ready when it is a caramel consistency and coats the back of a spoon.
Nutrition
Love This Recipe?
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Looks delicious! We love Chinese food but since I’ve been trying to lose weight I’ve cut back on eating out. This would be a great dish to make to satisfy my cravings without going overboard. Pinned.
This looks delicious, Dana! Can’t go wrong with garlic and brown sugar! Pinned and tweeted…my family will love it. 🙂
This looks amazing! I am def pinning this for later! 🙂
This looks really great. And other than chicken, I keep all of those ingredients in the house all the time. Pinning!
We love having Asian nights too… my family loves garlic and chicken. Pinning. Thanks for bringing this by Weekend Bites.
Hi! Your site is awesome and I’m slowly cooking my way through your recipes. This one looks delicious, but I’ve noticed an error in the ingredients list and wanted to clarify – it says “1 1/s tsp white vinegar”. Is that one and a half? One and a quarter? One and an eighth? I’m sure I could just guess, and usually end up changing recipes anyway, but I’d rather it be as accurate as possible the first time I make it. 🙂
Woops! It’s definitely 1 1/2, sorry I will correct now, thanks so much!
Sauce was too sticky
Unfortunately very disappointing 🙁 was looking forward to this sooo much but the sauce basically solidified around the chicken into pure sugar, then the sauce became stringy and was making sugar hairs and was overall wayyyyy too sweet. Definitely won’t be using again
Yes, if the sauce cools down, this is exactly what happens.
Thank you for this tasty recipe!! I did modify the brown sugar to about 3/4 cup. I cooked the sauce for only about 5 minutes or until it came to a boil. I have picky eaters so I only poured enough sauce to coat over half the chicken. The rest of the sauce did really thicken in the pan but it’s so tasty. I dipped my egg rolls in it.
Quick, easy and delicious! My kind of recipe!
This is a tasty recipe, my husband and son liked it. However, I found the glaze too thick and sticky so I think it would be better if it could be thinned out a bit more like a sauce. I will be playing with it.
Made it last night and it was a huge success. Do you think we can substitute shrimp?
Definitely!!
Delicious recipe. I LOVE that measurements are also added by instructions. It helps I shouldn’t have to keep scrolling back up to the ingredients list. TYSM
This Imperial Chicken recipe looks absolutely delicious! I love how it combines bold flavors with a simple preparation.
This did not work well for me. I followed recipe exactly. Chicken itself waa bland and overcooked. Sauce was very sweet but peppery at the same time. I had to add water to it at the end to get it to glaze the chicken. Not a fan.
Wish I’d have read the comments before trying
Sauce way to sticky and sweet
Not the best recipe chicken didn’t have enough of a coating. Won’t be trying again
Amazing recipe! I don’t like eating Chinese out because I live in an area where the restaurants never authentically serve. This is how I remember it when I lived in NYC. Thanks so much
Hey are you sure that’s 1CUP of sugar to only 1/4 cup of soy sauce. I did half of the sugar and it was still a bit too much on the sweet side. Otherwise a great and simple approach to making chicken.
thats right
The sauce is so good! I will definitely be making it again!
Fantastic, very tasty!!!
I liked the photos of the chicken dish till I read
it takes a whole cup of brown sugar. Is that right. Is there any other way to make it with out all that sugar ?
Thanks,
Hugh
I like the recipe but I used 3/4cup light soy sauce but only used 5 tbsp of light brown sugar. It taste great not too sweet.
This was an easy recipe to follow and make. It turned out delicious with very tender chicken.