Healthy Sesame Chicken is a delicious, healthy dinner! Packed with protein, low in carbs, and gluten free – it’s simple to make & better than takeout!
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If you like sesame chicken – you have to try this Healthy Sesame Chicken! It’s so easy to make and it’s delicious.
This Healthy Sesame Chicken recipe only takes 25 minutes from start to finish.. and you know that you’d be waiting that long for delivery anyways!
What Makes This Healthy Sesame Chicken?
- Cooked on a stovetop vs being fried: Sesame chicken is usually fried. We cook the chicken over the stove which helps to make this lower in fat and carbs.
- Not super high in sodium: Most sesame chicken recipes are made with a lot of salt or coated in
- Simple Ingredients: This recipe is made with simple, wholesome ingredients you can feel good about eating and find at pretty much any store.
Important Note: This is not an authentic sesame chicken recipe. My goal is always to share recipes that are a bit healthier and made with affordable, accessible ingredients so everyone can enjoy them regardless of their food allergies or dietary restrictions. If you’re looking for an authentic sesame chicken recipe check out this Sesame Chicken Recipe
Healthy Sesame Chicken Recipe Ingredients
There are only a few ingredients in the sauce/this dish, and it only needs about 25 minutes to come together over the stove in total.
To make this recipe you’ll need:
- chicken breasts
- garlic
- ground ginger
- lime zest
- pepper
- rice wine vinegar
- honey
- toasted sesame oil
- sesame seeds
You can find substitutions for all of these ingredients below in the green shaded substitutions box.
Even though the ingredients are minimal, the sauce is still that delish, thick, sticky sauce that you know and love from your favorite takeout place.. but it has super clean + delicious ingredients!
How to Make Sesame Chicken
Making healthy sesame chicken is super easy!
- Get all your ingredients out and whisk together your marinade.
- Brown the chicken and set it aside.
- Add your marinade to the same pan and bring to high heat.
- Cook until sauce is thickened and pulls away from the pan.
- Add chicken back to the pan, toss in sauce + serve with green beans/rice!
Time Saving Tips for Homemade Sesame Chicken
- Have everything on the counter -This will make it super simple to grab everything you need while you’re cooking.
- Get precooked rice! All you have to do is tear the bag open and microwave.. doesn’t get much simpler than that!
- Whisk together the ingredients for the sauce + put everything away while the chicken cooks.
I think you’re going to love this easy meal, and I know it’s going to make you think twice about calling your favorite takeout place on Friday night when you’re tired and don’t feel like cooking! Here’s the recipe.
Sesame Seed Chicken FAQ
You can make sesame chicken without soy sauce. Use a soy sauce substitute like liquid aminos or cooonut aminos!
Sesame chicken is very different from General Tso. The main difference is that General Tso chicken is tossed in a chili based sauce, while sesame chicken is
Sesame chicken sauce is usually made of toasted sesame oil, garlic, soy sauce and a little bit of sweetener
Substitutions for Sesame Seed Chicken
This recipe is pretty versatile. Here are a few ways you can customize it!
Chicken: You can sub chicken breasts with boneless chicken thighs or chicken tender.
Rice: You can serve this over any type of cooked rice or grain. Quinoa is great with this or you can do cauliflower rice. This would go great with our Fried Cauliflower Rice!
Avocado Oil: If you don’t have avocado oil you can use olive oil or coconut oil.
Green Beans: You can sub in green beans with broccoli or any other veggies you like.
Coconut Aminos – If you don’t have coconut aminos you can use low sodium soy sauce.
Honey: You can substitute honey with maple syrup.
Toasted Sesame Oil: This is essential to the recipe. It adds that rich sesame flavor!
Fresh Ginger: If you want to use fresh ginger you can use 1 teaspoon, grated.
Rice Wine Vinegar: If you don’t have rice wine vinegar, omit it.
Paleo: to make paleo sub rice for cauliflower rice. We love our cauliflower fried rice!
Storing & Serving Healthy Sesame Chicken
Storing: I keep this healthy sesame chicken in the refrigerator for up to 4 days
Reheating: You can reheat this healthy sesame chicken in a pan or in the microwave.
Freezing: We have not tried freezing this healthy sesame chicken but I think it would work!
