Sesame Chicken

Today's dinner was sesame chicken with rice and steamed broccoli. I love making Chinese food because restaurants tend to make some of the dishes overly sweet for my tastes. At home, I use much less sugar.



How to make it:

The batter: Mix together equal parts of soy sauce, water, flour, corn starch. Add some white wine for a little more flavor (about a half part). Add a few drops of sesame oil to taste, a third part of canola or other vegetable oil, and optionally some baking soda and baking powder. When I'm making two servings worth of food I use 1 tablespoon of soy sauce and 1/8 teaspoon each of baking soda and baking powder.

The chicken: Dice it into bite-sized cubes, about an inch or so. I like to stick the chicken into the freezer so it's a bit hard and easier to cut. Stick the chicken in the batter and let it sit.

The sauce (measurements for a serving for two): Measure out 1/2 cup water or chicken broth (I use about a 1:2 ratio for water:chicken broth). Set aside a little bit of it and mix the rest with 1 Tb vinegar, 2 tsp soy sauce, 2 tsp sesame oil, and 1 tsp minced garlic in a small pot over medium high heat. Take the water/chicken broth you set aside and whisk in 4 tsp of cornstarch to make a slurry. Once the mixture in the pot starts boiling, stir in the slurry to let the sauce thicken, and lower to a simmer. Now add sugar and hot sauce (sriracha or sambal) to taste. Measure out about 1/3 cup of sugar and add slowly, tasting. I usually only add about 1/2 to 3/4 of it.

While the sauce is simmering, get some oil heated for deep frying to 375 degrees F and put the rice on to cook. Once the rice is five minutes from being done, fry the chicken in whatever size batches as depends on the size of your frying vessel, about five to seven minutes until the chicken is done. Set aside to drain and keep the fried chicken warm in the oven if you are making a lot. Once everything is done frying, plate and pour the sauce on top, then sprinkle with toasted sesame seeds. Serve with your rice and any vegetables or other things you have prepared.

If you can't deepfry, you can pan fry, making sure to turn the chicken to fry on all sides. You won't get as much of a coating as with deepfrying but it'll still be good.