This Mongolian chicken is crispy slices of chicken breast stir fried in a sweet and savory sauce. A restaurant favorite that tastes even better when you make it at home!
I’m a huge fan of Mongolian beef, but I have to say, I think I may like this easy Mongolian chicken even better. The chicken is perfectly crispy on the edges and the sauce has the perfect balance of flavors.
I recently ordered Mongolian chicken at my local Chinese restaurant instead of my go-to Mongolian beef, and boy am I hooked. I decided I needed to learn how to make this dish at home, and it’s been on constant rotation in our house ever since.
How do you make Mongolian chicken?
This recipe starts with thin pieces of chicken breast. I recommend partially freezing your chicken breasts to make them easier to slice. You can cube your chicken if that’s easier, but I think the long thin slices are better because they have more surface area for the sauce to cling to. The chicken is coated in cornstarch and stir fried until crispy.
What is Mongolian sauce made of?
The crispy chicken pieces are coated in Mongolian sauce which is a combination of soy sauce, sesame oil and brown sugar. This dish also gets its flavor from the garlic, ginger and green onions that are added in during the cooking process.
Tips for Mongolian chicken
I keep this dish true to the restaurant version by just including chicken and green onions in the sauce. You can absolutely add more vegetables if you like, some great choices are
- Zucchini
- Water chestnuts
- Sliced carrots
- Broccoli
- Mushrooms
- Red peppers
I typically serve Mongolian chicken over steamed rice, but it’s also great over zucchini noodles or cauliflower rice if you’re looking to watch your carbs. If you’re not watching your carbs, try it with a side of chow mein.
If you’re not a fan of chicken breast, feel free to use chicken thighs in this dish. Or try something completely different and use shrimp instead of chicken, I’ve done that before and it’s fabulous. Regardless of how you choose to serve it, Mongolian chicken is sure to be a hit! My kids like it so much that they even ask to have it for lunch the next day.
More asian dishes you’ll enjoy
- Sweet and Sour Chicken
- Chicken Lettuce Wraps
- Pepper Steak
- Slow Cooker Orange Chicken
- Homemade Egg Rolls
Mongolian Chicken
Ingredients
- 1 1/4 pounds boneless skinless chicken breast thinly sliced
- 1/4 cup + 2 teaspoons cornstarch divided use
- 3 tablespoons vegetable oil
- 1 1/2 teaspoons minced garlic
- 1 teaspoon minced ginger
- 1 teaspoon toasted sesame oil
- 1/2 cup low sodium soy sauce
- 1/3 cup water
- 1/2 cup dark brown sugar
- 1/2 cup green onions cut into 1 inch pieces
- salt and pepper to taste
Instructions
- Place the chicken and 1/4 cup cornstarch in a resealable plastic bag, shake to coat evenly.
- Heat the vegetable oil in a large pan over high heat
- Add the chicken to the pan in a single layer and season to taste with salt and pepper (keeping in mind the sauce has plenty of salt in it!).
- Cook for 3-4 minutes per side or until browned. Cook in multiple batches if needed.
- Remove the chicken from the pan and place on a plate lined with paper towels
- Add the garlic and ginger to the pan and cook for 30 seconds. Add the soy sauce, sesame oil, water and brown sugar to the pan and bring to a simmer.
- Mix the 2 teaspoons of cornstarch with 1 tablespoon of cold water. Add the cornstarch to the sauce and bring to a boil; boil for 30-60 seconds until just thickened.
- Add the chicken and green onions to the pan and toss to coat with the sauce. Serve over rice if desired.
Just to let you know this has become a staple in my house for dinner in the last year!
What I find myself doing is not adding the brown sugar and putting about half a teaspoon of chilli flakes.
This was really nice. Will definitely make again. To those commenting that they thought it was too sweet, I added approx 2 caps (Happy Phoenix brand) of rice vinegar to the sauce mixture which toned down the sweetness considerably. Hope this helps. 🙂
It was a bit too sweet for me, but other than that it’s delicious! I was surprised by how moist and tender the chicken was! I doubled the recipe using about 1.1 kg of chicken breast, and also added broccoli, really nice! 🙂
very simple to make with pantry ingredients! paired with jasmine rice. in my personal opinion it doesn’t reheat very well the next day and it’s definitely on the sweet side. but my family really enjoyed it!!! like takeout at home
I never comment on recipes but I feel like I had to for this. It’s fantastic. I added zucchini and broccoli and that’s the only thing I did differently from the recipe. It’s seriously amazing. Thank you
When did you add the veggies? Same time as the onion? I want to make sure they’re thoroughly cooked. Can’t wait to try it!
Tried it tonight . Very good . I always mess around with every recipee a little bit . Used more chicken so added a lil bit more of everything . Wife loved it .
Delicious! Easy to put together! Will definitely make this again!!
The whole family loved this,I made it with Loin pork and also chicken breast. This is now my go to Asian recipe,I also spiced it up a bit with spicy szechuan sauce.Thank You
Can’t wait to try this. Other person doesn’t like anything sweet. Could I substitute oyster sauce instead?
I would just cut the sugar in half!
This was fantastic! We have a new blackstone, so I adapted the process a bit. Mixed all the sauce ingredients, including the garlic, ginger, water, cornstarch, brown sugar, etc, all together ahead of time then added at the end and kept stirring until it thickened, maybe a minute or two. We also reduced the chicken a bit to reserve enough sauce to coat a bunch of stir fried veggies we needed to use up.
Thank you, thank you for this recipe! We all agreed it was restaurant quality. Will make again and again!
Can you substitute ground ginger for fresh? I don’t have any fresh and don’t have time to hit the grocery store before dinner 😞
I would use 1/3 of the amount for ground ginger.
I have made this several times and it was DELICIOUS! Is it possible to make in slow cooker? If so, your recommendations…thank you!
You could try to follow this technique, but I haven’t tested this particular recipe in a slow cooker! https://www.dinneratthezoo.com/slow-cooker-mongolian-beef/
My family loves this. Thanks
I loved the flavour but did find it too salty to fully enjoy. I will make again but maybe try slightly reducing the spy sauce and increasing water.
Thanks for sharing the recipes, I appreciated it.
Excellent. I sautéed vegetables first- zucchini, red pepper, broccoli and mushrooms and took them out of the pan to do the chicken. Then added vegetables to the chicken with the sauce. Otherwise, followed the recipe.
Made this last night for dinner. Used maybe half or less of brown sugar and added two dried chili peppers and it was DIVINE. So delicious.
HUGE HIT IN MY HOUSE.
My family of 4 devoured this! Not often everyone agrees on dinner. Served 3 adults and a 17 yr old. The teen licked the sauce off the serving spoon. It was a little sweet for me and suggested cutting back on the brown sugar a little next time but my family vetoed that real quick! Thank you for this quick and delicious dinner. Served with jasmine rice.
Good, but I found this dish way too sweet — next time I’ll try with less brown sugar.