Home » Recipes » Meal Type » Dinner » 6-Ingredient Chinese Chicken: Easy Chinese Chicken Recipes for Dinner with Few Ingredients
Dinner
Published: January 25, 2024
This chicken will be on your plate faster than your delivery guy can make it to your front door.
It’s after 6pm. You’re struggling through rush hour, trying to make it home in time to fit in a workout, throw in a load of laundry, and maybe watch the latest episode of Scandal. How can you possibly be expected to cook dinner, too? You sigh, envisioning another evening rifling through the stack of takeout menus in your drawer, choosing a heavy, greasy, sodium-filled meal made with ingredients you don’t entirely recognize. It may taste good at first, but after the first few bites, you’ll be feeling weighed down and just a bit guilty.
But your evening doesn’t have to go down that road! At Skinny Ms., we’re happy to provide our readers with healthy, clean eating versions of their favorite takeout entrees. Our 6-Ingredient Chinese Chicken is one of our favorite easy Chinese chicken recipes for dinner with few ingredients. It’s a cinch to shop for and prepare. It’s a perfect weeknight dinner, even on those nights when your schedule feels hectic.
How do we make easy Chinese chicken recipes for dinner with few ingredients taste so good? Our marinade is so packed with flavor—it only needs 20 minutes in the fridge to flavor your chicken. Mix together light soy sauce, hoisin sauce, chili sauce, and minced ginger, coat your chicken, and let sit while you look through the mail or water your plants. Your lean, protein-rich chicken breasts only need a few minutes of cooking, and then you can add them to any whole grain you like for a complete and satisfying meal. We like to add a side of bok choy or broccoli for an extra dose of green!
6-Ingredient Chinese Chicken
This chicken dish is a perfect substitute for those unhealthy takeout options and with very few ingredients, dinner will be served in no time.
Review Recipe PIN RECIPE Print Recipe
Prep Time 25 minutes minutes
Cook Time 10 minutes minutes
Total Time 35 minutes minutes
Yield 4 people
Serving Size 0.75 cup
Review Recipe PIN RECIPE Print Recipe
Ingredients
Marinade
- 1 tablespoon ginger peeled and minced (about 1 inch ginger root)
- 1 tablespoon garlic chili sauce or chili paste
- 1 tablespoon hoisin sauce
- 1 tablespoon lite soy sauce
Chicken
- 1 pound boneless and skinless chicken breasts sliced horizontally and then into small cubes
- 1 1/2 tablespoons canola oil
Instructions
Whisk together the marinade. Put the chicken pieces in a bowl and toss well to coat evenly with marinade. Cover and place in the fridge for about 20 minutes.
Add canola oil to a sauté pan over medium-high heat. Once the oil is hot and shimmering (but not smoking) add the chicken pieces. Cook the chicken for 3- 5 minutes until cooked through and the juices run clear. If the chicken pieces are larger, cook longer.
Serve over brown rice, brown rice noodles, or quinoa. Garnish with chopped cilantro or chopped scallions, if desired.
Nutrition Information
Serving: 0.75cup | Calories: 190kcal | Carbohydrates: 3g | Protein: 25g | Fat: 8g | Saturated Fat: 1g | Cholesterol: 73mg | Sodium: 255mg | Fiber: 1g | Sugar: 1g |
SmartPoints (Freestyle): 4
Keywords Budget-Friendly, Diabetic-Friendly, Low-Carb, Paleo
Have you made this recipe?
Tag @skinnyms on Instagram or hashtag it #skinnyms
Make sure that you subscribe to ournewsletter,so that you don’t miss out on anythingSkinny Ms.
For more tasty recipes, healthy lifestyle tips, and whole body workouts, check out ourFacebookpage and follow us onPinterest.
We’d love to hear what you think of this post, or what you’d like to see on our site. Leave us a comment in the comments section below.
We love to make easy Chinese chicken recipes for dinner with few ingredients—they’re quick, healthy, and super satisfying—even when our strongest takeout cravings strike. The best thing about this 6-ingredient Chinese chicken recipe is that it’s easy to keep all of its ingredients stocked so that you’ll always have them on hand for busy weeknight dinners.
Enjoyed this post? Check out more:
- Easy 6-Ingredient Sesame Chicken
- 6-Ingredient Caprese Pasta Salad
- 6-Ingredient Greek Pasta Salad
- 6-Ingredient Mediterranean Salad
- Healthy Orange Chicken Crockpot Recipe
Make sure that you subscribe to our newsletter, so that you don’t miss out on anything Skinny Ms. For more tasty recipes, healthy lifestyle tips, and whole- body workouts, check out our Facebook page and follow us on Pinterest.
What are your favorite easy Chinese chicken recipes for dinner with few ingredients? We’d love to hear what you think of this post, or what you’d like to see on our site. Leave us a comment in the comments section below.