Other delicious healthy takeout recipes:
Need more ideas for dinner? Check out these 40+ Healthy Dinner Recipes. Click here to grab our free healthy 30 minute dinners cookbook.
Healthy Sesame Chicken
Ingredients
- 1 lb boneless, skinless chicken breasts cut into 1 inch cubes
- 1 cup cooked white rice
- 1/2 tablespoon avocado oil
- 2 cups green beans
For the Sauce:
- 1/4 cup coconut aminos
- 1 tablespoon honey
- 1 tablespoon toasted sesame oil
- 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
- 1 tablespoon garlic cloves minced
- 2 tablespoons rice wine vinegar
- 1/4 teaspoon black pepper
- 1 teaspoon lime zest (zest of one lime)
- 1 tablespoon lime juice (juice of one lime)
- 1 tablespoons sesame seeds for garnish
Instructions
- In a pan, heat toasted avocado oil. Sauté chicken until browned on all sides, approximately 10-15 minutes.
- While chicken is cooking, whisk together the sauce.
- Once chicken is cooked, remove from the pan + set aside. Pour sauce mixture into the pan and cook for 3-5 minutes until it starts to bubble, stirring consistently. The will thicken quickly, but be careful to watch that it doesn’t burn.
- While sauce is thickening, steam green beans per direction on package.
- Add cooked chicken back into the pan and coat in sauce.
- Serve over cooked rice and green beans!
Video
Notes
- Chicken – You can sub chicken breasts with chicken thighs.
- Avocado Oil – If you don’t have avocado oil you can use olive oil or refined coconut oil
- Green Beans– You can sub in green beans with broccoli or any other veggies you like
- Coconut Aminos – If you don’t have coconut aminos you can use low sodium soy sauce or Bragg’s Liquid Aminos.
- Fresh Ginger – If you don’t have fresh ginger you can use 1/2 teaspoon of dried ground ginger.
Tadej says
Oh looks delicious…thanks for the recipe.
The Clean Eating Couple says
Hope you give it a try!
Marci Alpert says
What a wonderful recipe! I like the choice of your seasonings. We are going to do this recipe on Saturday for dinner. Chicken is great for weight loss as well. Love this post!
The Clean Eating Couple says
I’m so glad you like it, Marci!
Elizabeth says
I haven’t ordered takeout since we tried this recipe! So grateful. Easy, delicious, and minimal cleanup required!
The Clean Eating Couple says
Yay!! That makes me so happy to hear! We honestly prefer it to take out 🙂
Holly says
Really lovely and simple to make. Only downside I would add is doesnt create much sauce aside from coating the chicken so rice is very bland on it’s own. However this could easily be tweaked and the taste is delicious 😋👌
The Clean Eating Couple says
Glad you like it, Holly! If you toss the sauce with the rice and veggies there should be enough – but like you said, you can always double the sauce if you wanted more!
Hattie says
Another awesome recipe! The smell doesn’t quite match when you think sesame chicken but the taste is so perfect! Probably doesn’t smell the same because this is only clean ingredients, which is even better! Can’t wait to keep trying more from your website!
The Clean Eating Couple says
Yay!! Love to hear this, Hattie! It definitely doesn’t smell super sesame-y but it’s so yummy!
Bia says
This smells amazing but I don’t know why my sauce won’t thicken! It’s so runny!
The Clean Eating Couple says
Hi- Sometimes it just depends on the exact brands of ingredient that you used – the thickness won’t impact the taste!
Alicia hawkins says
How are the calories divided? Like how many ounces of chicken per serving? How much rice per serving? And veggies?
The Clean Eating Couple says
I’m sorry but I don’t have that information in terms of oz. This recipe serves two people, so if you’d like the most accurate calculation, you’ll need to measure it out own your own, or use My Fitness Pal. All nutrition facts on our site are estimates and can’t be 100% accurate because numbers will vary with different brands, etc.
Andria Vidal says
So good! I’ve made this twice already. I replace the avo oil with regular evoo. I fills you up but doesn’t sit heavy in your stomach.
Will be a staple from now on.
The Clean Eating Couple says
So glad you like it, Andria!
Amanda says
So easy and delicious. I’m a sucker for Chinese food and now I don’t feel so guilty eating it
The Clean Eating Couple says
Thank you so much!!
