Orange Chicken

If you like Chinese takeout food, then you’re going to love my homemade orange chicken recipe.

Making the Sauce

First off, we’re going to make the sauce. Get some oranges out; we’re going to zest them first. I want the zest of about two oranges, and it really depends on the size and how juicy they are, but you’ll want a cup of orange juice.

Now it’s naked, we’re going to give it a cut and get that juice out. This is where a juicer comes in handy. Zest one more orange and continue juicing. The pulp is actually fine in this, so you can go ahead and toss that in; I’m just doing this for seeds. I did some juicing off camera.

We’re going to add three tablespoons of soy sauce right now, a teaspoon of toasted sesame oil—just a little bit adds a lot of flavor—half a cup of sugar gives a little sweetness to the sauce. I had so much fun developing this recipe, one because I love orange chicken, but two, there aren’t really any Chinese restaurants that deliver or have pickups, so I had to do it ourselves, and this is so much better than takeout. A quarter cup of rice vinegar, I’m adding a generous half a teaspoon of red chili flakes, half a teaspoon of garlic powder, and half a teaspoon of ground ginger. Stir the sauce together and then we’re going to set it aside.

I have a cheat for you: if you want to add a ton of orange flavor really quickly, just add a few spoonfuls of marmalade. It has the zest, it has the orange flavor, it’s a little bit bitter, and it’s great. Set this aside.

Cornstarch Slurry

There’s one more thing for the sauce: we want it to be really silky, sticky, and amazing, so we’re going to make a tiny bit of corn flour or cornstarch slurry. All you need is cornstarch and either water or more orange juice—it’s your choice. One tablespoon of cornstarch and you go and just mix it up to make a slurry. We’re gonna add this in at the very end of the recipe, but it’s nice to have it handy.

Preparing the Chicken

For the chicken, we’re gonna use four boneless, skinless chicken breasts. You can, of course, use dark meat if you prefer, and four is kind of a lot of chicken breasts; however, this is so good and so amazing for leftovers that you’re gonna wanna have a lot of it. When you’re cutting the chicken, just think what bite-sized is to you; it might be a little bit smaller or a bit bigger. The only thing you’re gonna do is alter the fry time just a bit.

Growing up, one of my mom’s favorite recipes for dinner parties when she had company was duck à l’orange, or canard à l’orange, and this reminds me of the recipe a little bit—it’s just the orange flavor and the deliciousness of it.

My chicken’s all cut up; it’s time to set up our dredging station. Before I wash my hands, we need two eggs in a medium-sized bowl and we’re gonna give them a little bit of a whisk. Now we’re gonna dump the chicken into our bowl, get all the chicken immersed in your egg, and give it a mix too. It’s a little messy, but this is the best way. Now go wash your hands.

Frying Setup

Right now I have about an inch of oil in a large pan over medium-high heat. A generous half cup of flour in here; we’re going to add half a cup of corn starch to make it really, really crispy when we fry the chicken. The sauce has a lot of seasoning, but you can also add a little salt and pepper to taste—well, you’re not going to taste it—but add a little bit of salt and pepper for some extra flavor in there too. Give this a good whisk.

Dredging and Frying

We’re going to go in batches and start frying it up. I like to have a clean hand and a dirty hand for this, so I’m gonna have my chicken hand here and this will be for the tongs. We’re gonna add some pieces into the flour, then give it a mix. My oil is dancing and I’m on my last batch of chicken, so shake it up, give your hands a wash, and we’re going to go on to the next step, which is the frying. My oil is at 350, and I’m going to grab a big pan so I can warm the sauce up; we want to warm it up as we fry so everything’s ready to go at once.

Now let’s add the chicken in carefully; I’m using a spider—this is a really helpful tool to have if you do any frying or even for parboiling vegetables. Gently add the chicken in; you’ll be making this in batches. Don’t try and crowd the pan too much because you’ll lower the heat and it’ll be soggy and not great. You want high heat, which means not that much chicken in here. Depending on the size of your chicken, you’ll want a couple minutes on either side; you’re looking for it to be a beautiful golden color, and that’s how you know it’s done. I’m going to transfer the cooked chicken onto a wire rack; you could put them on paper towels or even on a plate.

Finishing the Sauce

Once your chicken’s golden, we’re going to remove it carefully, place that onto a wire rack, and then just repeat the process. While this fries, we can give our sauce a stir. We’re going to place this in a skillet over medium-high heat, bring it to a boil, get it nice and bubbly. You can stir the sauce occasionally as you mind the frying chicken; you can do two things at once, it’ll be done so quickly.

Once your sauce warms up and starts to boil, we’re gonna add in all that amazing orange zest, stir it in—it’ll release so much flavor—and then add that cornstarch slurry in. Mix that in, and then you’re going to cook it until it kind of gets clear and thickens up a bit; it’ll be about four minutes, stirring occasionally.

Combining Chicken and Sauce

In the meantime, this chicken can come out. Bring that big skillet of delicious orange sauce closer to you, and now we’re just going to dump all of the chicken in and mix it up. Depending on when you made the orange sauce, you could place it on low heat just to warm it back up if it cooled down a little bit. All the chicken is going to be completely coated in orange sauce, and you’re going to have a ton of leftovers for tomorrow unless you have a giant family or you’re very hungry.

Final Touches and Serving

The last thing to do before serving is to sprinkle in some chopped green onions. These are going to add just a little bit of color, some bite, and a tiny bit of crunch. Mix one more time and you’re ready to serve.