Air Fryer Sesame Chicken

Air Fryer Sesame Chicken is a healthier version of everyones favorite Chinese take-out. There’s no deep-frying and no added sugar. As a bonus, this meal can be made in just 20 minutes!

Thanks to a coating in cornstarch and the Air Fryer, the chicken gets wonderfully crispy with just a spritz of oil. After the chicken is air fried, it is tossed with sauce. The sauce is sweet, salty, and spicy and has so much flavor. The sauce takes just a few minutes to prepare on the stovetop. Serve with rice and either steamed broccoli or snow peas for a full meal.

Alot of the flavor in the sauce comes from the hoisin sauce. It’s wonderfully thick and dark like molasses. It is both sweet and spicy. Almost like a bbq sauce.

There’s no sugar added to the sauce as there typically is with sesame chicken. Only honey and orange juice for sweetness.

I use chicken thighs because they stay so wonderfully moist and have lots of flavor, but you could use chicken breasts instead.

Are you looking for an Air Fryer?

I use the Power XL. The Ninja Foodi and Phillips Air Fryer are also popular. I love my air fryer and get alot of use out of it. It doesn’t take up much room on the counter and I frequently use it to reheat leftovers quickly and easily.

If you don’t have an air fryer, you can cook the chicken in a nonstick pan with a few tablespoons of oil.

Note: Air fryers, like slow cookers, can really vary in how quickly they cook the food. Use the cooking time as an estimate only.

More Air Fryer Recipes:

• Air Fryer Chili Garlic Tofu
• Air Fryer Chicken Nuggets
• Air Fryer Asian-Style Green Beans

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Air Fryer Sesame Chicken

Air Fryer Sesame Chicken is a healthier version of everyones favorite Chinese take-out. There's no deep-frying and no added sugar. As a bonus, this meal can be made in just 20 minutes!

Course Main Course

Cuisine American

Keyword sesame chicken

Prep Time 10 minutes

Cook Time 12 minutes

Servings 4

Ingredients

Chicken

• 6 boneless, skinless chicken thighs
• 1/2 cup cornstarch
• olive oil spray

Sauce

• 1/3 cup soy sauce
• 2 tablespoons honey
• 2 tablespoons orange juice
• 2 tablespoons hoisin sauce
• 1 tablespoon rice wine vinegar
• 1/2 teapsoon ground ginger
• 1/2 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
• 2 garlic cloves, minced
• 2 teaspoons cornstarch
• sesame seeds and sliced green onion

Instructions

1. Cut chicken into 1-inch pieces. Place in a bowl with cornstarch and toss to coat.

2. Preheat Air Fryer to 390 degrees.

3. Lightly spray air fryer basket.Place half of the chicken in the Air Fryer basket. Spray with cooking spray. Air fry for 12 minutes or until cooked through. Repeat with remaining chicken

4. While chicken is cooking, make sauce. Place soy sauce, honey, orange juice, hoisin sauce, vinegar, ginger, red pepper flakes and garlic in a small saucepan. Heat over medium heat, whisking well. Once mixture is blended well, mix together cornstarch with 1 tablespoon of water and add to sauce.

5. Bring mixture to a simmer. Once thickened, remove from heat.

6. Toss chicken with sauce and sprinkle with sesame seeds and green onion.