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What Is Orange Chicken?
This chicken is the poster child of American-Chinese cuisine. If you walk into any Panda Express or Chinese takeout restaurant, you’re sure to find it on the menu. While sometimes called Orange Peel Chicken, it is the same thing.
However, General Tso’s Chicken is not the same. While both are deep fried, General Tso’s chicken is usually a lot spicier. Furthermore, this specific chicken is made with an orange peel.
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How Does It Taste?
This chicken recipe is extremely delicious and flavorful. Chicken breast is used to make crispy deep-fried chicken coated in a batter, with a sweet, tangy and savory orange sauce.
It’s citrusy because of the orange juice and zest in the recipe. It’s also mildly spicy because of the chili sauce.
The Best Orange Sauce
The key to the best orange chicken lies in, not surprisingly, the orange sauce. The ingredients are easy to find. It calls for orange juice, orange zest, soy sauce, sugar, apple cider vinegar and chili sauce.
Therefore, it’s sweet, sour and salty with a little bit of heat. You can make a big batch of the sauce and keep it in the refrigerator.
How Do You Prepare the Chicken?
First, you prepare the sauce by mixing all the ingredients in the sauce. For the chicken, you want to deep fry using my special batter recipe.
Finally, using a wok or skillet, cook the orange sauce mixture until it thickens, then add in the deep-fried chicken. Stir to combine well and dinner is done!
How Many Calories per Serving?
This recipe is only 469 calories per serving.
What Dishes to Serve with This Recipe?
For a wholesome meal and easy weeknight dinner, I recommend the following recipes.
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Orange Chicken
Ingredients
- 10 oz. boneless chicken breast cut into bite-sized cubes
- Oil for deep-frying
- 1 tablespoon cooking oil
- 2 cloves garlic minced
- Orange slices for garnishing
- White sesame for garnishing
Orange Sauce:
- 1/4 cup orange juice
- 1/2 teaspoon orange zest
- 1 tablespoon Rooster brand Huy Fong Garlic Chili Sauce optional
- 3 tablespoons chicken broth
- 1 tablespoon soy sauce
- 2 tablespoons sugar
- 1 tablespoon Apple cider vinegar red wine or Chinese white vinegar
- 1 teaspoon corn starch
- 1 pinch salt
Frying Batter:
- 1 egg white
- 1/2 cup all-purpose flour sifted
- 1/4 cup corn starch
- 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/3 cup water ice cold
- 1 tablespoon cooking oil
- 1 pinch salt
Instructions
- In a bowl, mix all the ingredients for the Orange Sauce together. Whisk to combine well. In another bowl, whisk all the Frying Batter ingredients until the batter is smooth. Drop in the chicken cubes, coat well and set aside.
- Heat up a wok or non-stick skillet with oil. Gently drop in the battered chicken cubes, one by one, making sure it is spread out to prevent sticking and over crowding the wok or skillet.
- Deep-fry until the chicken pieces turn golden brown and become crispy. Remove using a strainer and drain on paper towels.
- Transfer the deep-frying oil to a container and keep 1 tablespoon in the wok or skillet. Add the garlic and stir fry until aromatic or light brown in color. Gently pour in the Orange Sauce mixture, stir, and bring it to a light simmer.
- Toss in the deep-fried chicken, stir to combine well. Dish out, garnish with orange slices, top with white sesame and serve immediately with steamed rice.
Nutrition
Notice: Nutrition is auto-calculated, using Spoonacular, for your convenience. Where relevant, we recommend using your own nutrition calculations.
Doubled the sauce amounts because we like it saucy, absolutely delicious and easy to make.
Hands down the best Orange Chicken I have had to date this recipe stands on its own at the top. Thank you!
Thanks. All my recipes are the best! Please try more!
I agree with you, this recipe is way better than take out. Was a big hit with the whole family. Really appreciate the clear directions and easy (and yummy) recipe.
Question – what do you do with the leftover oil?
Hi Nicole thanks so much. You can save the oil in a bowl or container and reuse it for other deep-fried recipes. You can try more recipes on my site: https://rasamalaysia.com/recipe-index-gallery/
My son adores this recipe & says it’s better than restaurant orange chicken. It’s easy & delicious. This is the best. Thank you, Bee!!! (PS: a pork chop recipe came out wonderfully over the weekend. I’ll be checking out more of your recipes now that I have the name down!)
Hi Linda, thanks for your sweet comment. Yes, all my recipes are very good. Please try more recipes on my site: https://rasamalaysia.com/recipe-index-gallery/
Dear Rasa,
Your recipe for Orange Chicken is absolutely wonderful. I live in Brillion, a small town near Green Bay, Wisconsin so I had to use American Chili sauce and a few drops of Mexican hot sauce in place of the Chinese chili sauce.
Next time I make this dish I am going to try making one of the side dishes you suggested above. Thank you so much. I am so pleased with this dish.
Hi Mark, thanks so much, this is the BEST orange chicken recipe you will find online, I am so glad you tried my recipe. Please try out more recipes on my site: https://rasamalaysia.com/recipe-index-gallery/
OMG OMG OMG OMG!!!! ???I just made this meal!! My family loved it and a friend took a to-go plate??
This is the best recipe! My daughter and I have made it several times.
Hi Jennifer, I agree. You won’t find a better orange chicken recipe online. It’s unfortunate that Google always show the not-so-great recipe at the top of search results.
Yum! I love orange chicken. Your recipe looks super simple and delicious. Thanks for sharing.
Yes this is the best orange chicken you will find online.