If your kids love hands-on dinners, these Crispy Chicken Bao Buns are a guaranteed hit. Think crunchy chicken, cool cucumber pickle, and creamy slaw all wrapped up in pillowy soft bao buns. It’s a choose-your-own-adventure meal that brings everyone to the table with a smile.
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INGREDIENTS
2 tablespoons hoisin sauce
2 tablespoons Soy sauce
500 grams Chicken thigh – trimmed of fat and
sliced into 1cm strips
1 ½ cups Panko crumbs
Oil for frying
¼ cabbage, red, green or a combination of both– thinly sliced
2 carrots, peeled and julienned or grated
1/4 – 1/2 cup Kewpie mayo
1 tablespoon of milk *optional
1 cup of coriander leaves *optional
½ a cucumber, sliced into rounds
2 tablespoons sugar
2 tablespoons white vinegar
8 bao buns
To serve
Kewpie mayo
Hoisin Sauce
Coriander
Family Tips
-
Make it vegetarian: Use tofu or mushrooms in place of chicken.
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Little tastebuds: Serve cucumber plain on the side for kids who aren’t fans of pickles.
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Budget-friendly swap: Use mini brioche or slider buns if you can’t find bao.
If you love this Crispy Chicken Bao Bun recipe, you will love my Cheese Stuffed Meatballs. On to the recipe:
Crispy Chicken Bao Buns
My kids LOVE Bao buns and I love seeing their pleasure eating these morsels of goodness! With flavoursome chicken and lots of fresh veg, this is sure to go down well in your house too.
Ingredients
- 2 tbsp hoisin sauce
- 2 tbsp soy sauce
- 500 grams chicken thigh trimmed of fat and sliced into 1cm strips
- 1½ cup panko crumbs
- oil for frying
- ¼ cabbage red, green or a combination of both (thinly sliced)
- 2 carrots peeled, julienned or grated
- ½-¼ cup kewpie mayo
- 1 tbsp milk optional
- ½ cucumber sliced into rounds
- 2 tbsp sugar
- 2 tbsp white vinegar
- 8 bao buns
To serve
- kewpie mayo
- hoisin sauce
- coriander
Instructions
-
In a medium sized bowl add the hoisin sauce and soy sauce mix and add chicken. Cover and leave to marinate for 30 minutes, or overnight OR just cook straight away.
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Place the sugar, vinegar and cucumber in a small bowl, mix well and set aside.
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Place the panko crumbs on a plate and dip the chicken into the crumb and then place on a clean plate. Repeat until all chicken is coated. Heat oil in a pan over a medium heat, once hot cook the chicken in batches until cooked through, around 3 minutes on each side.
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While the chicken is cooking, take a medium sized bowl and add the kewpie mayo and milk, mix well. Add the cabbage and carrot, mix well. Taste and add salt if needed.
-
To assemble, heat the bao buns as per packet directions.
-
Spread over some hoisin on one side, mayo on the other, add the slaw, some cucumber pickle, top with chicken and coriander and serve.
Recipe Notes
TIME SAVING NOTES
I like to use my food processor to chop the cabbage and grate the carrot.
Do the base of the slaw for both the chicken bao buns and the Haloumi Satay Bowls at the same time. Then store the vegetables in an airtight container.
You can marinate the chicken overnight or chop the chicken the night prior.
The cucumber pickle can be made up to 12 hours in advance.
BUDGET NOTES
You can make your own bao buns, there are recipes online.
Leave out fresh herbs and the cucumber pickle can easily be a carrot pickle if most cost effective.
PROTEIN CHANGES
You can make this vegetarian by using tofu, slice into 2 cm fingers. I love using pulled pork in bao buns too.
NOTES
This dish makes 8 bao buns, I often serve something simple like steamed broccoli if I feel we need an extra vegetable.
My kids love cucumber but not pickled so often I do some pickled for adults and some plain for children.
Most supermarkets have Bao buns in the frozen section otherwise buy them from an Asian supermarket. Or use brioche burger buns or slider buns.
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