Nicole says
So easy and delicious! Tastes just as good as takeout but doesn’t leave you feeling as bad.
The Clean Eating Couple says
So happy to hear this, Nicole! Thank you!
Pam G. says
This recipe is delicious. I’m so impressed and happy to find a site with recipes that taste amazing. The only changes I made were to add more ginger to the recipe and use toasted sesame rice vinegar.
The Clean Eating Couple says
So glad you liked it, Pam! Thank you!
Alex says
10000/10 sooo good! I was a little nervous to add the lime but it gave it SO much more flavor !! New dinner staple !
The Clean Eating Couple says
So happy to hear you liked it, Alex!
Denise says
This recipe hit all my sweet spots for a great recipe: healthy, gluten free, quick prep & cook time, and delicious! My 16 year old daughter said it was the best chicken dish I’ve ever made. Do not skip the lime zest & lime — it added the perfect amount of kick to this dish!
The Clean Eating Couple says
So happy you liked it, Denise! Thank you!
Erica says
Another fantastic recipe ☺️ delicious ❤️
The Clean Eating Couple says
Yay! Love hearing that!
Kim Rutkowski says
Can you use regular sesame oil in place of toasted sesame oil?
The Clean Eating Couple says
You could but it will not have as much flavor. Toasted sesame oil is what give it the sesame flavor.
Shana says
Can sauce be doubled in recipe?
The Clean Eating Couple says
I haven’t tried it but I’m sure it will work just fine
cynthia wilcoxson says
Thanks for your great ideas and especially your substitutions. They help so much. Good job all around.
Jessica Lugo says
it was good but not great so the second time around I doubled the sauce and added a tablespoon of arrowroot powder to thicken the sauce and made huge difference!!
Megan says
This was super good! I’m pregnant and have been craving Chinese but I won’t ever eat it out because of what’s in it. So finding this recipe was a lifesaver! Served it with garlic broccoli and organic brown rice! This will be a regular in our home!
Kristi says
Can I just say thank you.
– Thank you for including the dang nutritional facts. It’s bad enough when sites don’t have the slider (it’s just me and I might make 2 servings for lunch the next day) but to not even have the nutritional value? I have to figure out everything lol. It’s such a time sucker! So, thank you for adding that.
– Thank you for also NOT telling me to use something like orange marmalade. Sure, it’s probably tasty af, but it’s also crap. Tons of bad sugar, calories that are empty and have no real redeeming quality. I was literally thinking in my head “I need a honey and coconut amino sauce.” And here you are :o)
People LOVE to get on the fads and the trends. Cleaning eating for example. I see 400000000 websites claiming they have clean eating recipes and then they, well… aren’t. Not only are they NOT close to being clean eating, but they ask you to use crappy processed ingredients and I’m like “what?” Obvs they do this for the SEO and money side of things and don’t actually care about providing what they are claiming to provide.
Okay rant over lol. Thank you for sharing, I look forward to adding it to my document and making this!
The Clean Eating Couple says
I’m so glad you found it helpful Kristi!! We have a ton of similar recipes to this one with just as simple, delicious ingredients. Check out or if you want similar recipes. All of our recipes have nutrition facts too 🙂
Sam says
This was a quick and delicious dinner! We did broccoli instead of green beans and black rice instead of white rice. We will definitely be making this again soon!
Hope says
Recipe was amazing especially for those who like thé healthier meals. My boyfriend and i love making these! my boyfriend IS on the pickier side and loved it. Definitely recommend and so easy to make!! 🙂
Donna H says
This recipe was absolutely fantastic. I paired it with green beans, broccoli, and cabbage. 1/2 lb of chicken was a great plenty for two people. (I didn’t cut the sauce part in half because we like a lot of sauce when you put it over rice.
Sandy says
This recipe was delicious. I did glazed carrots instead of greenbeans. It was better than take out.
Sandy says
I tried the recipe and it was delicious. I did glazed carrots instead of green beans. Thank you for sharing.
Charlotte-Grace Delerue says
I’d like if it told us exactly how it makes the sauce I think I messed it up but you can still make it yummy and it was delicious so it only lost one star
If you like honey soy chicken this is for you 😋
The Clean Eating Couple says
I’m not sure what you mean.. It’s pretty clear how to make the sauce in the step by step photos and instructions. If you have a specific question feel free to ask!