FAQs
General Tso's Chicken is a popular Chinese chicken dish that consists of deep-fried battered chicken pieces coated in a sweet and savory sauce. The dish is known for its bold flavors and crispy texture, making it a favorite among many Chinese food enthusiasts.
What makes chicken in Chinese food so tender? ›
Kaitlin Leung of The Woks of Life, a blog dedicated to Chinese cooking, shares that a standard velveting mixture could include egg white and cornstarch, plus a few tablespoons of water – to help coat the meat yes, but also to make the meat extra tender and juicy.
What is the Chinese technique for cooking chicken? ›
Velvet chicken is a Chinese cooking technique where boneless, skinless chicken pieces are coated in a mixture of baking soda, cornstarch, wine, and seasoning, then briefly cooked resulting in tender, velvety chicken that easily absorbs sauces. In some methods, egg white is also included.
How do Chinese keep chicken moist? ›
There are actually a few different ways to tenderise chicken the Chinese restaurant way:
- marinating in a cornstarch/cornflour sludge then deep frying or blanching in water before proceeding to cook in the stir fry.
- egg whites – sometimes the above method is also done using egg whites.
- chemical tenderiser.
Popular Chinese Dishes. General Tso Chicken – According to Grubhub, this sweet fried chicken dish is the most popular Chinese food in America. It's also unhealthy, considering that it is deep-fried and the recipe demands tons of sugar.
What do Chinese soak their chicken in? ›
Velveting meat is a Chinese cooking technique used in Chinese restaurants. The process of velveting is one where you marinate raw meat in cornstarch and egg white or bicarbonate of soda to give it a soft, slippery, velvety texture.
How do Chinese get their chicken so crispy? ›
The chicken is then air-dried for 10 to 12 hours before being flash-fried, then oil-poached. The skin gets its signature crispiness from 10 to 12 minutes of basting with scalding hot oil right before serving.
What thickens Chinese food? ›
While cornstarch is used in China, many Chinese cooks also cook with tapioca starch. In the West, cornstarch is more readily available and generally preferred. The reason why cornstarch is so common is that it adds that perfectly silky texture to stir fries, soups, and sauces synonymous with great Chinese food.
What is the most common Chinese cooking method? ›
Perhaps the most common method of Chinese cooking is stir-frying. A quick and simple method, all you have to do is chuck the ingredients in a wok and cook on high heat for a short period of time.
How do you make stir fry taste like a restaurant? ›
Aromatic ingredients like garlic, ginger, green onions, chilies and spices. These ingredients are typically added to the oil first to infuse it with flavor. You won't need much; a few teaspoons to a tablespoon of total aromatic ingredients per person adds a serious amount of flavor.
Velveting means soaking the small pieces of meat, chicken or seafood in a mixture of starch, liquids and oil prior to cooking. Often, the main liquid is cooking wine (like Shai Xing, sake or mirin) and may include seasonings like soy sauce.
How do you thicken Chinese chicken sauce? ›
Cornstarch is a good choice for this technique because it thickens quickly and evenly without clumping. It also doesn't have much flavor of its own, so it won't interfere with those already present in the dish. Rice starch would be a good substitute if you don't want to use cornstarch.
What is the secret to moist chicken? ›
However, I find that a wet brine makes for a much moister cut of meat. To do this, dissolve 1/4 cup of salt in a cup of hot water and then dilute it with three cups of cold water. Add the chicken breasts and let sit for about an hour — but even as little as 15 minutes can help.
What can I put on my chicken to keep it moist? ›
Add Fat:Brush the chicken breasts with olive oil, melted butter, or another fat source before baking. This helps lock in moisture and adds flavor. Cover the Chicken:Cover the chicken breasts with foil during the first part of the baking process. This helps trap steam and keeps the chicken moist.
What is China's number one dish? ›
1. Kung Pao Chicken. There aren't many Chinese dishes that are more popular than Kung Pai Chicken. The classic dish originates from southwestern China, specifically Sichuan cuisine, and is associated with general Chinese food and cuisine.
Which is the most popular chicken dish in the world? ›
Butter chicken, also known as Murgh Makhani, has recently claimed the top spot in the "Top 100 Chicken Dishes in the World" list by TasteAtlas, (an online guide for traditional food) solidifying its place as a global culinary sensation.
What is the best dish to get from a Chinese? ›
The 15 Most Popular Chinese Dishes, Tasty Chinese Food
- Beijing Roasted Duck.
- Kung Pao Chicken.
- Sweet and Sour Pork.
- Hot Pot.
- Cantonese Dim Sum.
- Dumplings.
- Ma Po Tofu.
- Cantonese Char Siu.
Chinese Amazing Chicken is usually prepared by marinating the chicken in a mixture of soy sauce, ginger, and garlic. The chicken is then stir-fried or pan-fried until it is cooked through. It is often garnished with green onions and sesame seeds for added flavor and presentation.
