This Wagamama-style popular firecracker chicken recipe is loaded with tender chicken slices, vegetables, and savoury, spicy, sweet firecracker sauce. Simply serve it together with plain rice. It's the perfect quick and easy dinner for busy weeknights, ready in 20 minutes!
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You don't need any special ingredients to make this better than takeout chicken stir fry dish; you can try making it at home with cupboard-friendly ingredients.
If you like spicy-sweet chicken stir fries like us, Sweet Chilli Chicken, Black Pepper Chicken Stir Fry and Honey Butter Fried Chicken are must-try!
What is Firecracker Chicken?
It's a famous spicy chicken stir fry dish from a Japanese-Asian restaurant called Wagamama. Many people recreate this dish at home, and it is also one of our favourite restaurant copycat recipes.
There are a few famous firecracker chicken recipes, like Panda Express, Singapore Style, and Wagamama recipes. This recipe is inspired by the Wagamama Firecracker chicken stir fry.
Ingredients & Variations
Chicken
Chicken breast is commonly used in most restaurants' stir fry dishes.
This recipe can be made with chicken breast, thigh, prawns/shrimp, seafood, or any tender meat cut.
If you wish to make it with beef, use tender steak cuts like ribeye, rump, sirloin steak, etc. Check out my Easy Chinese Beef Stir Fry Recipe instructions on how to prepare the beef marinade for stir-fries.
Vegetables
Snow peas, bell pepper, sweet onions, and spring onions—feel free to add any of the stir-fry vegetables!
Firecracker Stir Fry Sauce
- Sweet chilli sauce
- Sriracha or hot chilli sauce
- Honey
- Oyster sauce
- Light soy sauce or regular soy sauce
- Sesame oil
- White pepper
- Rice vinegar
Top Tips
- You can add this sauce to different varieties of stir-fry dishes and adjust it according to your taste.
- You can make extra sauce and store it in an airtight container for future use. It lasts in the fridge for 4-5 days.
- Balance the spicy, sweet, salty flavour to your own liking by adjusting sweet chilli sauce, hot chilli sauce, or soy sauce.
- Do not overcook the chicken. Use a large wok or pan to distribute enough heat to the chicken and the rest of the ingredients.
Instructions
- First, add all the sauce ingredients to the mixing bowl, mix well, and set aside. Then, prepare all the vegetables before you start frying.
- Cut the chicken breast into thin slices, place in a large bowl, add 2 teaspoon of stir fry sauce mixture in the chicken. Mix well and let it sit for 10-15 minutes.
- Heat a large wok or pan over medium-high heat, drizzle 2 tablespoons of vegetable oil. Stir fry the chicken slices for 2-3 minutes until almost cooked.
- Then, push the chicken to one side of the pan, add the dry red chillies, and stir for a few seconds. Follow with the chilli flakes and onions and continue to stir for a few seconds.
- Add bell pepper slices and snow peas in. Stir fry for another 1 minute.
- Turn the heat to high and pour in the sauce mixture. Toss well to combine the sauce and all ingredients evenly for 1-2 minutes. Once the sauce is thick and glossy, finish with spring onions.
How to serve
To serve, fill a small serving bowl with hot steamed rice, then press down gently with a spatula.
Place the serving plate over the rice bowl, flip the bowl over the plate and tap the rice gently out.
Add the firecracker chicken around the rice. Garnish with Japanese Shichimi chilli powder and lime wedge over the rice. Serve immediately!
FAQs
Can I make the chicken crispy?
If you love crispy chicken coatings, you can deep fry the coated chicken instead of stir-frying it.
Coat the chicken pieces with cornstarch and deep fry them in hot oil until crispy golden brown, then toss them with the vegetables and firecracker sauce.
Check out my Crispy Honey Chilli Chicken recipe for preparing the coated chicken pieces.
Can you freeze or reheat firecracker chicken?
I do not recommend freezing. Like other chicken stir-fry dishes, it tastes best when freshly cooked.
