Bang Bang Chicken
by Chungah
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This bang bang chicken is a family-favorite dinner! Made with super crispy chicken bites and the dreamiest sweet and spicy bang bang sauce!
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Why you’ll love bang bang chicken
- 30 minute recipe. This recipe comes together in 30 minutes or less, making this an ideal candidate for quick, weeknight dinners for the whole family.
- The bang bang sauce is everything. The sauce is a simple mix of four ingredients – mayonnaise, sweet chili sauce, honey, and hot sauce, yielding a creamy, sweet and spicy sauce to coat the perfectly crispy, golden brown chicken. The sauce is so good, you’ll want to eat it with a spoon!
- Can be served in so many ways. This is one of those great dishes that can serve so many purposes. For example, it can be served over steamed white rice, as a crowd-favorite appetizer, or even as tacos.
What is bang bang chicken?
This is a popular dish made with ultra-crispy bite-sized chicken tossed in a signature bang bang sauce.
The bang bang sauce consists of:
- Mayonnaise
- Sweet chili sauce
- Hot sauce (Frank’s RedHot or Sriracha)
- Honey or lime juice
How to make bang bang chicken
- Make the bang bang sauce. Whisk together the mayonnaise, sweet chili sauce, honey, and hot sauce in a small bowl and set aside.
- Prep the coating. Combine the buttermilk, flour, cornstarch, egg, hot sauce, salt, and pepper.
- Coat the chicken. Dip each chicken piece into the buttermilk mixture before dredging in Panko, pressing to coat and shaking off any excess.
- Cook the chicken. Cook the Panko-coated chicken in a Dutch oven until golden brown, working in batches to avoid an overcrowded pan. Transfer to a paper towel-lined plate to drain the excess oil.
- Toss or drizzle. Toss (or drizzle) the cooked chicken with the bang bang sauce, adding as little or as much sauce as desired.
- Serve. Lastly, garnish with parsley, serving over a bed of steamed white rice or arrange on a platter with toothpicks.
Deep-frying tips to cook the chicken
Deep-frying chicken may seem a bit daunting, but with some attention to detail and these easy-to-follow tips, you’ll be making restaurant-quality (if not better!) bang bang chicken in no time.
- Use the right oil. Use vegetable or peanut oil, a neutral oil with a high smoke point.
- Maintain a consistent oil temperature. Use a clip-on deep-fry thermometer to monitor the oil closely, maintaining a steady temperature between 325 and 375°F.
- Work in small batches. Cook the chicken in small batches, about 5-6 pieces at a time.
- Let it rest on a wire rack. Let the chicken rest 5-10 minutes on a wire rack for even air circulation, achieving that perfect, shatteringly crispy coating.
How to serve bang bang chicken
Appetizer
Arrange the crispy chicken on a platter with toothpicks, serving the sauce on the side for dipping, if desired.
Bowls
Serve over white rice or jasmine rice with steamed broccoli.
Tacos or wraps
Spoon the chicken into warmed tortillas or bib (or butter) lettuce for lettuce wraps.
More bang bang recipes
Tools For This Recipe
Bang Bang Chicken: Frequently Asked Questions
Panko is a Japanese-style breadcrumb and can be found in the Asian section of your local grocery store. While both panko and breadcrumbs can be used as a coating for fried foods, panko is much flakier and yields a crunchier, crispier texture.
Yes, there is a mild to medium kick of heat from the hot sauce. For milder flavors, reduce the amount of hot sauce, to taste.
Absolutely! The recipe works well with both chicken breasts or chicken thighs. Breasts are leaner whereas thighs will be juicier.
Store the chicken and the sauce separately in airtight containers in the fridge for 3-4 days, reheating the chicken in the oven or air fryer at 350°F until warmed through.
Bang Bang Chicken
Video
Ingredients
- 1 cup buttermilk
- ¾ cup all-purpose flour
- ½ cup cornstarch
- 1 large egg
- 1 tablespoon hot sauce
- Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste
- 1 pound boneless, skinless chicken breasts, cut into 1-inch chunks
- 1 cup Panko
- 3 cups vegetable oil
- 2 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley leaves
For the bang bang sauce
- ¼ cup mayonnaise
- 2 tablespoons sweet chili sauce
- 1 tablespoon honey
- 2 teaspoons Frank’s Hot Sauce
Instructions
- In a large bowl, whisk together buttermilk, flour, cornstarch, egg, hot sauce, salt and pepper, to taste.
