Our Sesame Ground Chicken is a #1 recipe for good reason. It’s on the table in 15 minutes, packed with lean protein and has a flavor that everyone loves! Serve with rice or ramen noodles on the side to soak up all of the delicious, sweet sesame sauce.
Why You’ll Love This Sesame Ground Chicken Recipe
Not only is this Sesame Ground Chicken easy to make, I promise you everyone is going to love it. You can keep it mild like we have done here and then spic up your own bowl if you like. Kids love it, adults love, even the pickiest of eaters.
- Easy To Make: This ground chicken recipe is ready to serve in just 15 minutes. That’s it. Steam some rice in the microwave and dinner is done.
- High Protein Meal: If you’re looking for a lean protein recipe for meal prepping or just easy dinners, this is the one.
- Make Ahead Recipe: Make ahead of time and simply warm in the microwave for easy dinners or lunches to go.
Ingredients You’ll Need
By now, we’ve made this recipe so much that we have all of the ingredients on hand. If you’ve never used chili garlic sauce before, it’s a sweet and mildly spicy sauce that adds tons of flavor. For a complete list of ingredients and amounts needed, scroll down to the recipe card at the end of the post.
- Ground Chicken: You can use ground chicken with 8% fat or ground chicken “breast” that is leaner.
- Yellow Onion
- Garlic: Fresh garlic or garlic paste (usually in a tube, found in the produce aisle).
- Chili Garlic Sauce: Usually found where the soy sauce is in your grocery store. If you can find it, there’s an Amazon link above the photo.
- Soy Sauce
- Brown Sugar
- Toasted Sesame Oil
- Chicken Broth
- Cornstarch
How To Make
All you need to do is cook the ground chicken into crumbles along with onions and garlic. Drain any drippings from the skillet and then whisk the sauce together. It’s that simple.
Thicken the sauce with a mixture of cornstarch and water, let it simmer for five minutes and you’re ready to serve. We like to garnish this ground chicken with chopped scallions and sesame seeds and serve it with rice or cauliflower rice.
Variations
For the protein you can swap out ground turkey, ground pork or even lean ground beef. Any protein you like will work fine.
If sugar is an issue for you, try using a stevia based brown sugar instead, or just cut down on the amount here. Tons of vegetables can also be added to this recipe – broccoli, snap peas and shredded carrots are just a few ideas.
Storing, Freezing and Reheating
This is a great recipe to meal prep with for the week, so we often make it in large quantities. Keep this Sesame Ground Chicken covered in your refrigerator, or in a container for up to 4 days. Reheating is as easy as popping a bowl in the microwave.
And yes, you can also freeze this ground chicken too! If you’re really looking to plan a few meals ahead of time, make this chicken and let it cool completely before freezing. A good meal prepping tip is to freeze the chicken in individual portions for an easy lunch or dinner, or something the kids can grab on their own!
Looking For More Easy Chicken Recipes?
- Chicken and Broccoli Stir Fry
- Chicken Francese
- Hawaiian Pulled Chicken
- Chipotle Creamy Salsa Chicken
- Sweet Chili Chicken Wings
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Sesame Ground Chicken
- Prep Time: 5 minutes
- Cook Time: 10 minutes
- Total Time: 15 minutes
- Yield: 6 Servings 1x
Print Recipe
Pin RecipeOur Sesame Ground Chicken is a #1 recipe for good reason. It’s on the table in 15 minutes, packed with lean protein and has a flavor that everyone loves! Serve with rice or ramen noodles on the side to soak up all of the delicious, sweet sesame sauce.
Ingredients
- 1 teaspoon olive oil
- 1/2 cup diced onion
- 2 tablespoons chopped garlic
- 2 pounds ground chicken breast
- 1 teaspoon kosher salt
- Fresh black pepper to taste
- 1 tablespoon chili garlic sauce
- 1/2 cup soy sauce
- 1/3 cup brown sugar
- 1–2 tablespoons toasted sesame oil (to taste, start with 1 and add more if desired)
- 1/3 cup chicken broth
- 1 tablespoon cornstarch mixed with 1 tablespoon of water (see note)
- Chopped scallions and sesame seeds for garnish
Instructions
- Add the olive oil to a skillet over medium heat. Cook the onion for 3-4 minutes until softened, then add the garlic and cook a minute longer.
- Add the ground chicken to the skillet and cook while breaking up into small pieces until the chicken is cooked through. Drain any drippings from the skillet. Season the chicken with salt and pepper.
- Mix the chili garlic sauce, soy sauce, brown sugar, sesame oil and chicken broth together in a bowl. Pour over the ground chicken and stir to combine. Bring to a simmer and then add the cornstarch mixture while stirring. Simmer the chicken until the sauce is thickened, taste for seasonings and serve with scallions and sesame seeds.
Recipe Notes
Instead of mixing the cornstarch with water and adding after the sauce comes to a simmer, you can add the cornstarch right to the sauce mixture (minus the water) and whisk to combine. Once the sauce comes to a simmer the sauce will thicken.
Store: Store leftovers in an air tight container in the refrigerator for up to 3 days.
Freeze: This ground chicken recipe freezes very well for meal prepping. Store in an air tight container or freezer bag and freeze for up to 3 months.
- Category: Dinner
- Method: Stove Top
- Cuisine: American
Can I use sesame seed oil rather than the toasted sesame oil?
Yep!
Great flavour and easy to make! Kids liked it too, so it’ll stay on our rotation. The only recommendation would be to not overcook the meat as it can get dry pretty quickly.
This was a fantastic dish! I loved it!
We loved this recipe. Total winner. We did half the chili oil and it was still quite spicy but the flavor of it is fantastic. Very quick as well. Highly recommend
Delish! Added zucchini and poured over jasmine rice 😋
My children loved it! Quick and easy, Thank you!
It was not our favourite.
10/10 Absolutely delicious. Made an absolutely delicious lunch and my picky husband loved it.
I Only have 1lb of ground chicken, but I like sauce! Can I leave the measurement the same?
Yep, if you like more sauce then just leave the same measurements!
We’ve made this two nights in a row! Its delicious! As good as anything you can get in a restaurant. I added carrots, bell peppers and broccoli. Definitely a keeper!
Hi! I am excited to make this recipe for dinner this week! What can I replace the chili garlic sauce with as we cannot have that. Thank you! Laurie
That’s totally optional, but you can use some sriracha or a dash of hot sauce instead if you like a little spice. Otherwise you can just leave it off!
I used sugar free orange terryaki sauce w chili flake and it was great.
I have been searching for healthy recipes that are packed with flavor. This did not disappoint. I asked my husband and son what they thought and they both asked me to double the recipe next time I make, that they could have eaten more it was so good. The only thing I did different was that I used brown rice instead of white rice. This recipe was amazing!
This recipe is absolutely delicious. So simple and full of flavor. It’s a gift, thanks for sharing it!
Partway through making this for the first time. I am confused by the amount of chicken required. The recipe I am looking at says 2 pounds of ground chicken person!
It gives me a little concern about the quantities of the other ingredients.
Oh, well we shall see🤞
It’s 2 pounds of ground chicken for the whole recipe. Not sure where you’re seeing per person!