Honey Sesame Chicken and Broccoli Stir-Fry is the perfect homemade takeout dish when you’re craving Chinese food but want to keep it healthy! An easy chicken recipe that makes a gluten-free, grain-free, refined-sugar free, and Paleo dinner recipe the whole family will love!
Making Healthy Honey Sesame Chicken at Home!
A little while back my hubby met his cousin at a Chinese restaurant across the street from his office. Neither of them were able to finish their dishes, so he brought a little bit of them home.
Cohl got a pretty healthy and lean chicken stir-fry dish while his younger cousin splurged for the sesame chicken. It was SO good! But just a little too good.
As I took a few bites of the Chinese sesame chicken I could tell that it was laden with sugar and deep-fried in not-so-good oils. But man were the flavors incredible!
Not being able to get this sesame chicken off of the brain for a few days, I decided to whip up a healthy honey sesame chicken recipe. After a few batches of recipe testing, the gluten-free and grain-free version you will find below was born!
So to answer your burning question… Yes! You can absolutely make a healthy sesame chicken recipe at home without loading up on too many calories! And this is how:
How to Make Sesame Chicken?
Making honey sesame chicken at home is actually pretty easy if you follow these steps:
- First, you will sprinkle your cut up chicken cubes with starch of some kind. (Tapioca, Cornstarch, and Arrowroot work great!)
- Next you will coat your chicken. As you will see in the honey sesame chicken recipe below, I used two different bowls in order to coat the chicken properly:
- Bowl #1: An egg-milk mixture. This bowl is super important and helps the crispy exterior adhere to the chicken cubes.
- Bowl #2: More starch and seasonings. This helps give the sesame chicken it’s crisp!
- If you would like to make the chicken and broccoli stir-fry recipe, you will first steam your broccoli until almost crisp and then set aside.
- For the chicken, you can use either avocado oil or olive oil, but just enough to coat the bottom of the skillet or wok. Cook your chicken cubes for 6-8 minutes, flipping only a few times, or until the sesame chicken is cooked through.
- While your chicken is cooking, you will whisk together your sesame chicken sauce ingredients. For this honey sesame chicken recipe our sauce ingredients include:
- Soy sauce (or liquid coconut aminos!)
- Honey
- Coconut sugar (or brown sugar if not on a Paleo diet)
- Rice wine or apple cider vinegar
- Chili garlic paste
- Garlic cloves
- Once chicken is done cooking, add sauce and broccoli, let the chicken and broccoli stir-fry heat up, and serve over cauliflower or regular rice and top with toasted sesame seeds!
Is Sesame Chicken Healthy?
What a good question! If you are getting sesame chicken from a Chinese restaurant, chances are it is going to be pretty unhealthy.
Most Chinese restaurants deep-fry their sesame chicken that has already been coated in a pretty heavy batter.
Also, if you are Celiac or on a gluten-free diet, make sure you do not eat the sesame chicken! Chinese restaurant’s sesame chicken is not only coated in a gluten-laden batter, but it is also tossed in a sauce that contains gluten.
So if you want healthy sesame chicken, go ahead and whip up the honey sesame chicken recipe below!
How to Stir-Fry Chicken and Broccoli?
Turning this honey sesame chicken into a chicken and broccoli stir-fry is not necessary, but a great way to boost your intake of vegetables!
Personally, I do not feel you need a fancy wok or any other expensive equipment to make a chicken broccoli stir-fry recipe.
Just grab your biggest pan or skillet, fill it with just enough oil to coat the bottom, and keep your heat to at least a medium-medium high heat!
Making stir-fry recipes are so much fun because you get to use ONE skillet and clean up is normally a breeze!
How Can You Evolve this Honey Sesame Chicken and Broccoli Stir-Fry?
A few ways you can change up this already gluten-free and healthy sesame chicken recipe include:
- Use liquid coconut aminos, apple cider vinegar, and serve over cauliflower rice to make it Paleo.
