As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases. This easy Mongolian Chicken recipe is ready to serve in 15 minutes and rivals your sweet and sour chicken near me takeout or restaurant for freshness and flavor!
Tender chicken is drenched in a sweet and savory sauce with crisp green onions and served over steamed rice or egg noodles. It’s quick, easy and thoroughly delicious! Mongolian Chicken is a variation of Mongolian Beef. Of Chinese-American origin, both of these dishes are two of the most popular Chinese dishes in the United States and can be found in practically every Chinese restaurant. The sauce for Mongolian chicken is made with soy sauce, water, brown sugar, toasted sesame oil, hoisin sauce, pepper, garlic, ginger, and thickened with cornstarch. Typically the only vegetable added to Mongolian chicken is green onion but feel free to improvise and add any other veggies of your choice. Some other tasty additions can include broccoli, mushrooms, bean sprouts, red bell peppers, carrots and zucchini.
I’m using chicken breast for this but you can also use boneless thigh meat. For a vegetarian Mongolian chicken you can use tofu following our recipe for Baked Tofu. Serve Mongolian chicken with steamed rice or egg noodles or chow mein. For a low carb alternative you can serve it with cauliflower rice or spiralized zucchini noodles. Mongolian Chicken definitely isn’t a low-sugar meal, but it’s an indulgence we really enjoy from time to time. And if you’d like to reduce the caloric intake you can substitute all or part of the brown sugar with our favorite brown sugar alternative, Sukrin Gold.
Mongolian Chicken Recipe Let’s get started! Cooking Chinese food over high heat is a quick process so have all you ingredients prepped and measured in advance. Combine the sauce ingredients in a bowl. Sprinkle the chicken with the cornstarch and toss to coat. Once the wok is good and hot pour in the oil. I use avocado oil because it’s a healthy oil with a high smoke point.
Add the chicken and fry until cooked through. It will only take about a minute. Add the garlic and ginger and fry for another 30 seconds. Stir in the white parts of the green onions. Cook for a minute or so until the sauce is thickened. Add the remaining green onions and stir to coat and to just heat through. You don’t want to cook the soft green onions for long because you want them to remain a little crispy.
Remove from the heat and serve immediately. Serve with steamed rice, egg noodles, or chow mein. This Mongolian Chicken is ready in 15 minutes and rivals your favorite Chinese restaurant or takeout version! Combine the sauce ingredients in a bowl, stirring until the cornstarch and brown sugar are dissolved, and set aside. Sprinkle the cut up chicken with the cornstarch and toss to coat.
Heat a wok or heavy frying pan over high heat. Add the chicken and fry until cooked through, about one minute. Add the sauce and white parts of the green onions and simmer until thickened, about a minute. Serve immediately with steamed rice, egg noodles or chow mein. I tasted the sauce as I blended it, so started with very little sugar and wound up adding only about 3 T. It still was too sweet for me.
I added a few splashes of rice wine vinegar and a few grains of Szechuan peppercorns for zing. This is an easy recipe to customize. The chicken was very juicy in its light cornstarch coating. I only had one bunch of green onions, unfortunately — the recommended two would have been spot on. I’m going to make this tonight.
Looks awesome and I love the positive comments. I use Tamari or soy sauce. Just wondering which you would recommend. Hi Eric, I regularly use both and I like both but if I had to choose I generally prefer the flavor of tamari. Fantastic flavors and I blanched some broccoli and added just before serving.