Healthy Sesame Chicken
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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!
If you like sesame chicken – you have to try this Healthy Sesame Chicken! It’s just as satisfying as takeout but made with better-for-you ingredients. Plus, it only takes 25 minutes from start to finish.. and you know that you’d be waiting that long for delivery anyways!
Unlike traditional sesame chicken, which is usually deep-fried and loaded with sodium, this version is cooked on the stovetop to keep it lower in fat and carbs.
It’s made with simple, wholesome ingredients you can feel good about and easily find at any grocery store.
Liz’s 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.
Ingredients
Substitutions
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. Low sodium soy sauce is usually higher in sodium.
Honey: You can substitute honey with maple syrup.
Toasted Sesame Oil: This is essential to the recipe. It adds that rich sesame flavor! Sesame oil and toasted sesame oil are not the same. Toasted sesame oil has much more flavor.
Fresh Ginger: If you want to use fresh ginger, you can use 1 teaspoon, grated.
Rice Vinegar: If you don’t have rice vinegar, omit it. You can add a splash more of coconut aminos.
Paleo: to make paleo sub rice for cauliflower rice. We love our cauliflower fried rice!
How to Make Sesame Chicken
- Whisk together your sesame sauce.
- Brown the chicken and set it aside.
- Add your sauce 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/white or brown rice!
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Sesame Seed Chicken FAQ
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 made with a sesame sauce.
Storage
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!
Healthy Sesame Chicken
Ingredients
- 1 lb boneless, skinless chicken breasts cut into 1 inch cubes
- 1/2 tablespoon avocado oil
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 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
Optional For Serving
- 2 cups cooked green beans
- 1 cup cooked white rice
Instructions
- Prep your chicken by cutting into small cubes. Cook white rice and green beans according to directions.
- In a pan, heat avocado oil for 1 minute. Add chicken to the pan and sauté chicken over medium high heat until browned on all sides, approximately 10-12 minutes.
- While chicken is cooking, whisk together the sauce.
- Once chicken is cooked, remove from the pan + set aside.
- Pour sauce mixture into the hot pan (no need to clean it!) and cook for 3-5 minutes over medium high heat until it starts to bubble, stirring consistently. The sauce will thicken quickly, but be careful to watch that it doesn't burn.
- Add cooked chicken back into the pan and coat in sauce.
- Serve sesame chicken 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.
Nutrition Facts
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.
Absolutely delicious! I will definitely make this recipe again.
This was great, I had my husband make it for me for dinner after work. Delicious and great reheated the next day!
This was a great recipe. The directions were really clear. I served it with cauliflower rice and the combination was super good. My husband wanted seconds. I’ll have to double it next time!
So good and so easy. Next time, I’d add slightly less cloves but really good!
There are no cloves in this recipe!
Really easy and delicious! My picky kid went back for 3rds.
So tasty now one of my favorite meals.
Quick, easy and delicious
I made this last and we all loved it. They said to definitely put it on the list of repeats. The flavor was delicious.
Love this recipe 🙂 it’s my husband’s #1 requested dinner! The sauce does take a bit longer to thicken, as mentioned. I’ve tried this recipe many many times and the suggestion I have is to make the sauce as is written, but once the 5 minutes is up, I turn down the heat and let the sauce continue on a low simmer until it reaches the desired consistency:) thanks for a great recipe!
My sauce didn’t thicken and I followed the recipe and didn’t have substitutions and used medium high heat and let it bubble. I even cooked it longer to see if it would thicken but it didn’t.
Sorry you had this experience. It probably just needed another minute or two to cook!
Amazing!!! And so simple to make.
Great flavor. The only thing I will do next time is make additional sauce.
This was super easy to make. It’s all about the sauce, and the lime zest and juice was a nice refreshing twist. It was fantastic and we’ll definitely make it again! I did a full video review on my YouTube channel, The Real Deal Recipe Reviews, where I always try to make recipes as written and give honest reviews and opinions.
I made this for dinner tonight, it was easy and delicious! It will definitely be in the rotation for dinners!
The sauce didn’t thicken at all! I checked the ingredients and the cooking time and heat and all done correctly . Any suggestions to make it more of a glaze ?
Did you make any substitutions to the recipe? The sauce needs to bubble as directed in the recipe for it to thicken. A few more minutes and it probably would’ve been fine. You may have had it on too low of heat!
My sauce didn’t thicken at all ☹️ I made a 2.5x recipe and for some reason there was no thickening. Not sure what I did wrong but the taste is still great!
Did you let the sauce actually bubble and thicken like the recipe calls for?
Another easy and delicious meal!! My kids liked it but they called out the lime flavor immediately and were not fans so I may omit the lime juice and zest next time- otherwise, another fantastic recipe!
I found your directions confusing. At first you say to mix the marinade. There’s no recipe for marinade. I assumed it was the “sauce.” So I marinated the chicken in that. And it does say to cook the chicken and remove & then add the marinade to the pan. These comments are in the picture portion of your directions. But later, in the actual recipe, you are to “whisk the sauce up while the chicken is cooking, so obviously it didn’t marinade in this sauce. Can you understand my confusion. You should call the liquid the same thing, whether it is a sauce or a marinade. You have flip/flopped these items throughout your page. I’m doing my best with what you have provided. Wish me luck!
There was a typo in the blog post where we called the sauce a marinade. I just corrected it. Regardless, the photos and instructions do not tell you to marinate the chicken. In the actual recipe and instructions we don’t use the word marinade and the instructions are very clear to not marinate the chicken. I hope you followed the instructions in the recipe and sorry for any confusion.
This is my go-to recipe when I am craving Chinese take out. It turned out delicious.
We had this the other night for the first time and it was amazing! It’s definitely going on a weekly rotation.