Firecracker Chicken
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Better-than-takeout firecracker chicken! Juicy crisp-tender chicken tossed in an irresistible sweet and spicy sauce (can also make it mild!).
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Why you’ll love firecracker chicken
- Faster and cheaper than takeout. Making this takeout favorite at home costs a fraction of restaurant prices using fresh, better-quality ingredients, requiring just 15-20 minutes of prep time.
- Bold, explosive flavors. Firecracker chicken has the most amazing combination of sweet and spicy flavors with a hint of tanginess and zing from the buffalo sauce. And it’s baked in the oven for about 45 minutes to let all those amazing flavors soak right into the juicy, tender bites of chicken.
- Ultra-crispy and tender chicken. The chicken pieces are coated in cornstarch and eggs first, creating a crunchy crust that stays crispy even after baking!
- Incredibly versatile recipe. You can easily adapt this recipe to make it mild or more spicy. You can also serve over a bed of vegetables, steamed rice, fried rice, or chow mein. No matter how it’s served, this will be a guaranteed family-favorite!
What is firecracker chicken?
Firecracker chicken is a popular Chinese-American takeout dish featuring crispy bite-sized chicken pieces coated in a sticky glaze that is sweet, spicy, and tangy. The dish is typically finished with sliced green onions and served over rice, noodles, or chow mein.
Key Ingredients
- Chicken: boneless, skinless chicken breasts or thighs
- Coating: cornstarch and beaten eggs
- Sauce: brown sugar, buffalo sauce (ex. Frank’s RedHot), apple cider vinegar, salt, and crushed red pepper flakes
- Garnish: green onions
How to make firecracker chicken
- Coat the chicken. Dice the chicken breasts or thighs into uniform 1-inch pieces and season with salt and pepper. Coat the chicken pieces with cornstarch until lightly coated, then dip each piece into the beaten eggs.
- Cook the chicken. Working in batches, cook the chicken in vegetable oil in a large cast iron skillet over medium high heat until golden and crispy. Set aside with a slotted spoon to a paper towel-lined plate.
- Prep the sauce. Mix together the brown sugar, buffalo sauce, apple cider vinegar, salt, red pepper flakes, and water.
- Bake and stir. Place the chicken in a greased 9 x 13 baking dish, stirring in the sauce until each piece is well coated. Bake at 325°F for 45 minutes, stirring every 15 minutes, until the chicken is completely cooked through (internal temperature should reach 165°F).
- Serve. Sprinkle with green onions and serve warm over rice or noodles.
More asian takeout recipes to make at home
Tools For This Recipe
Firecracker Chicken: Frequently Asked Questions
The firecracker sauce is made from a blend of brown sugar for sweetness, buffalo hot sauce (such as Frank’s RedHot), apple cider vinegar for acidity, salt, and crushed red pepper flakes.
Yes! Boneless, skinless chicken breasts will be leaner whereas chicken thighs will be much more forgiving and stay extra juicy.
This dish consists of a vibrant mix of sweet, spicy, and tangy flavors. It is similar to sweet and sour chicken with noticeably more of a spicy kick of heat.
Firecracker chicken does have a kick of heat to the dish but you can control the spice level by reducing the amount of hot sauce or omitting the red pepper flakes for milder flavors.
Pair with starches and vegetables that can soak up the sweet, spicy, and tangy glaze such as white rice, chow mein, or steamed broccoli and green beans.
Store leftovers in an airtight container in the fridge for 3-4 days, gently reheating on the stovetop with a splash of water or in the oven at 350°F until heated through.
Firecracker Chicken
Video
Ingredients
- 1 pound boneless, skinless chicken breasts or thighs, cut into 1-inch chunks
- Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste
- ½ cup cornstarch
- 2 large eggs, beaten
- ¼ cup vegetable oil
- 2 green onions, thinly sliced
For the firecracker sauce
- ¾ cup brown sugar
- ⅓ cup buffalo sauce, or more, to taste
- 1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- ¼ teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes, or more, to taste
- 1 tablespoon water
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 325 degrees F. Lightly oil a 9 x 13 baking dish or coat with nonstick spray.
- In a large bowl, season chicken with salt and pepper, to taste. Stir in cornstarch and gently toss to combine. Working one at a time, dip the chicken into the eggs.
- Heat vegetable oil in a large cast iron skillet over medium high heat. Working in batches, add chicken and cook until golden brown, about 1-2 minutes. Transfer to a paper towel-lined plate; discard excess oil.
- Add chicken to prepared baking dish. Stir in the firecracker sauce until well combined. Place into oven and bake until the sauce has thickened, about 45 minutes, turning over every 15 minutes to evenly coat the chicken.
- Serve immediately, garnished with green onions, if desired.
For the firecracker sauce
- In a large bowl, whisk together sugar, buffalo sauce, vinegar, salt, red pepper flakes and 1 tablespoon water.
Equipment
Notes
- Adjust the heat level. The signature firecracker sauce balances heat (hot sauce and red pepper flakes) with sweetness (brown sugar). Adjust the spice level by reducing or increasing the amount of hot sauce and red pepper flakes as needed.
- Stir every 15 minutes. The periodic stirring during baking will serve as a natural basting-step, evenly coating every piece of chicken with the sticky glaze.