- Feel free to swap out maple syrup or agave nectar for the honey.
- Add a little more or a little less chili garlic paste.
- Toss in more veggies. Carrots and peppers would be great in this stir-fry recipe, too!
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Ingredients
Coated Chicken:
- 3 Tbsp. tapioca starch divided
- 1 egg large
- 1 Tbsp. almond milk
- ¼ tsp. salt
- ¼ tsp. pepper
- 1 ½ pounds chicken breasts cut into 1 ½-inch cubes
- 2-3 Tbsp. avocado oil or olive oil*
Broccoli:
- 1 Tbsp. avocado oil or olive oil
- 1 head broccoli cut into florets
- ¼ tsp. salt
- 1-2 Tbsp. water
Honey Sesame Sauce:
- ⅓ cup soy sauce gluten-free**
- 2 Tbsp. honey
- 2 Tbsp. coconut sugar
- 1 ½ Tbsp. rice wine vinegar**
- 1 ½ tsp. chili garlic paste
- 2 cloves garlic
- ¼ tsp. salt
- 1 Tbsp. Sesame seeds
- See this recipe in Healthy Meal Plan #1
Instructions
- Sprinkle chicken cubes with 1 tablespoon tapioca starch.
- Combine egg and milk in a medium-sized shallow bowl. Whisk to combine.
- Combine remaining 2 tablespoons tapioca starch, 1/4 teaspoon salt, and 1/4 teaspoon pepper in a separate shallow bowl. Whisk to combine.
- Add chicken cubes in batches to the egg-milk mixture and then dip in tapioca starch bowl. Repeat with all chicken cubes.
- In a large skillet over medium heat add 1 tablespoon oil, broccoli, salt, and water. Cover and let steam for 7-9 minutes. Remove broccoli from pan once it is done cooking.
- Add 2-3 tablespoons oil and coated chicken cubes to the large skillet over medium to medium-high heat. Cook for 6-8 minutes, or until chicken is almost cooked through.
- While chicken is cooking, whisk together the honey sesame sauce ingredients. Add sauce to chicken and let cook for 2 minutes.
- Add broccoli back into the skillet until heated through.
- Serve honey sesame chicken over rice or cauliflower rice and top with toasted sesame seeds. Enjoy! See this recipe in Healthy Meal Plan #1
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Notes
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
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Could you use sesame oil instead of avocado or olive oil?
You can but it will definitely have a much stronger flavor! I would suggest substituting no more than 1 Tbsp. of sesame oil for the other oils so the flavor is not too overwhelming!
The flavor of this was spot on and, because I prepped as directed, it just flowed. This one goes into my recipe box FOR SURE
Yay, Deb! So happy you enjoyed the recipe. Thanks for your comment and feedback 🙂
My 11 Year old son had a cook off in his class, and used your recipe, first for a practice round for supper at home and then for the competition in school.
He had 45 minutes to get everything ready, he managed to get everything done with one minute to spare! And guess what?! The judges were ecstatic about the chicken! They said, this recipe should be given to all Chinese restaurants, it was that tasteful. After those compliments, he was announced the winner!
Thank you for putting up this recipe with all the details, it was a great help!
Shmuli – Brooklyn, NY
You’re so very welcome, Shmuli!! And congratulations to your son! He sounds like he has some mad skills in the kitchen. Thanks so much for your encouraging comment 🙂
This was so delicious and so much better, not to mention healthier than Chinese Takeout! I love a good stir fry at home, quick and easy. Thanks for another super tasty recipe 🙂
So happy you enjoyed this recipe, Bobby-Jo!! I think it tastes better (and makes you feel much better!) thank Chinese takeout, too! Thanks so much for your comment and rating 🙂
Very tasty. My attempt looked exactly like the picture.
Yay, Sharyn!! So excited that it came out tasty and pretty 🙂 Thanks so much for your comment and rating!!
Can’t wait to try out this recipe. It looks so good!
Yay Jordan! Can’t wait to hear what you think 🙂