However, if you have any leftovers, you can keep them in the fridge for later use. Once it is completely cooled down, put it in an airtight container and store it in the refrigerator for up to 3 days.
To reheat it, microwave it for 1-2 minutes until hot. Or reheat it in a pan over the stovetop with a splash of water.
What to serve together with firecracker chicken?
Serve it together with plain jasmine rice, egg-fried rice, or plain soy sauce noodles. You can also pair it with Egg Drop Soup, Hot and Sour Soup, or Prawn Gyoza for a complete restaurant-style dinner.
More Delicious Chicken Stir Fry Recipes
📖 Recipe
Firecracker Chicken
Ingredients
- 350 grams Chicken Breast
- 6-7 Snow Peas (mangetout/sugar peas)
- ½ Onion ( cut thin slices )
- ½ Bell Pepper ( cut thin slices )
- 2 Spring onions ( cut thin slices )
- 1 Chilli pepper ( sliced ) optional
- 4 Dried long red chilli ( deseeded ) optional
- 1 tsp Chilli flakes crushed chillies
- 2 tbsp Vegetable oil
Sauce Mixture
- 2 tbsp Sweet chilli sauce ( See details in note )
- 2 tbsp Sriracha sauce Or Hot chilli sauce ( details in note )
- 2 tbsp Honey
- 1 tbsp Oyster sauce
- 1 tbsp Light soy sauce or regular soy sauce
- 1 tsp Sesame oil
- ¼ tsp White pepper powder
- 1 tbsp rice vinegar/ water
To Serve
- Cooked rice for two
- Japanese Shichimi chilli powder ( see details in note )
- Lime Wedges
- Toasted sesame seeds
Instructions
- First add all the sauce ingredients in the mixing bowl, mix well and set aside.
- Cut the chicken breast into thin slices, place in a large bowl, add 2 teaspoon of stir fry sauce mixture in the chicken. Mix well and let it sit for 10-15 minutes.
- Prepare all the vegetables before you start frying and set aside.
- Heat a large wok or pan over medium-high heat, drizzle 2 tablespoon of vegetable oil.
- Fry the chicken slices for 2-3 minutes until almost cooked, then push to one side of pan and add the dry red chillies and stir for few seconds. Follow with the chilli flakes and continue stir for few seconds.
- Add the onion slices, bell pepper slices and snow peas in. Stir fry for another 1 minute.
- Turn the heat over high heat and pour the sauce mixture in. Toss well to combine the sauce and all ingredients evenly for 1-2 minutes.Add the spring onions and remove from heat.
- To serve, add the hot cooked rice in a small bowl, press down gently with a spatula and fill the rice bowl. Place the serving plate over the rice bowl, flip the bowl over the plate and tap the rice gently out. Add the firecracker chicken around the rice. Garnish with Japanese Shichimi chilli powder and lime wedge over the rice. Serve immediately!
Notes
- Sriracha Sauce—Sriracha is a Thai-style spicy hot chilli sauce. If you don't have it in hand, you can substitute it with any hot chilli sauce available.
- Sweet Chilli Sauce—I used Mae Ploy sweet chilli sauce in most of my recipes, but any Thai or Chinese sweet chilli sauce works well for this recipe.
- Shichimi chilli powder—Shichimi is a Japanese chilli powder, also known as Shichimi Togarashi. It is a powder mixture of seven spices, including Japanese chilli peppers, orange peel, toasted sesame seeds, ginger, and seaweed. Sprinkling a few dashes of Shichimi creates an aromatic, fiery flavour to the dish. You can buy it in Japanese or Oriental supermarkets and Amazon online.
Georgina says
Amazing recipe that is not full of ingredients hard to find. Tasty, easy and a true winner In our household! Can’t wait to make it again
Khin says
So glad that you enjoyed this recipe, Georgina! Thank you for trying out and sharing feedback.
Jane says
Gave this a try, even though it was a little too hot for our taste we still enjoyed it. Next time i will leave out the chilli flakes and dried chilli as i think the heat in the sriracha sauce will be enough for us. I didnt have snow peas on hand so added carrot, bok choy and mushrooms.