- Working one at a time, dip chicken into the buttermilk mixture, then dredge in Panko, pressing to coat.
- Heat vegetable oil in a large stockpot or Dutch oven to 350°F. Working in batches, add chicken to the Dutch oven and cook until evenly golden and crispy, about 2-3 minutes. Transfer to a paper towel-lined plate; discard excess oil.
- Serve immediately, drizzled with bang bang sauce, garnished with parsley, if desired.
For the bang bang sauce
- Whisk together mayonnaise, sweet chili sauce, honey and Frank’s Hot Sauce in a small bowl.
Equipment
Notes
- Cut the chicken into similar-sized pieces. Whether you’re using chicken breasts or thighs, dice the chicken into similar bite-sized pieces (about 1-inch chunks) for even, consistent cooking throughout.
- Panko yields a flakier crust. Panko is a Japanese-style breadcrumb made from crustless white bread with much larger flakes than traditional breadcrumbs, yielding a crunchier, crispier texture.
- Check the temperature. Use a clip-on deep-fry thermometer to maintain a consistent oil temperature (about 325-375°F). If the oil goes past 375°F, the exterior will burn before the inside of the chicken is cooked, and if the oil is too cool, the chicken will absorb most of the oil, resulting in soggy, greasy chicken.
- Cook in batches. Cook the chicken in multiple batches as needed to avoid an overcrowded pan. An overcrowded pan will result in a drop in temperature, yielding soggy chicken instead.
- Sauce just before serving. This is crucial to avoiding soggy bang bang chicken. Toss or drizzle the cooked chicken with the bang bang sauce just before serving for maximum crispness.
- Prepare for leftovers. Store the chicken and bang bang sauce separately if preparing for leftovers to preserve the crisp texture of the chicken bites.
Did you make this recipe?
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I would like to substitute the chicken using wild pheasant breasts instead. Would you have any hesitation doing this?
Unfortunately, without further recipe testing, I cannot answer with certainty. As always, please use your best judgment regarding substitutions and modifications.
Very good information for me.. you know i hungryafter see your blog hehehe.. success for you.
Made this last night and my husband went cuckoo for it. The sauce is so tasty and the chicken does get super crunchy as you said it would. Thank you for another great recipe!
Going to try this recipe tomorrow night. Was thinking on using coconut oil and ghee mixture since vegetable oil gets rancid at high Temps and is bad for you. Do you think this will alter the taste?
Not at all!
Can I prep ahead of time and leave chx in the buttermilk mixture?
Silly q but can I use chicken thighs too?
Yes, absolutely.
I made this tonight and it was delicious. The sauce is amazing. Family members who don’t even like mayonnaise enjoyed the sauce. The chicken cooks really fast, so watch it carefully. So happy to have another recipe to add to the dinner rotation.
WHY DOES IT SAYS “BANG BANG” … i was just wondering 🙂 i wanna try this recipe for my NC II ..
No idea! 🙂
Thanks for sharing this receipe was looking for receipes that used Panko bread crumb. I had coupon for them I got several boxes of them. Yay! Excited to get all the ingredients together and make for my family!
Holy Moly! I haven’t made the chicken yet as I had cheating battered chicken chunks to use up but wanted a sauce for dipping. I wasn’t sure of the difference with this and the bang bang shrimp sauce so I kind of said what the heck and used both 1tsp of rice vinegar from the shrimp and a tsp of sriracha from this version (I had Franks but who doesn’t love sriracha?). It. Was. Bananas. Can’t wait to try it with proper panko crumbed chicken.
I made this tonight it was delicious.I double the batter and tripled the sauce .My family said it tasted just like the sauce from the restaurant Bonefish!I’m so late but I needed to say how much I loved it. I subscribe thank you!!☺
I know I’m late to the party here but WOW this was a great dinner! I doubled the batter portion and almost tripled the panko so I could do chicken (2 large boneless breasts cut up) AND shrimp then used the leftover batter on thick sliced Vidalia onions which fried up beautifully alongside 🙂
I used siracha hot sauce instead of franks for the sauce, i find the 2 compliment each other really nice.
