Firecracker Chicken
The most amazing combination of sweet and spicy flavors that tastes a million times better than take-out!
I’ve been seeing this “firecracker chicken” all over Pinterest, and you know how much I love recreating take-out dishes, so I just had to give this a try. I honestly wasn’t expecting much since I’m not the biggest fan of buffalo sauce but boy, was I wrong.
This firecracker chicken has the most amazing combination of and sweet and spicy flavors, with a hint of tanginess and zing from the buffalo sauce. And if you’re not the biggest fan of heat, you can certainly add more sugar to balance it out.
And it’s so easy to whip up! The method is just like my baked sweet and sour chicken – a quick cook in hot oil and then into the oven for about 45 minutes to let all those amazing flavors soak right in. You can serve it over rice or even some quinoa. Either way, this will be in constant rotation at our house because there’s no way that take-out can beat this!
Firecracker Chicken
Ingredients
- 1 pound boneless, skinless chicken breasts, 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
For the sauce
- ¾ cup Imperial Sugar Light Brown Sugar
- ⅓ cup buffalo sauce, or more, to taste
- 1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- ¼ teaspoon red pepper flakes, or more, to taste
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 325 degrees F. Lightly oil a 9×13 baking dish or coat with nonstick spray.
- To make the sauce, whisk together sugar, buffalo sauce, vinegar, salt, red pepper flakes and 1 tablespoon water in a large bowl; set aside.
- 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 saucepan. 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. Top with buffalo sauce mixture. 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.
Did you make this recipe?
Tag @damn_delicious on Instagram and hashtag it #damndelicious!
Disclosure: This post is sponsored by Imperial Sugar. All opinions expressed are my own.
I wondering if this is something I can make in my crock pot?
Unfortunately, it is very difficult to give exact conversion information to translate a traditional stovetop recipe to be used in a slow cooker without further recipe testing. However, here is an article worth checking out on a possible conversion guide: http://www.thekitchn.com/5-tips-for-converting-recipes-to-the-slow-cooker-189343.
Love this recipe! I’ve made it four times. When I don’t have a lot of time I skip the egg and cornstarch steps and just fry the chicken in a pan and then put it in the oven with the sauce. Still tastes great!
I make this about once a week using siracha sauce instead of buffalo sauce. Sooooo good. I actually can’t even imagine eating it with buffalo sauce. That seems weird to me. I also use the Skinny Taste’s chicken nugget recipe for the chicken and then top the chicken and some steamed broccoli with the sauce over white rice. It’s amazing. I have tried quite a few of your recipes and have yet to be disappointed!
I just had to write and let you know how AWESOME this dish is!! Thank you so much for the wonderful recipe!!!! I am learning to cook and my husband hasn’t loved anything I have made yet…(we’ve been married for a year and a half) but tonight he was so excited and had multiple servings! He told me to put this recipe on rotation. Yay! Thanks again!!!!!!
P.S. We won’t have to order takeout ever again-this is SO much tastier!!!
Hey! I love your recipes! I was wondering if I could use less sugar in this one to make it low carb friendly. I’m already using cauliflower rice instead. How could I balance out the flavors? Thanks!
Unfortunately, without further recipe testing, I cannot advise how to change the recipe by using less sugar. Please use your best judgment.
Made this for Chinese New year for my hubby and I using only two chicken breasts. Prob for that reason it took the sauce a little lonģer to thicken up. I also only had franks hot sauce. Even with all that, this was absolutely gorgeous. The perfect balance of sweet and spicy. I aldo added in some soy sauce which I loved. This is definitely how I’m going to cook chinese chicken dishes from now on. I think this type of dish is also great for entertaining as you can do all the prep work in advance and have it in the oven as guests arrive!
We made this last night and OH. MY. GOD. it was delicious!!! I’m the worst cook ever and I could manage this dish. The family was so impressed! We did add extra red pepper for a little extra kick. So yummy! Thank you!
Made this tonight it was AMAZING!!! Little sweet little spicy kick. So SO Good!! Worth the time it took to make!! Even my husband said he loved the sauce and we should have it again. Maybe do this with wings for the Superbowl this weekend!! Love this website!! It’s finally got me cooking at home and not grabbing fast food
Hey boo,
What are the nutrition facts on this? Love your recipe index! Made several dishes from it
Nutritional information is provided only for select and new recipes at this time. However, if it is not available for a specific recipe, it is best that you use free online resources at your discretion (you can gooogle “nutritional calculator”) to obtain such information.
I tried this recipe about two months ago and it is now a house favorite!! I make this once a week for myself and my husband and it is so unbelievably delicious! I am not a huge fan of spicy foods but you can hold off on the red pepper or add more if you love hotter foods. Thank you, Damn Delicious for a yummy dish!
I cooked this recipe on Friday night and it went down an absolute treat! We like our food pretty spicy so i added half Franks Buffalo sauce and half Franks Original Sauce – it was delicious! I honestly can’t rave about it enough. Thank you for introducing the recipe into my life!
Just tried the recipe, it was quick, easy and scrumptious! The best thing about firecracker chicken is that it was enjoyed by the whole family. Thanks for sharing this simple recipe.
I am doing two pounds do I need to double the ingredients
Yes – as the recipe calls for one pound, it would be best to double the recipe.
This was the first recipe of yours I’ve made and this turned out awesome! Looked just like the picture and taste just like take out but better. The texture of the chicken is amazing, hard to believe it isn’t deep fried! My boyfriend devoured it. He likes his food pretty spicy so in addition to the franks buffalo sauce I added a generous squirt of siriracha it was perfect. Thanks for the great recipe!
Okay, this was amazing. I made this tonight and my husband and I loved it. I got a little worried after the cornstarch,egg, then oil step because my chicken looked pretty “eggy”, but it turned out perfect.
I tried the recipe and made my own buffalo sauce (franks redhot pepper sauce and butter). Between the 15 minute intervals, the sauce separated. What would cause this?
Miles, it may be best just to use Franks Red Hot as the addition of butter may have caused the sauce to separate.
This recipe was amazing! I will admit I was skeptical of using the buffalo sauce at first but it worked out great. I used Budweiser hot n spicy wing sauce as the buffalo sauce btw.
My boyfriend had a long day at work and called saying he wanted a “good” dinner and he was hungry.
Let me start off by saying I had 0 plans for dinner tonight, but i guess the fuzziness of Xmas made me want to be a nice gf today. I ran across the street bought some boneless chicken and this recipe was such smoooooth sailing I was scared it wAs too smooth it would sacrifice the turnout. Needless to say, he LOVED it lol.
I ended up using flour rather than cornstarch because I had none, and it came out great. I did sift the flour thoroughly and make sure the chicken pieces were completely coated evenly.
Thank you for this recipe it will be forever recycled in my household!
I am making this for sure! Looks amazing. It looks a little on the dryer side though, and I like having my meat with little sauce but my boyfriend likes to drown his rice in sauce, almost as if it is soup. What can I do to make this a bit more saucy?
You can try doubling the sauce if you’d like!
This has become one of my family’s favorite dishes. It is SO VERY GOOD!! Thank you for such a wonderful recipe!! 🙂