Name: Turkish Sesame Fried Chicken Bites with Tahini Yogurt Remoulade
Prep time: 40 min
Cook time: 12 min
Total time: 52 min
Cuisine: Turkish
Ingredients: 1 cup full fat Greek yogurt; 2 tablespoons tahini; 5-6 cornichon pickles, chopped; 2 cloves garlic, pressed; 2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice; ½ teaspoon kosher salt; ¼ teaspoon ground black pepper; 1 ¾ pounds boneless skinless chicken thighs or breasts, cut across the grain, in 1-inch intervals, which should give you approx. 1-inch by 3 inch strips.; 2 cups buttermilk; 2 tablespoons dry mustard powder; 2 teaspoons kosher salt; 3 large garlic cloves, crushed; 1 teaspoon paprika; ¼ teaspoon cayenne pepper or 1/2 teaspoon black pepper; 2 ½ cups Panko bread crumbs; ¾ cup sesame seeds; 2 teaspoons kosher salt; If pan frying, you'll need 1½ to 2 cups of neutral high smoke point oil such as peanut, canola, grape seed or sunflower seed oil, or enough oil to come up to about an inch in your skillet.; If oven frying the chicken, you'll only need a tablespoon or so of oil.; A tablespoon or two of dry mint or fresh chopped mint leaves

Jump to Recipe·Print Recipe

These Turkish sesame fried chicken bites are designed for maximum crispy coating in every bite. They're the perfect size and shape for grabbing in hand and dunking in creamy, garlicky, lemony tahini yogurt remoulade.

Fried chicken is one of life's great indulgences. Crisp and crunchy at first bite, extremely tender and juicy inside, especially if the chicken has had an overnight soak in buttermilk.

I tested this recipe two ways - oven-baked and frying in oil. Both methods yielded delicious results and I've included instructions for both in the recipe. If I had to pick a winner, actual frying in hot oil yielded the crispiest, crunchiest coating the most tender and juicy interior (I know - what a shocker!)

Sesame Fried Chicken Bites

In Turkey these sesame fried chicken bites would likely be served as part of a meze spread. Turkish meze, if you haven't heard of it, is a festive style of dining where the whole meal consists of assorted small plates that are meant to be shared.

Sesame fried chicken bites also make an awesome family meal, with maximum happiness at the dinner table.

And if you're looking for a great party appetizer or game day treat - delicious and dippable finger food - make these!

Buttermilk is the best marinade for fried chicken

Buttermilk is a great marinade for chicken. If you haven't experienced the magical tenderizing powers of a buttermilk marinade on chicken, prepare to be amazed. This recipe uses boneless, skinless white meat chicken. The buttermilk, plus salt, garlic and spices, acts as a brine, tenderizing the meat and infusing it with great flavor.

How to make Sesame Fried Chicken Bites

The marinade takes about two minutes to throw together. It's just buttermilk, mustard powder, garlic, paprika, salt and cayenne.

Cut the boneless skinless chicken breasts into thin slices and add them to the marinade. If you're in a hurry you can marinate the chicken for just an hour. But I highly recommend that you plan ahead so you have time to give the chicken a good 12-24 hours to soak in the buttermilk marinade and spices. You'll be rewarded by the extremely tender and flavorful chicken.

While the chicken is marinating you can make the remoulade. The main ingredient here is thick Greek yogurt. There's also tahini, fresh garlic, chopped cornishon pickles, lemon juice, salt and pepper.

I'm in love with this remoulade, so much so that I always double the recipe so I can douse my sesame fried chicken bites in it and still have some left over for dipping crudités, spreading on sandwiches or burgers or anything else that might do with a delicious creamy dollop.

These Chicken Bites can be oven fried or pan fried

When you're ready to bread and cook the chicken, combine the Panko bread crumbs, sesame seeds and salt. Remove the chicken pieces from the marinade and coat them in the panko mixture, one at a time.

Oven-baked sesame fried chicken will need about 12 minutes in a 450ºF oven.
If you're frying the chicken, you'll need to cook it in batches so as not to overcrowd the skillet. Still, it only takes about two minutes to fully cook each morsel of chicken so you'll only be standing at the stove for about 10 minutes.

How to serve them

Serve these sesame fried chicken bites right away, piping hot, for maximum crispness, juiciness and deliciousness. If you want to serve these Turkish meze style, with other delicious small plates, you might want to include baba ganoush, Turkish hot layered humus, or Turkish sigara borek in your spread.

I want to give a big shout out to Sarma, one of my all time favorite Boston restaurants, for inspiring this recipe with their amazing Turkish-style fried chicken. Sarma's fried chicken is made with skin-on chicken thighs. They're seasoned, dunked in buttermilk, fried to a crisp, and amazing!

Turkish fried chicken is not on the menu at Sarma - it's a chef's special. At Sarma, waiters come around intermittently with trays of surprise meze offerings that the chef has concocted. It's a happy day if you're lucky enough to be there when the waiter comes around with a tray of Turkish fried chicken. Just say yes!

Here's the recipe for Turkish Sesame Fried Chicken Bites with Tahini Yogurt Remoulade. If you try this recipe I hope you'll come back to leave a rating and a comment. I'd love to know what you think.