- Pair with rice or noodles. Serve over steamed white rice, brown rice, or noodles (such as chow mein) to soak up the extra sauce.
- Reheat in the oven or stovetop. Gently reheat the leftover chicken on the stovetop with a splash of water or in the oven at 350°F until warmed through (to restore some of its crispness).
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Disclosure: This post is sponsored by Imperial Sugar. All opinions expressed are my own.
Best recipe ever! We turned this recipe into spicy orange chicken by adding orange zest and orange juice. So good, we haven’t tried your actual recipe for orange chicken! We serve it with rice and broccoli. Can’t get enough! Also good with beef.
Delicious! Love this Recipe! I will be serving this dish often as my family will love this sauce and the chicken is delicious prepared this way. Yum.
Awesome!
Thank you for this recipe! I don’t like to fry, so I used some of your sauce to Sous Vide chicken thighs, threw more sauce on after cutting up, and broiled until a little crispy. Served it on top of Chrissy’s coconut rice, and it was so very good..and easy! The only addition I made to the sauce was a little hot honey. I love your recipes, very adaptable, and not intimidating for beginners! You are awesome ❤️
It was delicious!! Enjoyed this dish! Thank you!
This was such a huge hit with me and my boyfriend- he says this is his favorite thing I’ve ever made (and I cook a LOT lol), although it’s perfect exactly as written I am considering a modification before I make it again (tomorrow). I cannot stand the smell that cooking in oil leaves behind, my small apartment smelled for days :(.. so any tips for either preventing that or could I just brown the chicken without breading it?
Jullian, here are some helpful tips to eliminate that deep-fried odor:
https://food52.com/blog/15135-how-to-get-the-smell-of-frying-out-of-your-kitchen.
Love this recipe so much!! It is gone in literally minutes. I am a little worried about all the cornstarch (I ended up using more than half a cup to get a full coating,) but the first time I made this I accidentally rubbed a lot of the cornstarch off by over-stirring in the vegetable oil, and it was still great, so I’m going to try lining up the chicken on a baking sheet and using a flour shaker to just lightly dust it with cornstarch for most meals, and maybe save the full, thick coating for an occasional treat!
So when you are making this and your oven suddenly dies, you can cook it on the stove top!! We cooked it in the sauce for about 15 minutes, stirring every 5. Good work around if you ever need it…and just as delicious!
I’m so glad it worked out! Sorry about the oven though!
Any suggestions if we don’t have apple cider vinegar? Thx!
Unfortunately, without further recipe testing, I cannot answer with certainty. As always, please use your best judgment regarding substitutions and modifications.
I use regular white vinegar. Turns out great.
Tried this tonight and the family loved it! Served it over jasmine rice with a side of Asian veggies and everything was delicious. Will definitely be making this recipe again.
I love this recipe! I like to double the sauce, microwave steam a bag of both carrots and broccoli and add it to the chicken in the final 15 minutes of baking. I like adding veggies whenever I can, and this sauce makes the broccoli taste exquisite! 😉
Do you have to put chicken in corn starch. I find it got clumps in sauce
Yes, I recommend doing so.
Can you make this recipe without cutting the chicken into bite size pieces and instead use the whole chicken breast? Thank you!
Yes, absolutely, but please note that cooking time will vary.
This looks so delicious. I want to make it this weekend. Two questions:
1. Is the texture supposed to be crispy or is it more of a soft/soggy texture? In the pictures it looks crispy but I wasn’t sure if it was possible to have crispy chicken after soaking it in sauce and baking it. Just wondering so I know what texture to expect because I’ve never tried that technique before.
2.If it is supposed to be soft, then is there anything I can do differently to make it crispy instead? Maybe just frying it all the way through and then tossing in the sauce?
Thank you! Can’t wait to try it.
Yes, absolutely. If crispiness is your ultimate goal, I would go with your suggestion! 🙂
DELICIOUS! Everyone loved this dish and not a single piece left on anyone’s plate, despite of most of us not liking sweet dishes. Spicy, but perfectly balanced w/the brown sugar.
Everyone agreed that this dish should be on the rotation. Thank you!
I have made 3-4 of your delicious and OMG every one is better than the last. This one is by far my new favorite and I will definitely make this dish all the time! Keep up the great work!
This is probably my favorite recipe of all time! It’s amazing every. Single. Time. I add frozen broccoli and it mixes perfectly with the sauce. I crave this weekly!
The gods of Pinterest smiled down on me with this recipe. Made it tonight and looooved it. Firecracker is a perfect name for it since the flavor basically explodes in your mouth.
Spicy. Sweet. Sticky. All the good things!
This looks yummy! However, I have a question! Once the chicken is already pan fried/sauted/browned, isn’t it too much to bake it in the oven for 45 minutes? Will the chicken be too dry? I know baking makes the sauce thicker, but I don’t like dry chicken either! I love your recipes>
Not at all! 🙂
My mouth waters just looking at this photo. This is one of my favorite recipes of all time! It is somewhat lengthy to prepare, so I reserve it for special occasions, but man, is it good! If you find any way to shorten the prep/bake time, I’d love to hear it! Another winner.
I am not one to leave a comment but seeing that I loved this so much I just had to. I steamed broccoli and made fried rice to go along with it. AMAZING is an understatement. I will not do takeout of this any longer. Also loved your Bang Bang chicken. Thank you!