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Asian Sticky Chicken
Tender chicken sauteed in a sticky sweet and tangy Asian sauce served with creamy coconut rice. A quick and easy 20-minute dinner!
I am all about fast dinners these days. I am running kids to tackle football or soccer practice and I need to feed them something I can whip up in less than 30 minutes. This Asian Sticky Chicken can be made in less than 20 minutes and my kids LOVE it!
Yesterday I received a call from my 17-year old son that he was pretty sure he just broke his arm at school. This isn’t my first rodeo and we’ve had 4 broken arms in our family — 3 of them requiring surgery — so I have become accustomed to these phone calls. 🙂 I picked him up from the nurse’s office at school and could tell it was broken. Our amazing orthopedic surgeon was able to squeeze us in and confirmed it was not only broken but needs surgery as well. He has already had surgery for a broken arm before so I reassured him that chicks dig scars and they definitely look manly!
But as I was running to and fro to get him taken care of, I threw in some rice in the rice cooker to make coconut rice and defrosted some chicken tenders to throw this Asian Sticky Chicken together as soon as I got home from the doctor’s office. The chicken took me less than 15 minutes to make and I had dinner on the table in 20 minutes!
This Asian Sticky Chicken is made with brown sugar, soy sauce, sweet chili sauce (a family favorite), garlic, ginger, hoisin sauce, and some fresh lime juice. It has a sticky sweet and salty sauce that coats the chicken. You will want to drink the sauce…it is so good!
The Sweet Chili Sauce shouldn’t be confused with chili garlic sauce. The sweet chili sauce is definitely sweet with the addition of sugar in the sauce. There are all types of brands at the grocery stores so look for sweet chili sauce and look at the label to make sure there is sugar at the top of the ingredients list.
How to make Asian Sticky Chicken:
- Start by sauteing bite-size pieces of chicken in oil until tender. I love to use tenderloins and then use kitchen shears to cut into pieces.
- Make the sauce and place it in a pot and let it begin to simmer. You want the sauce to begin to thicken and reduce so give it time to do this while the chicken is cooking.
- Make the jasmine rice according to package instructions. I love my rice cooker because it makes it so easy to whip up a batch of rice. I love to make coconut rice because it is infused with coconut milk and is so creamy and savory.
- Toss the chicken with the sauce until coated. Serve with scallions and sesame seeds.
If you love Asian food, check out some of these other popular recipes:
CHINESE ORANGE CHICKEN
CHINESE LEMON CHICKEN
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Asian Sticky Chicken
Ingredients
- 2 Tablespoons Canola or Sesame Oil
- 2 lbs Chicken Breast (cut into bite-size pieces)
- 1 teaspoon Salt
Sticky Sauce:
- 1/2 cup Dark Brown Sugar
- 2 Tablespoons Hoisin Sauce
- 1/4 cup Sweet Chili Sauce
- 2 Tablespoons Soy Sauce
- 1 Tablespoon Sesame Oil
- 2 Limes (juiced)
- 2 inch Ginger Root (peeled and grated)
- 2 Garlic Cloves (grated or minced)
Garnish:
- Scallions (cut on a bias)
- White Sesame Seeds
Coconut Rice:
- 1 1/2 cups Jasmine Rice
- (1) 14-ounce can Coconut Milk (full-fat)
- 1 3/4 cup Water
- 2 Tablespoons Sugar
- 1 1/2 teaspoons Salt
Instructions
Coconut Rice:
- In a rice cooker, add rice, coconut milk, water, sugar, and salt. Cook according to package instructions.
Chicken:
- Heat a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add oil and then chicken. Sprinkle with salt. Let cook until it is no longer pink and completely cooked through, stirring often.
Asian Sticky Sauce:
- In a pot, add dark brown sugar, hoisin sauce, SWEET chili sauce, soy sauce, sesame oil, lime juice, ginger, and garlic. Heat on medium heat for about 10 minutes until it starts to thicken. Reduce heat to low and let simmer until chicken is cooked. When it is ready, pour over chicken and stir to coat. Add more sweet chili sauce, if so desired.
- Top with sesame seeds and scallions. Serve with creamy coconut rice.
Notes
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
Awesome recipe. Thanks for posting. We have made it twice already and serve to guests.
One of our favorites! Thank you for the recipe
I love making this when i’m craving take-out and it is honestly better!! And my stomach doesn’t hurt afterwards lol. Amazing!!!
Had to make this for a school assessment/competition in F.A.C.S. got full points the teacher and judge scraped the plate clean
Me and my family love this, I’m allergic to MSG so can’t have asian take out, so was so excited when I came across this recipe and was so tasty. Will be making again and trying your other asian recipes. Thanks xx
Both the sauce and the rice are delicious!!! Separately, though. We all loved it , but super sweet in combination with the coconut rice. Next time I will try with plain sticky rice.
Would you recommend using 1.5x the amount of sauce to have enough for coating rice? I know your Orange and Lemon chicken recipes suggest this and that does yield the proper amount, curious if it’s the same with this recipe.
I made it today and 1.5x the sauce was just enough to cover the chicken as well as the rice. The sauce was really tasty, especially the fresh ginger. The coconut rice was awesome as well and the flavor still came through when covered with sauce, but I didn’t add any salt to it in the rice cooker since there is already plenty in the sauce. I also needed to add a tablespoon of cornstarch to the sauce after cooking down for 10 minutes because it was still too thin.
My picky kids were literally scraping their plates clean. Thank you for the great recipe!!
Can I use ground ginger instead of 2″ fresh? How much would I use?
Use FRESH Ginger. There is no comparison.
Ginger paste works just as well just don’t add as much as called for
I made this last night using boneless skinless thighs. Followed the rest of the recipe as written and it was delicious. Made the coconut rice as well. Thank you for two “keepers”! Good and easy. And I hope your son is recovering comfortably.