Firecracker Chicken
The end result of this firecracker chicken is lightly breaded and browned chicken pieces coated in a spicy, sweet sauce and baked to perfection. Delicious.
Modeled after one of the most delicious and popular recipes housed on my site, this firecracker chicken was originally sent to me by my sister, Cerissa, as a sticky-finger type recipe for chicken.
I loved the idea, but wanted to change it up to be prepared similar to my beloved sweet and sour. So I did.
And the result is lightly breaded and browned chicken pieces coated in a spicy, sweet sauce and baked to perfection, soaking up the sauce along the way.
Be aware that this sauce packs a bit of a punch, thanks to the hot sauce, but the spiciness is offset by the brown sugar and in the end, I absolutely loved the contrast of sweet and spicy. The name? Well, it came about because my 8-year old declared he felt like there was a firecracker going off in his mouth when he took his first bite (which, incidentally, didn’t keep him from eating seconds and stealing three precious bites of tender, flavorful chicken from my plate, the little stinker).
If you like the excitement of a little heat in your dinner, this meal’s for you.
What To Serve With This:
Baked Brown Rice
Summer Corn Salad or Grilled Corn Salad
Creamy 5-Cup Fruit Salad or fresh, seasonal fruit
One Year Ago: Baked Doughnuts
Two Years Ago: Perfect Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Bread
Three Years Ago: Strawberry Cream Puff Cake
Firecracker Chicken
Ingredients
Chicken:
- 2-4 tablespoons canola oil
- 3-4 boneless skinless chicken breasts (about 2 pounds)
- Salt and pepper
- 1 cup cornstarch
- 2 large eggs, beaten
Sauce:
- ⅓ cup hot sauce, like Frank’s brand for hot wings, for instance
- 1 cup packed light brown sugar
- 1 tablespoon water
- 2 teaspoons apple cider vinegar
- ½ teaspoon salt
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F.
- Heat the oil in a large skillet over medium heat. While the oil is heating, cut the chicken breasts into 1-inch pieces. Season with salt and pepper. Place the cornstarch in a gallon-sized ziploc bag. Put the chicken into the bag with the cornstarch and seal, tossing to coat the chicken. Whisk the eggs together in a shallow pie plate. Dip the cornstarch-coated chicken pieces in the egg and place them carefully in a single layer in the hot skillet. Cook for 1-2 minutes and then flip each piece over to cook on the other side until nicely golden but not all the way cooked through. Place in a single layer in a 9X13-inch baking dish and repeat with the remaining chicken pieces.
- Mix the sauce ingredients together in a medium bowl and pour over the chicken in the baking dish. Bake for one hour, turning the chicken once or twice while cooking to coat evenly with sauce. Serve over hot, steamed rice.
Notes
Recommended Products
Recipe Source: adapted from a recipe my sister Cerissa sent me
135 Comments on “Firecracker Chicken”
Made before, yummy describes it!
This dish is amazing! All my kiddos and husband were raving, I threw a few shrimp in there because I didn’t have enough chicken and it was so good too! Thanks Mel! 🙂
I made this last night and my husband and I liked it overall! But I thought the chicken came out a little sticky in the sauce, I think next time I’ll use less brown sugar. But overall good!
This is one of our favorite recipes-requested often by both my husband and kids and I’ve made it more times that I can count. Using chicken thighs puts it over the top.
Is it possible to freeze this ? and if so would it be defrosted then warmed in an oven so that it stays crisp ..?.? I like to make 4 portions as there are two of us and it’s handy to have more in freezer for another time.
Thank you
You could definitely try (haven’t tried freezing myself…), I bet it would freeze pretty well.
I tried this today and tried my best to cut down the portions for 2 servings only. The chicken turned out to be a bit too spicy because of my messy measurements, but it was still delicious! My younger brother who despises spicy food loved it too! I’ll definitely be recreating this again, but I’ll make sure to do proper math this time to make sure I get the perfect measurements for a smaller serving size!
Thanks for a great recipe. My husband hasn’t stopped raving about it. We owned a restaurant for over 22 years (chicken wings were our thing) and he’s a tough critic. A definite keeper. Franks red hot sauce is the key ingredient for us.
i tripled the recipe and it came out delicious! The first 2 times I did the full amount of sugar and hot sauce and for the 3rd time did half of hot sauce and only 1 c. of sugar. Ended up baking it by accident on 350 for around 25 mins and turned over and baked it 10 mins. Still came out great!
Thanks!
I am confused, the picture shows whole chicken pieces but the directions call for the chicken to be cut into smaller pieces?
This is one of my family’s favorite. I make it quite often. Generally follow the recipe to the “T”. Last night I decided ton try pineapple in it. I drained the juice and just put the chunks in on the last stir. Was amazing, my wife mentioned that maybe a red , yellow or orange pepper might be good as well .
People saying the chicken will try out it never has for me. Maybe if you over cook in the frying pan but doubt it The sauce will keep it moist
It tasted great. Felt a bit dry though.
Why not finish the chicken in the skillet with the sauce? The oven for 1 hour will get your chicken way above 165, drying it out.
This has been one of our favorites for a few years now but sometimes I just don’t have the time to bread, fry and bake the chicken. Sooooo…I finally got brave enough to get my instant pot out of the box (it’s only been a year) and after an attempt of a similar but not good recipe from a cookbook, I wondered if I could transfer the idea and make this in the instant pot using a sauce I knew would be good.
I cut my chicken in bite sized pieces, seasoned it with salt & pepper and sauted it in the instant pot until the outside was white (not cooked through). I cancelled saute, and mixed up the sauce as indicated in the recipe then poured it over the sauted chicken. Then I did a manual cook for 10 minutes with a quick release. Because the sauce was still very thin at this point, I whisked in 2 T cornstarch and sauted it for a couple of minutes until it was thick and bubbly. Then I served it with rice as normal.
It was really yummy and everyone loved it as much as Mel’s the original version. My husband especially loved it because it was more heart healthy for him.
Thanks Mel for all of your amazing recipes!!!
That’s awesome! Thanks for the details!
Thank you so much for posting this. It was really good done this way.
Should I pound the chicken first prior to cutting pieces?
You can if you want, I don’t do that personally
This was great!! We love spicy. It came out picture perfect. I used more Frank’s hot sauce and less sugar. I was expecting the cleanup to be bad due to the frying-but it wasn’t.
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Sounded pretty good till it said baked 1 hour??? I bake large stuffed chicken breast for 40-45 min. Oh well, I’d rather cook and toss with the sauce instead of having to toss out over cooked (small) chicken chunks:(
Way too spicy. My husband refused to eat. A waste of time and chicken unfortunately 🙁
Maybe “FireCracker” should have been your first clue that Nancy(aka your husband) wouldn’t like it.
Mel!! After all these years I had never made this chicken until last night! I loved it so much! Some of my wimpy offspring thought it was spicy hot, but that just meant more for Mitch and I. DELISH!!