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Orange Chicken - Crispy, sticky chicken in tangy orange sauce that takes 30 minutes to make and is much better than Panda Express or takeout.
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.
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!
Frequently Asked Questions
This recipe is only 469 calories per serving.
What To Serve With Orange Chicken
Serve this dish with other Chinese classics such as hot and sour soup. For a wholesome meal and easy weeknight dinner, I recommend the following recipes.
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Other Recipes You Might Like
Orange Chicken
Ingredients
- 10 oz (280g) 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 garlic chili sauce , Rooster brand Huy Fong, 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 cornstarch
- 1 pinch salt
Frying Batter:
- 1 egg white
- 1/2 cup all-purpose flour, sifted
- 1/4 cup cornstarch
- 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 and whisk to combine well. In another bowl, whisk all the Frying Batter ingredients until the batter is smooth. Drop in the chicken cubes, coat them well, and set aside.
- Heat a wok or non-stick skillet with oil. Gently drop in the battered chicken cubes one by one, ensuring they are spread out to prevent sticking and overcrowding the wok or skillet.
- Deep-fry the chicken pieces until they turn golden brown and become crispy. Remove them using a strainer and drain on paper towels.
- Transfer the deep-frying oil to a container, leaving 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 and stir to combine well. Dish out, garnish with orange slices, sprinkle with white sesame seeds, and serve immediately with steamed rice.
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
I doubled the recipe and found trouble on the batter. I doubled everything and the batter was as thick as molasses. I had to add extra water to dilute it and make it thin enough. Tasted very good though
Hi Jaime, the batter shouldn’t be thick as molasses. If it does, some measurement must be off.
Hi Bee… I just did the recipe again and the batter was still very thick. I thought of adding water as well but I just followed instructions since all of your recipes have been perfect. But with 3/4 cup of flour/cornstarch and only 1/3 cup of water as liquid + the eggwhite… consistency IS quite thick. Could you please recommend a technique or post a picture of your batter? Or maybe even post the weight of the ingredients? Even with all that, it came out quite crispy, but then the batter became soggy quite quickly after tossing with the sauce. Flavors are great so hoping you could guide us for a better result. thank you
The recipe works. The batter is fine. I use this batter on all my fried recipes. The chicken will not stay crispy with sauce, it’s natural. You can add 1 tablespoon rice flour if you like to the batter and add a little bit water. Double fry.
I absolutely love this recipe. It’s easy to prepare and doesn’t take much time.
Thanks Kay, I am happy you love my orange chicken recipe.
My 14 year old son loves to cook and we have trying new recipes together. We’ve had some hits and some misses. But this recipe was a 10 out of 10 success with all of my 4 kids and their equally fussy father. It was delicious. We can’t wait to try some of your other recipes. Thank you.
Your batter recipe looks like a classic Japanese Tempura batter except that the Japanese recipe uses Cake Flour (low-gluten) instead of All-Purpose Flour, Potato Starch (Jap. “Katakuri-Ko”) instead of Cornstarch, and ice-cold Sparkling Water or Club Soda rather than just plain old water.
Orange chicken recipe, my to do recipes this year
amazing recipe
Thanks!
i love this, am gonna try all these recipes
Orange chicken is one of my favorite dish. It looks so delicious in those pictures. Definitely better than the restaurant version!!!
Yes Jessi, it is better. :)
i bet this tastes lovely. Thanks for sharing this, gonna give this a go later. Simon
It’s 9h PM here and I still have to work, really look at this picture I am very hungry, it’s very attractive!. Anyway, I think this recipe is quite easy and I can cook themselves. Thanks for guide : D