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: Russ Crandall
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
In a saucepan, combine the sauce ingredients and bring to a simmer over medium heat.
Reduce the heat to low and simmer gently to allow the flavors to marry while you prepare the chicken.
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.
With wet hands, form about 40 balls. (I used a rounded tablespoon to scoop out meatballs).
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.
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.
Taste and add salt if needed, then stir in half of the sesame seeds.
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/