Sweet and spicy Chinese Honey Sriracha Chicken – better tasting and healthier than take out!
Why order out when you can make these delicious recipes at home? Try Slow Cooker Honey Sesame Chicken, The Best Fried Rice, Sticky Chinese Lemon Chicken, and Kung Pao Noodles.
Why This Recipe Works
Better than takeout — This honey sriracha chicken is hands-down one of the best meals I’ve ever made that I consider better than what you can get at a restaurant. There’s no heavy oil, no extra fat, no preservatives, no nothing extra. Just chicken, sauce, and spice. Make it next time you want Asian-style take out and see if you agree with me!
Perfect amount of spice — I have to have my spicy food cravings satisfied just about daily. This recipe for Chinese spicy chicken is a little sweet, a little spicy, and a whole lot better-than-takeout homemade Asian-style yum. The best part? You can customize the flavors to meet your personal preference. If you love it spicy (like me) then go heavy on the sriracha and/or add crushed red pepper flakes on top. If you tend to favor the sweet side of things, don’t hold back on the honey. Ta da! Honey sriracha chicken just how you like it.
Great meal for busy days — This dish only takes 30 minutes to make, from start to finish. It doesn’t get much quicker than that!
Simple ingredients — Nothing fancy to buy here. Every item in this honey sriracha chicken recipe can be found at any regular grocery store, and most of it in the Asian/international aisle.
Ingredients
- Chicken breasts — Boneless, skinless chicken breasts are perfect for this dish. Cut them into 1-2 inch chunks.
- Corn starch — Corn starch in this recipe is used as both a coating for the chicken and later, with water, to make a slurry for the sauce.
- Sriracha — I start with 2-3 tablespoons of sriracha as a baseline and add more from there. But I LOVE spicy. Adjust to your liking.
- Soy sauce — I use low-sodium soy sauce because I think the regular soy sauce can be too salty. But you can use whatever you have.
- Minced garlic — The minced garlic in a jar? Yes, please. Mince fresh? Also fine. Or if you like your garlic to be super finely minced, you can use the frozen cubes.
- Sugar — Regular old white sugar is great here.
- Honey — Add a couple tablespoons of regular honey to get that sweet to offset the heat.
- Crushed red pepper flakes — If you want more spicy, add a few crushed red pepper flakes over the top of the honey sriracha chicken. This ingredient is optional.
- Cooked rice for serving — Another optional ingredient, but I almost always serve this chicken with honey sriracha sauce over cooked rice.
Here’s How You Make It
You’ll be able to whip this Chinese spicy chicken up in just 30 minutes by following these simple instructions:
- First, get out a small or medium saucepan, and combine 1 cup of water, the sriracha, soy sauce, garlic, sugar, and honey and stir it all together. Then, bring the sauce mixture to a boil over medium heat. (not pictured)
- While the honey sriracha sauce is cooking, whisk together 2 tablespoons of cornstarch and the remaining 2 tablespoons of water together until the corn starch is dissolved. Add the slurry to the sauce pan and stir it all together until the sauce begins to thicken. Reduce the heat to low. (photo 1)
- Next, add the diced chicken and 1/3 cup of cornstarch to a large plastic bag. Seal the bag and shake it all around to give the chicken a good coating. Drizzle a large pan or skillet with oil over medium heat. Add the coated chicken to the oil and sauté it until it’s browned and the chicken is cooked through. (photos 2-4)
- Pour the sauce over the chicken and stir it all around to coat every piece. (photos 5-6)
- Sprinkle with crushed pepper flakes if desired and serve over warm rice.
Expert Tips and Tricks
- Control the spice level by adding more or less crushed red pepper flakes (and/or more or less sriracha).
- This honey sriracha chicken will keep in the fridge for up to 5 days in a container with a lid. You can freeze this dish for up to 3 months, in an airtight container.
- I know there is sometimes a sriracha shortage. Purchase whatever brand you can find and stock up. In a pinch, you can substitute Sambal Oelek or Gochujang.
Sriracha is one of the “spicier” hot sauces I’ve encountered, but it’s still only considered moderately spicy by most standards. Common in Asian cuisine, sriracha is made with red jalapeno peppers. According to the Scoville scale, sriracha sits at a scale of 2,200, while Tabasco sauce comes in at 3,750.
Serving Suggestions
Wondering what to serve with this honey sriracha chicken dish? I serve this over rice typically, but you can also serve this with:
- An Asian noodle like soba, rice, vermicelli, or ramen.
- Zucchini noodles or cauliflower broccoli for a low-carb meal.
- Glazed baby carrots make an interesting flavor combination when eaten with this Chinese spicy chicken.
- Roasted broccoli is, hands-down, my favorite side dish to serve with this chicken. Pro-tip? Double the honey sriracha sauce so you have enough to pour over the chicken and the broccoli.
