Orange Chicken Recipe
November 11th, 2008 | Chinese, Chinese Recipes | 55 Comments
Orange chicken is a popular Chinese dish in the United States. Called 陈皮鸡 in Chinese language, orange chicken is of Hunan origin. As with most Chinese food served in the United States, the likes of Panda Express have butchered it to a goopy, sticky, and unappetizing mess. So, when my readers requested for my orange chicken recipe, I resolved to share a great recipe for orange chicken.
Orange chicken (also known as orange peel chicken or tangerine chicken) derives its name from the use of dried orange peel (陈皮) in the recipe. As dried orange peel is not commonly available for most people, I used fresh orange zest as a replacement, which works well. As orange chicken is originally a Hunan dish, you can’t do without some dried red chilies…
Below is my orange chicken recipe. As with other favorite Chinese recipes such as Kung Pao chicken, sweet and sour pork, mongolian beef, and cashew chicken, they are much better prepared at home than take-outs from your neighborhood Chinese joints.
(Chinese recipes, prepare authentic Chinese food now!)
Ingredients:
1/2 pound chicken breast (cut into bite-size cubes)
5 dried red chilies (cut into 1.5 inch length, seeded and soaked in warm water)
1 teaspoon minced orange zest
2 cloves garlic (minced)
1 inch ginger (minced)
1 stalk scallion (use the white part only, cut into thin threads for garnishing)
2 teaspoons oil
Oil for deep frying
Orange Sauce:
1/4 cup freshly-squeezed orange juice
3 tablespoons canned chicken broth
1 tablespoon soy sauce
2 teaspoons Chinese rice wine or dry sherry
1/2 teaspoon sesame oil
1 teaspoon rice vinegar
5 teaspoons sugar
1/8 teaspoon white pepper powder
1 teaspoon corn starch
Salt to taste
Frying Batter:
1/2 cup water
2 oz. all-purpose flour
1 oz. corn starch
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 egg
1 teaspoon cooking oil
1 small pinch of salt
Method:
Mix the orange sauce ingredients and set aside.
Mix the frying batter and dip the chicken meat into the batter. Heat up a pot/wok of cooking oil. When the cooking oil is hot enough for frying, drop the chicken pieces into the oil and deep fry them until they turn golden brown or crispy. Transfer them out onto a plate lined with paper towels to soak up the excess oil.
In a wok, add 2 teaspoons of cooking oil and quickly stir-fry the minced garlic and ginger until aromatic. Add in the dried red chilies and toss around until you smell the spicy aroma. Follow by the minced orange zest and then chicken. Quickly stir the chicken around before adding the orange sauce mixture. Continue to stir-fry until the sauce thicken. Dish out, garnish with the scallion threads and serve immediately with steamed white rice.
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We had a dish called Orange Sesame the other day, so I’m going to try out your recipe, and throw in some roasted sesame seeds. Thanks!
I cooked another version of orange chicken with whole chicken thighs a few days ago, but I didn’t use dried chilli. Your version looks really good!
This recipe works well for fish also! I noticed that you have baking soda in the frying batter. Does baking soda provide more crispiness? I normally use only egg white, corn starch, salt & pepper.
Wonder if we can find canned chicken broth in malaysia? that would make life sooo much easier dont you think?
I think I saw it in Cold Storage before.
This seems like a variation of Lemon Chicken eh… Nice yummy-looking photo!
I love the citrusy taste of this dish! This and lemon chicken ;o)
This looks fabulous! And so much better than take-out! :)
wow, really nice looking dish. I didn’t know Orange Chicken has its origin in Chinese cuisine. The only way I’m using 陈皮 right now is for red bean soup, hehe
Ah, this looks so much more appetizing than the usual day-glo mess! And the red peppers are sure to make any dish more appetizing, so I’m game for this version! :)
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Looks good!! I also like to have some toasted sesame!!
I know what you meant by the chinese food like Panda Express.. it’s just disgusting.. same like some chains in london … horrible..
Best to make at home!!
all time favorate ORANGE CHICKEN ,delecious
Finally, a great looking orange chicken recipe. I think the real orange zest would be delicious in it.
rare dish in Malaysian KL restaurants (except for lemon chickens , which is quite popular here )
many things are better when made at home lol! a while back i had a friend of mine bring back a “authentic” chinese cookbook for me from his trip to china. it was in chinese and in english and if i remember correctly there was a recipe for orange chicken. i have to check it out later.
this looks great. i like adding fruity flavors to chicken.
Your dish looks very appetizing. I dun mind to eat it but will not cook it bcos I dun like deep-frying.
delicious….superb presentation
I made this dish last night….. it was a HIT!!!
Thanks for sharing the recipe!!!
I had some with the dried orange peel (wow), and lots of dried chilis the other day. What a difference from the Panda Express orange chicken that seems to set the popular standard.
looks yummy! my mom used to make this and a fish version
Thanks for sharing the recipe, Bee.
I love to eat this dish but whenever anything involves deep frying…I just don’t like to do it at home. Do you re-use the frying oil for your next dish or simply throwing it out?
I just returned from a wonderful 2 weeks holiday in the US and hey, say what you like (you’re spoilt rotten!) – the chinese express/take-ways in America is much nicer than the ones they have here in the UK. At least when I go to any food court over there and order something as simple/butchered as the Orange Chicken, I can actually finish the meal without complaining and mumbling about how they managed to “westernised” a chinese dish.
That chicken looks tasty!
I had a feeling to make this dish but didnt know if it existed coz the common one is lemon chicken, not orange. Anyway, found your recipe here instantly when i googled. Love the recipe. Tried it and it is such a hit! i find it even better than the lemon chicken!