Made this tonight and it was delicious! For the sake of those reading the comments for reviews, I’ll share what worked for us. I am not great at multitasking in the kitchen and I wanted to be able to finish the chicken in the oven so I could get the side dishes done, table set, etc and still serve the chicken hot. So as per Terri’s review above, I fried the chicken on each side just until golden brown and then drained it on a paper towel, and put it in the oven on a cooling rack sitting on top of a cookie sheet. I baked for 20 mins at 350, and the chicken was perfectly crispy and still juicy. I omitted the hot sauce from the batter as I was cooking for my 1 and 3 year old as well, which made the chicken itself pretty bland – I probably should have upped the salt and pepper in the batter. I wasn’t a huge fan of the sauce, but we just dipped the chicken in sweet chili sauce (from Trader Joe’s) and it was yummy! I can’t believe how crispy this chicken is – it looks just like the photo! Will definitely be making this again. Thanks for the recipe Chungah!
Like others have commented, the sweet chili sauce mix is really what this dish so great. I usually don’t like to make things that have to be done in batches because it leaves the earlier cooked pieces to cool off, but this dish was worth it. Next time, I’ll double the sweet chili sauce mix. Yum!
I made this recipe for the “Best of 2015” tag game….so glad I did. The sauce is amazing. I doubled the recipe and we still didn’t have enough. Frying the chicken took a while in my skillet, but we just ate in shifts. Great crunch and super moist on the inside. Loved the buttermilk dip. Thanks for sharing your delicious recipe.
Chungah – I have to ask a question (just for curiosity). Have you ever made THIS version of chicken (in the buttermilk dip) and made the firecracker chicken SAUCE and combined the two and baked? I may give that a try…was just curious if you ever “mixed it up” a bit 🙂
I actually haven’t but that sounds absolutely amazing!!
Hi Chungah!
I wanted to tell you that this recipe is OMG…amazing. I dub myself a “foodie”. I’m a great cook (if I do say so myself). Back more than a year ago I stumbled across your website. First recipe tried: Firecracker chicken. AMAZING. It is a family staple (weekly, and I do mean WEEKLY). So yesterday I decided to search your site for more asian inspired dishes. We love Bonefish Grille’s bang bang shrimp, so I thought I’d try your bang bang chicken recipe. All I can say is WOWZA! This dish, as written, is de-frickin-licious! My husband even chimed in that it was absolutely delicious (and trust me, I don’t get too many compliments anymore on my cooking, because he loves everything that I make…lol). I used 4 good-sized breasts which made a LOT (TONS of leftovers). I had well more than enough “batter” leftover too (probably enough to coat 1 more breast). The ONLY thing I did differently was the cooking process. I fried in the oil only enough to “crisp” the outside. I then transferred to a paper towel to remove the excess oil. From there, I put the chicken in the oven to bake (to finish the cooking process) @ 350*F for approximately 25-30 mins. The crisp on the outside of that chicken was unreal! And the chicken itself was moist, juicy and PACKED with flavor. I usually cook with thighs, but went with the breast on this (and I’m glad that I did!). The sauce that goes with this is ALSO amazing. I did add a little more of the chili sauce to it (but that’s only because I love the flavor). Instead of serving with a side of rice, I tried something new (asian noodles…the kind you get when you order pad thai). I cooked those in sesame oil and finished off with the sweet chili sauce. YUM! Girl…keep doing what you do because it WORKS FOR ME! I love it when I don’t have to tweak and re-write recipes (because I do that with almost EVERY recipe that I find). THANK YOU SO MUCH!
What did you garnish with? It’s on the picture but not listed in the recipe anywhere.
Lisa, this is garnished with parsley for photographic purposes.
Looks Great! I am trying this today! Can I substitute the Panko breadcrumbs for regular breadcrumbs?
Yes, absolutely, although I find that Panko yields the best, most crisp results. But as always, please use your best judgment.
The Bang Bang chicken is great! A bit of prep but very easy to make and with the wok, almost no splashing, so the stove-top isn’t a mess…thank goodness. Also, I tend to have chicken breasts in the freezer a bit too long and this is a great way to get rid of them. The dipping sauce needs some work. I suspect the sweet chili sauce that we get here (London) is pretty crappy so I’d try one from a Thai or Asian market. Also, smaller pieces, about the size of end of your index finger or slightly smaller. If you have an Asian dumpling scoop that is perfect to get the little dickens out of the frying pan, but I used a Teflon pancake flipper. I made a bit extra and tonight we’ll have crunchy chicken wraps with lettuce, tomato and avocados. Ooooh Also, I added chipotle/adobo into the dipping sauce and a touch into the batter to give it some kick. That was great. Next time I’ll shred some cilantro and a pinch of rock salt.