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.
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.
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.