Sesame Chicken. Evidence ranking
Sesame Chicken With Cashews and Dates
#1 among published recipes we could fairly measure. We use this ranking to build The GüdDish when the method is cook-validated.
Ranking verdict
Close Contest
Number one leads, but number two is still a real contender. Both are strong starting points.
#1 ranked recipe
cooking.nytimes.com
· top 1% of 207 analysed
5.00 from 6,560 ratings
Open recipe at cooking.nytimes.com →Answer for citation
#1 published Sesame Chicken by GüdScore (as of 2026-08-17): Sesame Chicken With Cashews and Dates from cooking.nytimes.com (of 207 rated recipes across 52 sites). Verdict: Close Contest. That ranking is evidence for building The GüdDish.
Among published Sesame Chicken recipes we could fairly measure, #1 is Sesame Chicken With Cashews and Dates from cooking.nytimes.com (207 rated recipes across 52 sites). GüdScore orders them by how far each outperforms its own publisher. That ranking is how we decide what to learn from when we build The GüdDish.
Why it ranked first
This recipe
5.00
cooking.nytimes.com avg
4.53
Ahead of its publisher by 0.47 stars. That gap, not the raw rating alone, drives the rank, because a 4.99 on a site where everything is 4.99 means little.
- 6,560 people rated it, enough that the score is not resting on a handful of opinions.
- That combination puts it in the top 1% of every Sesame Chicken recipe we analysed.
Runner-up: Spicy Orange Sesame Chicken (halfbakedharvest.com), ★ 4.87 from 311 ratings.
What this takes
13 ingredients · 3 steps
- 4 tablespoons toasted (Asian) sesame oil
- 1 2-inch piece fresh ginger, peeled and cut into about 12 “coins”
- 6 to 8 garlic cloves, peeled and smashed
- 1 bunch scallions (white and green parts), cut into 2-inch lengths
- 3 to 4 dried red chiles, or ½ teaspoon chile flakes
- 2 pounds boneless chicken thighs (preferably skin on, but skinless is O.K.), cut into 2-inch chunks
- ½ cup toasted cashews
- ⅓ cup rice wine or dry sherry
- 3 tablespoons dark soy sauce or tamari
- 4 pitted dates, thinly sliced
- 3 cups fresh basil or cilantro leaves, or a combination
- Rice vinegar or lime juice, to taste
- Cooked rice, for serving
The GüdDish · draft · cook QA in progress
GüdDish Sesame Chicken
This is the sesame chicken we cook at home when we want the best result without juggling ten tabs. We read the strongest recipes we could find, kept the ingredients and techniques that overlap again and again, and cut the rest. What is left is one combined method: the best of the best, easy to handle, easy to run, and built to come out right every time.
serves 4 to 6
65 min total
5 steps
Needs cook QA
Preview draft GüdDish →
We already drafted The GüdDish from the field. It is not cook-validated yet, so Rank stays primary until QA is green. We do not ship a half-tested recipe as the answer.
Full evidence ranking
Showing 10 of a 10-slot list for this dish’s pool of 207 scored recipes. First 10 clear the full CrowdScore floor (at least 15 ratings and 4.5+ stars), ordered by how far each beats its own publisher after we adjust for rating volume. Star ratings and counts are the publisher’s public evidence when present. Close places can still reverse with more data.
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1Sesame Chicken With Cashews and Dates5.00 from 6,560 ratings
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2Spicy Orange Sesame Chicken4.87 from 311 ratings
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3Sesame Chicken4.97 from 314 ratings
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4The Sesame Chicken My Dad's Made 100,000 Times4.90 from 818 ratings
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5Crispy Sesame Chicken with a Sticky Asian Sauce4.91 from 757 ratings
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6Sesame Chicken4.97 from 81 ratings
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7Sesame Chicken (VIDEO)4.93 from 40 ratings
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8Sesame Chicken Recipe4.89 from 286 ratings
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9Family Favorite Sesame Chicken4.83 from 89 ratings
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10Teriyaki Sesame Chicken Skewers4.58 from 55 ratings
Major publishers (ratings not CrowdScore-verified)
Some major publishers show star totals without review-level data we can audit. Those aggregates never enter CrowdScore. They can still appear here as honest publisher claims or as method references. Below: top claims for this dish.
Behind the evidence
207Recipes rated
52Sites
24,606Ratings
Very highOrdering confidence
What enters GüdScore
We only put a recipe in GüdScore when we can check the evidence behind its rating at the review level. Sites that only publish closed aggregate stars, without recoverable reviews, stay outside that score rather than being quietly down-weighted. Where we can rebuild ratings from raw public reviews, we do that before a recipe competes. Full methodology: How GüdScore works.
FAQ
What is the best Sesame Chicken recipe?
#1 published Sesame Chicken by GüdScore (as of 2026-08-17): Sesame Chicken With Cashews and Dates from cooking.nytimes.com (of 207 rated recipes across 52 sites). Verdict: Close Contest. That ranking is evidence for building The GüdDish.
How does GüdDish pick a winner?
We search the open web for methods, measure rated recipes with GüdScore (evidence engine), study ingredients and techniques that set the strongest ones apart, then build one GüdDish. GüdScore does not hand you a single best recipe alone. Details: https://guddish.com/method.html
What does the verdict mean?
The Rank verdict describes the published-recipe competition, not a grade for The GüdDish. Clear Winner means number one is well ahead. Close Contest, Photo Finish, and Split Decision mean the top recipes are hard to separate. Limited corpus means we analyzed fewer recipes than a mature dish.
Why are some big publishers missing from GüdScore?
GüdScore only includes ratings we can audit at the review level. Sites that only expose closed aggregate scores, without recoverable review data, stay outside that score. Their recipes may still inform technique. See How GüdDish works for the full rules.
How often is this updated?
This page’s data was last scored or re-synced on 2026-08-17.
The public Rank is the top 10. The rest of the scored pool lives in the JSON API, not on this page.