This firecracker chicken recipe is chunks of crispy chicken tossed in a sweet and spicy sauce. An easy dinner option that the whole family will love!
I am a big fan of Asian food, I have a ton of recipes on my site for everything from broccoli beef to chicken chow mein. This firecracker chicken is the latest recipe to add to the collection. It’s crispy, sweet, spicy and utterly delicious! This chicken is not deep fried, but is browned until crisp, then covered in sauce and baked to perfection.
Tips for achieving crispy firecracker chicken
The chicken in this recipe is dipped in egg and cornstarch, which forms a crust on the chicken when it hits the oil. The best way to get a browned and ultra crispy crust is to start with a very hot pan – crank up the heat! The next trick is to be sure that the chicken isn’t crowded in the pan. If the chicken pieces are too close together, they’ll steam instead of brown. You may need to brown the chicken in batches, but it’s totally worth it.
After the chicken pieces are browned, the sauce is poured over the top and the whole thing goes into the oven. The cornstarch in the chicken coating will help to thicken the sauce as it bakes. This is a spicy dish, so if you’re heat adverse, beware! If you’d like to turn down the heat, you can omit the red pepper flakes. I like to serve this firecracker chicken over rice, but it’s also nice over Asian rice noodles or chow mein noodles.
I love being able to make my own take out favorites at home – it’s cheaper, healthier and often tastes better!
You’ll love these other Asian food recipes
Firecracker Chicken
Ingredients
- 1 1/4 pounds boneless skinless chicken breasts cut into 1 inch pieces
- salt and pepper to taste
- 1/3 cup cornstarch
- 2 eggs beaten
- 3 tablespoons vegetable oil
- 1/3 cup buffalo hot sauce
- 1/2 cup brown sugar
- 1 tablespoon rice vinegar
- 1/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes or more to taste
- 1/4 cup sliced green onions
- cooking spray
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Coat a 9"x13" pan with cooking spray.
- Place the chicken pieces on a plate and season with salt and pepper to taste. Sprinkle the cornstarch over the chicken and toss to coat evenly.
- Dip each piece of chicken into the beaten eggs.
- Heat the oil over high heat in a large pan. Place the chicken in a single layer and cook for 3-4 minutes on each side or until golden brown. You may have to work in batches.
- Place the chicken pieces in a single layer in the 9"x13" pan.
- In a small bowl, whisk together the buffalo sauce, brown sugar, rice vinegar and red pepper flakes.
- Pour the sauce over the chicken. Bake for 35 minutes, stirring once halfway through to coat the chicken with the sauce. Top with green onions and serve.
Absolutely amazing! Due to not having all the ingredients, Instead of cornstarch I used flour, I used white sugar instead of brown & instead of buffalo sauce I used half a bottle of sweet chilli. I also used 2 gloves of garlic into my sauce and it was amazing. Topping off cooking in the oven was a great touch to melt the sugar! I will be making this again x
Only thing I changed was to double the sauce! This recipe is delicious!!! Put over rice & is definitely a keeper & will be in our dinner rotation 😀
Have you made this with shrimp instead of chicken? If so how much shrimp would you suggest?
That would work, you’d use the same amount, 1 1/4 lbs!
What about using Tabasco instead of wing sauce.
That should work!
Can I use olive oil?
Yes that’s fine!
Wow. We’ve just tried this tonight and I must admit I feel like a chef even though it was the easiest thing to make. The family loved it, will definitely be making it again. It is spicy so I’d be wary if you have family members who are not into spice, but we loved it 👌
love it
Is there a substitute for buffalo hot sauce. My kids don’t like anything too spicy.
You could just omit it!
Sweet chilli x
Loved this recipe & so did everybody else . Will be doing it more often . Thank you.
This is seriously one of my family favorites that gets made a lot. I made it recently for my son’s bandmates and they came back for 2nds and 3rds! So so good. Thanks Sara for your amazing recipes. There are just too many to comment on.
A new family favorite!!!! Almost impossible to please everyone but this dish delivered. One of the best things I can remember making in a long time! Thank you times a million
I can’t wait to try!! It looks good !!
Great recipe! We loved it. Chicken was not as crispy though. Most recipes require dipping chicken in the egg first then flour. This recipe requires coating the chicken with flour first and then dipping in egg. Do you think that chicken will be crispier if top coating is flour before placing in hot oil?
Thank you for an easy, spicy and delicious recipe. I served with quinoa (cooked like vegetables fried rice).
Hey there 🙂 great recipe
But what if we Sautee the chicken with the sauce instead of baking it?, would it work??
Yes that should work fine!
delicious! Next time i will try it with natural sweeteners like honey and molasses, which is usually what I use instead of brown sugar but I had to try the recipe, as is, at first. I also made pad tai noodles to go with it, with mushrooms – YUM!
Amazing recipe and so simply to make.
I’d like to make it more saucy though, what do you recommend adding to it?
I’d just double the sauce ingredients!
Hello can I use bone in chicken wings ?
You could possibly try baking the wings and tossing them in the sauce, but the dish as written is meant to be more of a stir fry and I’ve never tried it with wings!
Very good recipe. I made extra sauce to make it saucy. Tasted delicious.
how many chicken breasts is 11/4 pounds roughly?
about 4!
In my local supermarkets it’s between 1 and 1 1/2–for some reason the boneless chicken breasts these days are HUGE, between 12-20 oz each. I haven’t seen a 6 oz boneless chicken breast in years.
Loved this recipe!
Soooo good!!!! Added some ginger & sesame oil.. and a little extra brown sugar. Love this ❤️
Loved this! Great way to eat a buffalo type chicken meal without the deep fried stomach ache after. I doubled the sauce just because we wanted some to soak the rice. This is a keeper.