I read so much about Panda Express and was even going to try and make their chicken (I live in Canada, we don’t have Panda E. here). I should have known that almost without exception, food from a chain tastes horrible. Can’t wait to try this, thanks for posting it.
PS What would cooking be without hoisin and soy sauce and the like? Can’t imagine.
I love Panda Express………..BUT THIS IS THE BEST ORANGE CHICKEN HANDS DOWN! I thought it wouldn’t be spicy enough since the seeds were taken out, and the chilies were soaked in warm water…..but it had the perfect amount of spice in it. The next time I make it, I might want to double the amount of sauce since it got absorbed by the chicken skin. But the orange sauce was so yummy that I started licking the pan!! Since I make lunch for my parents every Sunday, I always know I can rely on Rasamalaysia for a delicious dish!! :D
I tried this at home nut stir fried (rather than deep fried) the chicken (without the batter). I then poured the sauce over the chicken and it tasted great.
AMAZING! I just made it for my roommates and they all loved it.
Natalie – that’s great. I am glad your roommates loved the orange chicken.
I’ve tried this recipe last Sunday – my husband loved it. Thanks for sharing this recipe.
I just made this tonight. It was absolutely delicious! Thanks for the wonderful recipe. The whole (picky) family loved it.
sorry i wud like to know how to get or to make dried orange zest? will pls explain it > thanks
You have to buy the dried orange zest at Chinese store, if not, just peel the orange skin and dry in the sun. You can skip it if you want.
I just discovered your blog when I Googled cashew chicken, and let me tell you it is my greatest discovery! This week I made cashew chicken, kung pao shrimp, and orange chicken. All of which have been fantastic. Do you serve all these with rice? I’m a little riced out. Mongolian beef is on tomorows menu. Can’t wait!
Diane – thank you. I am glad you love my recipes. You can try serving them with Chinese noodles, you can try my Chow Mein recipe. :)
how spicy is this dish? I prefer low to moderate spice….DO the chiles take it ocer the top?
Doug, this dish is not really spicy.
The recipe looks delicious! Any idea if we need to marinate the chicken before cooking it?
I made this dish last night & my husband of 26 years said it was the BEST dish I’ve ever made for him ( i do consider myself a pretty good cook) Will definitely make this again.
This dish was delicious! The flavors seemed so balanced! I will admit that, as an American, I would like about two-three times the amount of orange sauce. Next time, I will make more!
As a western guy I would have to disagree with you there. One of the reason why they scream so loud about unhealthy chinese food is all the sodium and things we consume in those heavy thick gravies in restaurants. Bee’s recipes in my opinion kind of reflect the principles of chinese food, in a more “authentic way”.
But however, we are all free to have our opinons.
I tried the recipe.. The taste came out great… However, the chicken didnt look good… gooey messy… seems something wrong with my batter.. or the way I fried the chicken??? coz not only it wasnt crispy in d beginning, d batter just didnt stick to the chicken.. so as I stir fry, all came off.. :( what went wrong???
Hmm, it didn’t happen to me. Did you pat the chicken dry? Well, make sure you have a thick coating of the batter and you can also fry the chicken twice, fry once when the batter is set, dish out and wait a little, and then deep fry again to get it to golden brown and crispy.
Btw, have you tried to also just leave the crispy cooked chicken peases on the plate and just spoon over the sauce?. That actually did the trick which caused the same problem with sweet sour pork few years back. Besides another thing I learned about batters, the chicken pieces shouldn’t come too easily off your fingers. If they slip off too easily the batter is kinda too thin.
I just made this for the first time tonight. It was excellent, the batter (something I’ve never done in all my years cooking) came out very authentic tasting. I did a few things different from the recipe though, being as I don’t have a wok or a deep fryer. First off I had to fry the chicken in batches in my large nonstick cooking pot (ol trusty!), which took a while longer than expected. Then, since I decided to add frozen broccoli into the recipe (only way to get my husband to touch a veggie) I doubled the sauce.
When the chicken was done I removed it and most of the oil and fried the thawed broccoli until it was hot and starting to get seared. I then removed the broccoli and added more leftover oil to the pan and fried the garlic, powdered ginger, and orange zest. Then I added the sauce all at once and let it thicken over high heat, then I added the chicken and broccoli and coated it all in the sauce. Glad I doubled the sauce, the broccoli really soaked up a lot of it
Overall it was a big hit, my husband scarfed the broccoli (Kodak moment in this house, let me assure you) and my picky toddler actually ate all her chicken and then some. The only thing I might change next time is changing out some of the regular sugar for some brown sugar, as brown sugar tends to add a depth of flavor that I think the dish might have been lacking. To save calories and time I might just try frying the chicken without any coating in the garlic/ginger/zest seasoned oil.
Thanks so much for sharing this wonderful recipe, it’s a real treat and I’ll definitely be adding it to my rotation of weeknight recipes. My family thanks you too!
Taryn, how do you know when the chicken is ready? I’ve never fryed anything before and I’m also going to use a large non-stick pot.
The chicken should be ready after deep frying for 1 minute or so in high heat, since they are cut into small pieces. Another indication is when it turns light brown to golden brown (the batter coating).
Thank you for the recipe. Dinner was delicious!
How do I print recipes only? Without all of the other printout? Do I need to be loged in?For the orange chicken recipe I printed 19 pages.I like your webpage but can’t afford all the paper
it would take for the recipes I would want.Please reply on my website. thank you,Lucille
I’ll be waiting for you’r reply.