Mongolian Chicken: One of My Favorite Easy & Delicious Dinners
Mongolian Chicken: One of My Favorite Easy & Delicious Dinners
If you’re in your “I want takeout but I also technically have food at home” era, make this Mongolian Chicken.
It’s one of my favorite easy dinners because the chicken gets a light, crispy coating and then gets covered in the most ridiculously good sweet and savory sauce. It has that takeout-style flavor without requiring a million ingredients or a complicated cooking situation.
And honestly, the sauce is the star here. It’s made with low-sodium soy sauce, brown sugar, fresh ginger, garlic, sesame oil and rice vinegar, so you get that perfect salty-sweet flavor with a little tang and a TON of garlic and ginger.
So, What Exactly Is Mongolian Chicken?
Fun fact: despite the name, Mongolian Chicken isn’t actually a traditional dish from Mongolia. It’s part of Chinese-American restaurant cuisine, and the better-known Mongolian Beef is generally traced back to Taiwan rather than Mongolia.
So if you’ve ever wondered why a dish called Mongolian Chicken tastes nothing like what you’d expect from Mongolian cuisine… there you go. 😂
Mongolian-style dishes are known for that sweet and savory soy-based sauce, aromatics like garlic and ginger, and a crispy coating that gives the sauce something to cling to.
Why I Love This Mongolian Chicken
The chicken is cut into thin, bite-sized pieces and tossed with cornstarch before cooking. That cornstarch gives the chicken a light coating that gets golden in the skillet and helps the sauce stick to every little piece.
And then there’s the sauce.
I like to mix the sauce ingredients together first so everything is ready to go once the chicken is cooking. I sauté the fresh garlic and ginger separately, then pour in the sauce and finish it with a simple cornstarch-and-water slurry.
That last step is what takes the sauce from “thin and watery” to that glossy, cling-to-your-chicken situation we’re looking for.
A Few Things That Make This Recipe Really Good
Don’t skip the cornstarch. It gives the chicken that lightly crisp exterior and helps the sauce coat the pieces instead of sliding right off.
Fresh ginger makes a difference. Since there aren’t a ton of ingredients in this recipe, the fresh ginger and garlic really get to shine.
Mix your sauce first. Once you start cooking, things move pretty quickly. Having the sauce ready to pour into the skillet makes the whole process much easier.
Give the sauce a chance to thicken. The cornstarch slurry is added after the sauce goes into the skillet, which gives you that thick, glossy texture that makes Mongolian Chicken so good.
This is one of those dinners that feels like you put in way more effort than you actually did. The chicken gets crispy, the sauce gets sticky and glossy, and the whole thing comes together in one skillet.
Basically, homemade takeout without having to wait 45 minutes for someone to find your house. 😂
Mongolian Chicken
Ingredients
Chicken
- 1¼ lbs boneless skinless chicken breasts cut into thin bite-size pieces
- ⅓ cup cornstarch
- 2 –3 tablespoons oil
Sauce
- 1½ teaspoons sesame oil
- 1 tablespoon fresh ginger minced or grated
- 3 cloves garlic minced
- 1 tablespoon rice vinegar
- ½ cup low-sodium soy sauce
- ½ cup brown sugar
- 1 tablespoon cornstarch
- ¼ cup water
- 4 green onions cut
Instructions
- Add the bite-size chicken pieces to a large bowl and toss with the ⅓ cup cornstarch until evenly coated.
- In a bowl, combine the sesame oil, rice vinegar, low-sodium soy sauce and brown sugar. Set aside.
- Heat 1 tablespoon of oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add the chicken in a single layer and cook until golden brown and cooked through, turning as needed. Work in batches if necessary, adding more oil as needed. Transfer the cooked chicken to a plate.
- Reduce the heat to medium-low. Add the fresh ginger and garlic to the skillet and sauté for about 1 minute, stirring constantly.
- Pour the prepared sauce into the skillet and stir to combine. Allow it to simmer for a 3-5 minutes.
- In a small bowl, whisk together the 1 tablespoon cornstarch and ¼ cup water until smooth. Pour the slurry into the skillet and stir.
- Thicken the sauce. Cook, stirring, until the sauce thickens into a glossy consistency.
- Finish the chicken. Add the cooked chicken back to the skillet and toss until evenly coated in the sauce.
- Garnish. Top with the green onions and serve promptly.
