Recipe: Chinese Honey Garlic Chicken

I was chatting with a friend recently about a Honey Garlic Chicken dish she'd had at a local Chinese restaurant long ago and hasn't been able to find another version since. I found this recipe online and thought I'd give it a try, give her my thoughts and then encourage her to try it herself.

I changed the recipe slightly....here's the original but here's how I changed it:


Ingredients:
1 ½ lbs boneless skinless chicken breasts (cut into 1” chunks)
Oil (for deep frying)

Batter:
2 Cups McCormick Beer Batter mix
1 Can of Beer (you can use water or juice or any liquid)


Sauce:
1 ½ tablespoons oil
2 teaspoon ginger (minced)
5 tablespoons garlic (minced)
1 teaspoon salt
4 1/2 tablespoons honey (I used 6 but it was too sweet)
3 teaspoon rice wine vinegar
1 cup water
2 teaspoon cornstarch (mixed with 3 teaspoon water)
Sesame seeds (for garnish)

Step 1: In a large bowl mix all batter ingredients together until smooth. Add the chicken to the batter tossing to coat.

Step 2: Heat a deep fryer to 350 degrees. Fry chicken bits in patches for 2 minutes or until batter becomes firm. Drain on paper towels.

Step 3: To make the sauce. Heat 1 ½ tablespoons of oil in your wok. Add garlic and ginger and stir fry for 30 seconds. Add salt, honey, vinegar, and water. Mix well. Combine 3 teaspoon of water with 2 teaspoon of cornstarch. Add to the sauce and Simmer for 2 minutes.

Step 4: Coat chicken with the sauce and garnish with sesame seeds. Serve with white rice.

I fried up the chicken (make sure your oil is HOT otherwise the chicken just absorbs the oil and that's gross). I also didn't toss the entire batch of chicken in the sauce but let people drizzle however much they wanted on their own plates (keeps batter from getting soggy).

It turned out pretty good. A little sweet (added too much honey so I've reduced it on the above ingredients).

I'll probably change it up a little again next time but will be trying it again.