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.
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Disclosure: This post is sponsored by Imperial Sugar. All opinions expressed are my own.
I have tried a few of your recipes, they don’t disappoint, for this one, since we like really spiced I will ‘tweet’ it..
If you want to kick the spice up a notch, use Thai Garlic Chili Sauce. I would also add the juice of one fresh lime. Enjoy
Could this be made with Shrimp instead?
Yes, absolutely! But you will have to adjust cooking time as needed.
Would you say halve the cooking time for shrimp?
Unfortunately without further recipe testing, I cannot advise on cooking time. Please use your best judgment.
Has anyone made this using Sriracha instead of Frank’s Hot Sauce or Buffalo Sauce? Do you think it would be too hot?
I do not recommend substituting Sriracha for the buffalo sauce as it may be too spicy to consume. You can always add 1-2 tablespoons of Sriracha though for that extra touch of heat.
I wish that I had read your reply before I made this dish, but it looked so good and I couldn’t wait to try the recipe. I didn’t have buffalo sauce, so I used the Sriracha. WOW . . . it carried some heat!! If you are one of the people that love really, really hot food like my son, then use the Sriracha. Personally, I like a good dose of heat, but it was just too hot for my liking. It was absolutely delicious though. Next time I make it, I will use your suggestion of just adding 1-2 tablespoons of Sriracha to buffalo sauce. Thanks you for your reply!
DELISH! Perfect mix of spicy and sweet and wonderful over white rice. The baking of the chicken and sauce was perfect, thickened up the sauce nicely, 3 out of 3 recipes that I made
From this website have been 5 stars, thank you
I just tried this tonight. I will say it had some kick to it I loved it my boyfriend said it wasn’t his favorite……:-)
Man this looks amazing. I need to try it!
I ended up making a separate buffalo sauce recipe that I found online then adding it into this sauce! I just wanted to say that I made this for my family and they literally all loved it! Were practically licking their plates afterwards. I made it with some pretty generic egg fried rice and it went really nicely with this 🙂 !
Thanks for sharing, this recipe was fantastic. Couldn’t find buffalo sauce in Australia but did find frank’s red hot sauce at my local supermarket. Leftovers were even better the next day. Love your website
Hi Nellie
What supermarket did you find Franks’ Red sauce … I live over in WA …
Thanks
Made this dish last night and it was soooooooo yummy!! I’ll definately be making this again and again! 🙂 Your recipes and pictures are wonderful!
I couldn’t actually find a sauce at the Superstore that said “buffalo sauce”. Maybe it’s because I live in Canada, I don’t know. So just out of curiosity when you say buffalo sauce, do you mean making buffalo sauce and then adding that to this, or actually going out and buying it? I could literally find nothing!
I used Frank’s Red Hot – do you have access to that in your grocery store? If not, you can always purchase it from amazon.
Assuming you mean buffalo wing sauce by “buffalo sauce” , President’s Choice makes it and I buy it at the Superstore all the time.
We used franks buffalo wing sauce. You should find it in the condiment aisle. Look for any wing sauce. Or you can get cayenne pepper sauce and mix with 1/2 a stick of butter to make your own buffalo sauce.
Oh my gosh do I ever need to make this!
This sounds very good! Sweet and sour chicken is something my husband really loves. I bet he would love this. Pinned!
Oooooh heavens. A spicy-sweet pile of fried chicken over fluffy rice? That’s what dreams are made of! I can’t wait to give this a try, Chung-Ah. Looks so delicious!
This looks so good! I love the sweet and salty combo and never thought of combining buffalo sauce with sweet…wow! I have a feeling that my kiddos would love this. Thanks for sharing!
What an interesting flavor combo. I do think this would be a big hit in my house and your preparation couldn’t be simpler. Thanks, pinned!! : )
I would like to see a version of Seoul-style fire chicken (buldak). That might be impossible to replicate without a professional kitchen. My wife printed out a Korean-language version of the recipe, but the end result tasted nothing like real buldak.
What would be another substitute for the Buffalo sauce? I have a variety of canned tomatoes and a jar of Sambal Oelek in the house. Would a mixture of that plus a little butter work too?
There really is no good substitute for buffalo sauce – it’s one of the main and crucial ingredients in this dish.
I am a HUGE (the hugest, really) fan of buffalo sauce so I am certainly going to love this dish!
Can’t wait to try it. I’ve made your sweet and sour chicken half a dozen times already and it’s always perfect. Do you think this method would work for teriyaki chicken as well?
I’ve never tried it myself but I don’t see why it wouldn’t work! 🙂
I’m now craving a huge bowl of this chicken!