Sesame Chicken with Apricot Sauce
Chicken breasts breaded in sesame seeds and bread crumbs, fried until golden, then baked at 350°F under a sweet apricot, soy and garlic sauce.
From the recipe book of Sandra Mills, a Le Cordon Bleu-trained cook in our family.
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Sandra Mills's Sesame Chicken is a crowd-pleaser. Boneless breasts go through a classic three-step breading: seasoned flour, eggs beaten with soy sauce, then a mix of bread crumbs and sesame seeds. They are fried until brown.
A quick sauce of apricot preserves, apricot halves, soy sauce, garlic and water goes over the top, and everything bakes together for half an hour.
Ingredients
Chicken
- 4 boned and skinned chicken breasts
- 3 eggs
- 2 tablespoons soy sauce
- 1 cup flour
- 1 tablespoon salt
- 1 1/2 teaspoons garlic powder
- 1 cup plain bread crumbs
- 2/3 cup sesame seeds
- Oil, for frying
Sauce
- 1 (12 ounce) jar of apricot preserves
- 1 can apricot halves (use half of the liquid)
- 2 tablespoons soy sauce
- 1/2 cup water
- 1 garlic clove, minced
Instructions
- Egg wash. Beat the eggs and 2 tablespoons soy sauce.
- Seasoned flour. In a bag, mix the flour, salt and 1/2 teaspoon of the garlic powder.
- Sesame crumbs. On waxed paper, mix the bread crumbs and sesame seeds.
- Bread. Dip the chicken in the flour, then in the eggs, and finally in the bread crumbs.
- Fry. Fry in oil until brown. Drain on paper towels.
- Sauce and bake. Combine the sauce ingredients. Place the chicken in a cook-and-serve pan, pour the sauce mixture over the chicken and bake at 350°F for 30 minutes.
Tips
- Sandra's list has 1 1/2 teaspoons garlic powder but her method uses 1/2 teaspoon in the flour; the rest can go into the bread crumbs.
- Chicken is done when the thickest part reaches 165°F on an instant-read thermometer.
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