Sesame Chicken Kebabs

Sesame Chicken Kebabs
Succulent chunks of chicken coated with a sticky, sweet & spicy glaze & crunchy sesame seeds. Easy, quick & bursting with flavour!

I love this time of the year at the Kitchen Shed, everything is bursting into Springtime green and the first of our many visitors are about to arrive. We try and eat Al Fresco as much as we can not least because there isn’t enough room for everyone to sit around the table inside the Kitchen Shed. I try to plan my menu ahead of visitors arriving with a view to include easy, healthy (most of the time) and quickly prepared recipes – that way I can spend as much time as possible with family and friends.

Over time, it’s become a bit of a tradition here at the Kitchen Shed to recreate a favourite takeaway for a Friday or Saturday night. As well as giving control over the quality of the meals’ ingredients, it’s also a lot cheaper and flavours can be tweaked to suit the diners. Our stay home takeaway nights have included curry nights, Turkish Chicken Kebabs in a pitta bread with pickled red cabbage and chips and pizza nights where everyone puts in an order for their own toppings.

This Spring I’ve decided to experiment with my version of an American Chinese Takeaway, Sesame Chicken. OH had this once when he was working in the US, and although he’s always fancied trying it again we haven’t seen it on the menu in an English Chinese takeaway. Whilst in France we haven’t tried a French Chinese as being in rural Brittany there aren’t any takeaways nearby and if you do want to drive to the nearest town to fetch a Chinese, your order is served cold to reheat when you get home.

After a bit of research, it seems Sesame Chicken is an American version of what Chicken Tikka is to the British – apparently you wouldn’t find Sesame Chicken on an authentic Chinese menu anymore than you’re likely to find Chicken Tikka on an authentic Indian menu. Based on what I’ve gleaned from OH, Sesame Chicken is a spicy and more tangy version of sweet and sour chicken “sort of”. It is over fifteen years since OH tried what he remembers as Sesame Chicken so please feel free to let me know if he’s mis-remembering. My version needed to be minus the deep fried coating but still keeping the sweet and sticky sauce and crunchy sesame seeds. I used sweet chilli jam, ginger and garlic with soy sauce and rice wine vinegar to give a tangy spicy flavour to the marinade. If you are State side, you’ll have to forgive my Anglicised version.

Griddle or BBQ is one of my favourite low fat cooking methods because it’s quick, easy and uses a minimum amount of oil. For this recipe, you can prepare this Sesame Chicken Kebabs in less time than you can order from a takeaway and it tastes so much better and is certainly healthier.

I served our Sesame Chicken Kebabs with my crunchy Oriental Sesame Slaw and a sweet chilli dipping sauce for which I added a touch of cider vinegar to my Sweet Chilli Jam. The marinating of the chicken kept it succulent and I brushed the cooked kebabs with sesame oil before coating with sesame seeds. Sesame Chicken Kebabs has been declared a winner for our weekend takeaway nights and will stay on the menu throughout Winter, cooked indoors on the griddle and served with a bowl of fluffy white rice.

Sesame Chicken Kebabs are so easy to make:

Simply marinate.

Assemble your skewers.

BBQ or cook on the griddle.

Baste with sesame oil and sprinkle with sesame seeds and serve!

I hope you enjoy Sesame Chicken Kebabs as much as we do. Here’s the recipe in quick printable format so you can have it to hand while you try it out.

5.0 from 5 reviews

Sesame Chicken Kebabs

Prep time

10 mins

Cook time

15 mins

Total time

25 mins

Sesame Chicken Kebabs Succulent chunks of chicken coated with a sticky, sweet & spicy glaze & crunchy sesame seeds. Easy, quick & bursting with flavour!

Author: Tales From The Kitchen Shed

Recipe type: BBQ or Griddle

Serves: 4 kebabs

Ingredients

4 chicken breasts or 8 chicken thighs cut into 3 to 4 cm chunks

Marinade:

2 tablespoons soy sauce
2 tablespoons rice wine vinegar (I used Shaoxing)
2 garlic cloves - crushed
2 cm piece freshly grated ginger
1 to 2 tablespoons sweet chilli jam or sauce (I used my homemade sweet chilli jam)

Basting & coating:

2 tablespoons sesame oil
2 tablespoons sesame seeds

Instructions

Marinate your chicken:

Whisk the marinade ingredients together. Place the chicken in a container and coat the chicken pieces with the marinade.
Cover and leave to marinate in the fridge for 30 minutes to 2 hours.

Assemble your skewers:

Remove the chicken from the fridge and thread 4 to 6 pieces of chicken on to a skewer, don't thread them too closely.

Cook your chicken kebabs:

Cook your kebabs on a preheated griddle or BBQ for about fifteen minutes, browning on all sides until cooked through with no pink showing.
Remove from the BBQ or griddle and baste with sesame oil and sprinkle with sesame seeds.
Serve with sweet chilli dipping sauce and Oriental Sesame Slaw or a bowl of fluffy white rice.

Notes

Total time doesn't include marinating time.

LOVE KEBABS?

Then take a look at my delicious Homemade Chicken Kebabs Take Away Style.

Homemade Chicken Kebabs. Freshly grilled marinated chicken, peppers and onions served in a pitta bread with salad & a hot chilli sauce. Healthy & delicious!

Pin Sesame Chicken Kebabs for later:

I’m entering Sesame Chicken Kebabs into a few challenges this month:

Charlotte’s Food Year Link Up over at Charlotte’s Lively Kitchen.
Credit Crunch Munch created by Camilla from Fab Food 4 All & Helen over at Fuss Free Flavours & hosted this month by Michelle at Utterly Scrummy.

I’m also linking Sesame Chicken Kebabs to: Fiesta Fridays