Sesame Chicken

Asian American foods have always inspired me. I love all the flavors they use, especially all the ginger and garlic in their dishes. I like to see how well I can recreate dishes I find in restaurants. Sesame Chicken is such a dish. Bites of chicken are marinated in Asian ingredients, lightly fried and then tossed into a delicious sauce topped with some toasted sesame seeds.You can make this as spicy as you'd like but adding in more Sriracha. Don't let the list of ingredients overwhelm you. For the most part, the ingredients from the marinade are repeated in the sauce. To save yourself some time, minced all your garlic and ginger at the same time and then split it up for the two applications.

What You Need:

Marinade:
6 tbs soy sauce
4 tbs flour
4 tbs corn starch
1 tbs veg oil
1 tsp baking powder
2 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 inch piece of ginger, minced
 3 chicken breast, cut into bite sized pieces

Sauce:
3 tbs veg oil
1 inch piece of ginger, minced
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 tsp Sriracha, you can also use red pepper flakes
2 c chicken broth
1/4 c flour
2 tbs rice wine vinegar
2 tbs sugar
2 tbs soy

Also Needed:
1/2 tbs sesame seeds, toasted
oil for frying the chicken

What To Do:
Combine all the ingredients for the marinade together and let it coat the chicken. Let marinade for at least 30 minutes. Meanwhile, make the sauce by heat the oil in a pot over medium heat. Once hot, add in the garlic and minced ginger and cook till fragrant, about 1 minute. Combine the chicken broth with the flour and whisk until well combined and no lumps are present. Add the rest of the sauce ingredients to your pot along with the chicken stock and flour mixture. Turn the heat to high and bring to a boil, stirring often. Once it boils, reduce the heat to a simmer and cook until thickened. Keep warm while you cook the chicken by heating up an inch or two of oil in a wide skillet. Fry the chicken for about 5 minutes total or until golden brown and done all the way through. Toss the chicken with the sauce and sprinkle with toasted sesame seeds. You can garnish with some chopped cilantro and scallions if you'd like.

Note: To toast sesame seeds add them into a dry skillet over medium high heat. Make sure you stir or shake the pan often once it's hot so that the seeds don't burn. Once they start to pick up some color, remove from the pan to cool.