Asian Sweet Chili Chicken is so crispy, sticky, sweet, slightly spicy and completely addicting you won’t even miss your favorite Asian takeout.
The batter of the chicken is your classic tempura batter which ensures it is a light crispy batter you won’t feel weighted down by. It is a mix of cornstarch and flour that you add ice water to (drain the ice out first). This means you’ll want to work fast because the colder that batter is the crispier it is going to be.
Another tip for making this dish as crispy and light as possible is cooking in a wok. I reference it a lot when it comes to Asian cooking because the high heat, quick cooking is the best way to get crispy small bites of proteins, like this Mongolian Beef I posted last week that resulted in tender bites of beef even with as thinly as they were sliced. 
Sometimes I also swap out ice water for ice cold club soda. I know what you’re thinking, who has club soda around the house? Well, you probably don’t if you live near me because I think I single handedly keep the stores within 5 miles of me out of stock I love it so much. Carbonation without the added stuff of sodas.
This Asian Sweet Chili Chicken is a breeze to make because the sauce is just a few ingredients and the batter takes just a few minutes to combine and even less time to fry. All of that to say you could be sitting down to this dish in the amount of time it takes you to steam the white sticky rice you’re making on the side.
Mom alert: serve something green on the side! Broccoli, bok choy, green beans, edamame, something green so you don’t feel guilt biting into this delicious bite of food!
Looking for more Asian Food?
- Cheesecake Factory Mandarin Cashew Chicken
- PF Chang’s Orange Peel Chicken
- California Pizza Kitchen’s Kung Pao Chicken Spaghetti
- General Tso’s Chicken
- Easy Mongolian Beef
- Panda Express Recipes… every single one in fact: Panda Express Recipes Index
- Many more Chinese food options…
Tools Used in the Making of this Asian Sweet Chili Chicken:
Sweet Chili Sauce: Adds that sweet, glaze to the dish that you’ll have trouble replicating without quite a lot of work, this is at the heart of the dish. If you’re in a pinch use the Trader Joe’s brand, add a bit more than written of the crushed red peppers since the Trader Joe’s variety is not spicy at all.
Wok: Great for high heat, quick cooking. This wok is a great addition to your kitchen if you love cooking Chinese food or stir fries in general.
Large Frying Pan: I use this Cuisinart for most of my non cast iron cooking unless I am going with a stainless steel option, then I choose my All Clad.
Asian Sweet Chili Chicken
Ingredients
Tempura Battered Chicken:
- 2 egg whites
- 1 cup all-purpose flour sifted
- 1/2 cup cornstarch
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1 cup water ice cold
- 2 tablespoons canola oil
- 1 pound chicken thighs boneless-skinless and cut into 1 inch pieces
Sauce:
- canola oil for frying
- 1 tablespoon oil
- 3 cloves garlic minced
- 3 green onions sliced thinly, tip to tail not including the root
- 1/2 cup Thai sweet chili sauce
- 1/2 teaspoon crushed red pepper
Optional Garnishes:
- white sesame seeds
- minced green onions
Instructions
- Mix together the batter ingredients in a large bowl.
- Heat a frying pan up with oil deep enough to fry your chicken pieces without them touching the bottom of the pan, a couple inches should be enough space.
- Using a slotted spoon drain the batter as much as possible and slide the chicken into the pan.
Break apart the chicken after the crust starts to form and cook until the chicken is golden brown (4-5 minutes)
- Work in batches to prevent the oil from dropping too far in temperature.
- Remove the last batch of chicken from the pan and discard almost all the oil, leaving just a couple of tablespoons in the pan.
Add the garlic and green onions to the pan and cook it on medium heat for 20-30 seconds.
Add the chicken back in along with the sweet chili sauce and crushed red pepper.
- Toss to combine and serve immediately.
- Garnish with sesame seeds or green onions if desired.
Recipe Notes
Adapted from Rasa Malaysia.
I made this recipe today for the first time and it’s delicious! Like restaurant quality or better! The hardest and most time consuming part is frying up the battered chicken. Thank you for the great recipe!!
You’re welcome, Monica.
So this was tasty, i used prawns instead of chicken, but they lost their crisp when i stirred in the sweet chilli. Next time i’s do the sauce on the side.
Great quick and easy dish. I would season chicken first, salt and pepper and a I later noticed someone had mentioned cutting batter in half, there was way more than needed. I changed it up a little because I love HOT/ SPICY food so I added chili- garlic paste. Yummy. Thank you.
Giving you 5 stars without making it because every recipe of yours that I have made is 5 star delicious! Plan on making it this weekend since I work.
You’re too kind! So glad you’re loving all of the recipes, Linda.
I made it today for first time. So easy and so good. Family liked it. Better than any version I have tried in restaurants. Thank You !
Hi Sabrina,
I was hoping to try your recipe but I am absolutely new to oil frying foods, so I was wondering, how high a heat should be used to initially cook the chicken? Medium? High?
Thank you!
The oil should be around 350 degrees. Set it on medium heat for around 5-10 minutes. Hope this helps!
I LOVED this recipe. I was enticed by the direction to mix the batter all together instead of taking multiple steps. I did add the ice cubes and removed later and it worked perfectly.
I sautéed some vegetables separately while frying the chicken and added them in with the sauce and served over rice. This is the first time my fiancée didn’t use soy sauce with rice, he said it tasted so good without it! I saved a few pieces of the chicken before adding the sauce for my 4 year old (who loved Mom’s “homemade chicken nuggets”) so the adults could have something spicy. Thank you for this recipe!
You’re welcome, Jessica. Thanks for the 5 stars.
Sabrina,
I love your recipes. You always post recipes that I like and are easy to make.
Your food tastes are a lot like mine. I am always excited to see your recipes
posted on line! You are a super chef. You go girl!
Thank you for your kind words.
Made this tonight, turned out amazing! Highly recommend, the batter was so perfect.
So glad you enjoyed! Thanks for the review!
You extol the virtues of a chili sauce, but don’t say what brand just Trader Joes in a pinch.
If you click on the part where it says Traders Joe’s Brand in green, it’ll take you to the exact item. 🙂
It’s called Trader Joe’s Sweet Chili Sauce. Enjoy!
I made this last night with a couple changes, but used the same measurements. I used avocado oil instead of canola, Cup4Cup instead of bleached flour, arrowroot instead of corn starch, and I marinated the cut up chicken Breasts (Smart Chicken being the brand) in additional seasonings and the sweet chili sauce. i fried the pieces individually spaced. It cooked really well and the batter resembled a kind of funnel cake/chicken nugget type texture but didn’t affect the taste. It refrigerated perfectly fine (no sticking together/mushy chicken) and upon microwaving, the breading was a little more supple, but still held it’s form. I would recommend maybe eating cold over a bed of GF asian noodles, if that is your kind of thing? Definitely a good base for gluten-free Asian cooking!
Just wanted to give others a heads up that this one didn’t turn out well in our air fryer. The taste was still good but the air frying made all the batter drip off and so it was more just unbreaded chicken bites. We marinated the chicken in thai sauce too and it was extra spicy and yummy. Looking FWD to trying this again the good ‘ol fashioned way.
Thanks for the feedback!