- Roasted potatoes are another great side dish. Skip the rice and try it next with these 3 Ingredient Oven Roasted Potatoes instead.
More Recipes You’ll Love
- Sticky Sesame Chicken
- Baked Honey Sriracha Lime Salmon
- Honey Lime Garlic Chicken
- Korean Fried Chicken
- Pork Lo Mein
- Pineapple Chicken
- Sweet and Sour Chicken
Did you try this recipe? Fantatic! Please rate the recipe below and be sure to tag me on social when you share a photo of your CDLC creation – I love seeing what you’re up to in the kitchen!
Honey Sriracha Chicken
Ingredients
- 3-4 chicken breasts - diced
- ⅓ cup corn starch
Sauce
- 1 cup water
- 2-3 tablespoons sriracha - (depending on how spicy you want it)
- 5 tablespoons soy sauce
- 1 tablespoon minced garlic
- ¼ cup sugar
- 2-3 tablespoons honey - (depending on how sweet you want it)
- 2 tablespoons corn starch
- 2 tablespoons cold water
- optional: crushed red pepper flakes, cooked rice for serving
Instructions
- In a small-medium sauce pan, combine the 1 cup of water, sriracha, soy sauce, garlic, sugar, and honey and stir. Bring mixture to a boil over medium heat.
- Whisk together the 2 tablespoons corn starch and remaining 2 tablespoons of water until dissolved. Add to sauce pan and stir until thickened. Reduce heat to low.
- Add the sauce and stir to coat. Sprinkle with crushed pepper flakes if desired and serve over warm rice.
Video
Notes
Nutrition
This recipe was Very delish!!!! So very easy also. Thanks for sharing. I will DEFINITELY make this a regular meal. Please keep posting fabulous recipes like this. Also, do you have a really good Lo Mein recipe?
Hi Trina – so glad you loved this recipe it’s definitely one of my very favorites! I do have a great chicken lo mein recipe, you can easily sub out the chicken for pork, veggies, or shrimp!
Made this the other day as per instructions although used only 3 half-breasts and full amount of sauce. Easy to make. Haedest part is cutting chicken into bite sized bits. Anyway, the result was VERY NICE! Enjoyed it thoroughly. Don’t know whether all the sauce in recipe is enough for 4 breasts. Think not. Used two TBS of sriracha and it was pretty spicy and I like spicy food. Spicy enough, I think. Had it with brown yamani rice….I loooove yamani rice (cooked in the microwave, BTW)! Two of us managed to eat halF of the stuff we made; rest went into the freezer. Will surely make again although wife balks at use of soy because of salt (used low sodium).
This was so easy and delicious! I mean, holy yum! I got my take-out fix for a whole lot less cash and calories. Thanks for sharing this awesome recipe.
I think you said it perfectly – holy yum! My husband and I love this chicken, I’m so glad you like it too!!
Love it! It was super easy to make and it was super tasty!
I made this tonight, Ive test tasted and its delicious. The recipe calls for 3-4 chicken breasts, but all chicken breasts are different. I used 2 , and just about cut all the sauce ingredients in half….doesnt seem to be as saucy as the pictures. The chicken I used totaled 1 pound…wondering how many pounds was used in the recipe! The flavor is awesome, very spicy….had to add a little more honey to cut it down but it did the trick!!!
Finally tried this tonight, and it is SO good! I opted for less honey, more sriracha and added the pepper flakes at the end. It was perfect, and as I said, oh, so good!! Thank you for the recipe!
Oh you and I should cook together I would totally go light on the honey and heavy on the heat!!
We love the sauce and often bake or grill our chicken and add the sauce after or as a dipping sauce 🙂
This is amazing! I have now made it three times and I pack the leftovers in lunches as well. What are your thoughts on baking the chicken? Should I bake it without the sauce and add it once it’s cooked, or should I bake it with the sauce? Thanks again for a delicious recipe that it one of my all-time favorites!
I really want to do this recipe but when you say honey..what honey do you mean? Raw honey? Can you please let me know the brand you buy if possible!!!
Hi Sofia! I usually buy just off-brand liquid honey. Hope that helps!
Absolutely delicious, I used the sauce for stir fried noodles too!! Yummy yummy
I just made this and it is fantastic!!! I only used two tablespoons is sriracha and two tablespoons of honey and it wss just the right amount of spice for me!!!was the perfect
This looks delicious! But I’m curious why it’s called Chinese? Sriracha is Thai.
I made this last night as part of my weekly meal prep and my husband LOVED it! Sriracha is too hot for me, but he loves heat. I think I’ll add more to the next batch. Thanks for the great recipe!
Found this on Pinterest and tried it out the other night, it was deliscious! Thank you for posting. Already have a request to make it again 🙂
i made this for me and my husband and we absolutely loved it!!!!!! I just sauted veggies with it and marinated the chicken before coating it with corn starch. Thanks for the post!! DE-LISH!!!