Honey Sesame Chicken from Paleo Takeout
 
Prep time
Cook time
Total time
 
Honey-Sesame Chicken is a Chinese-American Favorite sold in a variety of forms, from breaded and fried to char-grilled. Many home recipes call for the addition of ketchup or white sugar to make a sweet and tasty sauce, but the combination of broth, honey, and Chinese cooking wine makes for a perfect takeout flavor.
Dana:
Serves: 4-6 servings
Ingredients
Sauce
  • 1 cup chicken broth
  • ¼ cup honey
  • 1 Tbsp Chinese cooking wine*
  • 1¼ tsp coconut aminos
  • ½ tsp sea salt
  • ¼ tsp white pepper**
  • dash of black pepper**
Chicken Meatballs
  • 2 lbs ground chicken
  • ¼ cup tapioca starch
  • 1 Tbsp fish sauce
  • 1 tsp coconut palm sugar
  • ½ tsp white pepper**
  • ½ tsp sea salt
  • ½ tsp baking soda
  • ¼ tsp ground ginger
Slurry
  • 1 Tbsp arrowroot starch
  • 1 Tbsp cold water
For serving:
  • 2 tsp sesame seeds, divided**
Directions
  1. In a saucepan, combine the sauce ingredients and bring to a simmer over medium heat.
  2. Reduce the heat to low and simmer gently to allow the flavors to marry while you prepare the chicken.
  3. In a mixing bowl, combine the chicken meatball ingredients with your hands, then transfer to a food processor and pulse until the mixture turns into a tacky paste.
  4. With wet hands, form about 40 balls. (I used a rounded tablespoon to scoop out meatballs).
  5. You can either pan-fry the chicken meatballs in batches over medium heat (in a skillet with 1 Tbsp coconut oil) or grill them over direct medium-high heat. If pan-frying, put the cooked chicken in a warm (200 F) oven while you make the other batches.
  6. Once the chicken meatballs are cooked, stir together the arrowroot starch and cold water to create a slurry, then stir half of the slurry into the sauce. Increase the heat to medium, bring to a simmer, and cook until thickened, about 2 minutes, adding more slurry if needed.
  7. Taste and add salt if needed, then stir in half of the sesame seeds.
  8. In a mixing bowl, toss the chicken meatballs with the sauce, then transfer to a serving dish. Sprinkle the remaining sesame seeds over the chicken and serve.
Notes
*I didn't have Chinese cooking wine on hand, so I substituted sherry cooking wine. Worked like a charm!
**AIP if you omit the pepper and sesame seeds!
Recipe by Dana Monsees Nutrition at https://www.realfoodwithdana.com/honey-sesame-chicken-paleo-takeout-cookbook-review/