** UPDATED Aug. 28, 2023 ** The recipe for a great recipe is, to me, one that costs pennies to make (almost literally here) but that also manages to trigger cravings, daydreams and excited requests from family members, and heady declarations of “I would happily eat this Every. Single. Day.” This incredible Firecracker Chicken recipe manages to check each of those prerequisite boxes quite nicely.

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Firecracker Chicken: Recipe Tips and Tricks

What is, at its core, a spicy takeout Asian-inspired fried chicken, “Firecracker Chicken” has made a bit of a name for itself in the (what I like to call) “Takeout Fake-out” realm of home cookery, a realm that I enjoy dabbling in from time to time. If I’m being totally honest with you, this Firecracker Chicken is far better than anything you’ll bring home in a takeout container.

Here’s why Firecracker Chicken is so good

Flavorful, juicy chicken thighs. Yes, you will often find me here on My Kitchen Little singing the absolute praises of boneless, skinless chicken thighs. They’re so incredibly forgiving and they’re very affordable to boot. It’s really a win-win chicken situation all around. I love cooking with these things, and if you haven’t spent much time with a chicken thigh, this recipe is a great way to get to know them better.
Corn Starch. This is the secret to the crunchier-than-normal texture that you’ll achieve when you pan fry the chicken. It’s very um, starchy, so really helps to build a great textural crunch all the way around each piece of chicken. That said, you could substitute all-purpose flour in a pinch.
That One-Two punch of spicy sweet goodness. To me, it’s the combo of the hot sauce (just Frank’s y’all) and the brown sugar that really help to create a killer sauce. it cooks down and gets all sticky in the pan, perfect for coating those crispy chicken pieces. Yes. I’m drooling as I type this.

If you’re interested, this is the pan pictured in the photos here, and the single cooking vessel that I use more than just about any other. It’s very affordable and I couldn’t recommend it more.

What is Firecracker Chicken?

An admitted sucker for great marketing, I’ll cop to my love of a good name. FIRECRACKER CHICKEN is a very, very good name. The allure! The intrigue! Ooh la la. It caught my attention one day when I fell down a rabbit hole on Google, Alice in Wonderland style, and I set to whipping up my own version of what appears to be a very popular Internet dinner darling of recent years. If I may be so bold as to preemptively mic drop, I think I’ve got a version here to beat all others.

The Breakdown

Firecracker chicken, as the name suggests, is a spicy chicken dish. Okay cool. We’ve covered the real need-to-knows there. 1) Spicy 2) Chicken. But really this tres takeout-esque recipe is more than that. I mean, come for the spice but stay for the crack-like addictive quality of the sugar. Yes, sugar. There’s brown sugar in the sauce and it’s the hinge upon which the whole thing teeters – it’s the make-or-break ingredient. Because without it, this would simple be nothing more than 1) and 2) above.

While I think you will find something like this on P.F. Chang’s menu, sure, this isn’t some authentic Asian recipe, guys. The sauce is built on Frank’s Red Hot sauce for crying out loud. No, I have it on good authority that you won’t find a firecracker anything in China itself.

So while it’s not exactly an authentic Asian recipe, firecracker chicken (okay, firecracker anything) tends to be lumped in that category. So, In my recipe here, I play with that a bit and add in some rice wine vinegar, scallions, garlic, and a splash of soy sauce. It simply cannot help but be truly, madly, deeply delicious. It’s just wired that way.

This recipe is so stinking good that it deserves a spot in the weeknight chicken hall of fame to be sure – it’s just sort of ridiculous, what can I say? My husband scooted back in his chair after taking a bite, his expression morphing from one of post-long-day-at-work into one of well-well-well-what-do-we-have-here … I had, it seemed, grabbed his attention with one single fire-cracking bite.

I blame the spice.

Recipes that successfully balance sweet with savory tend to not only steal my heart (it’s my favorite combo) but they also tend to have an addictive, ultra craveable quality to them. It’s that stark, NOTICE ME! contrast between sweetness and spiciness that really keeps us smitten, and coming back for more, I think, and that’s what I like so much about firecracker chicken. It really demonstrates that addictive balance of sweetness and spiciness perfectly. It just totally nails it.

What You’ll Need to make this Firecracker Chicken

½ cup Frank’s Red Hot (or something similar)
¾ cup packed dark brown sugar
2 tsp garlic powder (yep, not using fresh today)
1 TBSP soy sauce or tamari (coconut aminos work well, too)
3 tsp rice wine vinegar (you can sub apple cider vinegar)
6 boneless, skinless chicken thighs
Salt and pepper, as needed
1 cup corn starch
Olive oil (not extra virgin) or another neutral-flavored cooking oil, for cooking
Chopped scallions, for serving
Cooked rice, optional

How to make it

Preheat your oven to 400 degrees F and set your rack to the middle position.
In a medium saucepan set over medium heat, combine the Red Hot, brown sugar, garlic powder, soy sauce, vinegar, and 2 TBSP water. Cook gently, stirring frequently, until the sugar has dissolved. Set aside for now.
Meanwhile, season your chicken thighs with salt and pepper all over. Dredge/coat the chicken on all sides with corn starch, getting them nice and covered. Set a large (large enough to contain all of the chicken), deep-sided skille t over high to med-high heat and add enough oil into to cover the entire bottom surface (amount will vary depending on pan size).
Cook your chicken on all sides until brown and crispy; about 3 to 5 minutes per side. Once the chicken has cooked and browned nicely, turn off the heat and pour the sauce all over the meat – using a spoon to help coat everything, if needed. Place the pan in the oven and cook, uncovered, for about 5 to 8 minutes, just to crisp up the chicken and to help the sauce marry with the meat. It’s magical, honestly.
Sprinkle with some sliced scallions and serve with hot cooked rice, if desired.