Chinese Orange Chicken
A balance between sweet and spicy.
Chinese Orange Chicken
A balance between sweet and spicy.
It started with Orange Chicken Wings
The Chinese Orange Chicken was born from orange chicken wings. We wanted to test three different chicken wings sauces, one of them being an orange sauce. The orange sauce came out to be our favourite among the three we’ve tried.
After a few iterations, we found the perfect orange sauce recipe, one with the right balance between sweet and spicy. Then, we thought why not try using that sauce to make a General Tao-Style Orange Chicken; the fried batter will add more texture to the dish. It was delicious!
Funny enough, it was until recently that we learned about Chinese Orange Chicken. Neither of us have had it in the past but that’s the recipe we ended up elaborating. And we thought we were being creative by adding an orange twist to General Tao…^^”
Healthier: natural sugar used for the orange sauce
By looking at other Chinese Orange Chicken recipes, we realized that a lot of sugar was usually added to the sauce.
Whenever we can, we try using the least amount of sugar, butter, and oil as possible. Therefore, know that we’ve elaborated this recipe by using only 2.5 Tbsp of sugar per 2 servings! Most of the sauce’s sweetness comes from natural orange juice.
How to prepare
- Prepare the batter by combining eggs, salt and pepper, all-purpose flour, and cornstarch.
- Fry the chicken in a wok or large skillet, or a deep fryer.
- Mix all the ingredients for the orange sauce in a saucepan until it thickens: orange juice, garlic chilli sauce, soy sauce, sugar, Mirin, apple cider vinegar, and cornstarch.
- Add the orange sauce to the fried chicken.
- Sprinkle with white sesame seeds and chopped green onions.
Serve it with steamed jasmine rice and a side of steamed broccoli.
Enjoy! 🙂
Chinese Orange Chicken
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Ingredients
Chicken
- 3 boneless chicken thigh, cut into bite-size pieces
- 20 g cornstarch
- 15 g all-purpose flour
- vegetable oil
Orange Sauce
- 1 cup orange juice
- 2.5 tbsp sugar
- 2 tbsp soy sauce
- 4 tsp Mirin
- 2 tsp garlic chilli sauce
- 2 tsp apple cider vinegar
- 2 tsp cornstarch mixed with 6 tsp water right before adding
Instructions
Orange Sauce
- Mix all the ingredients in a saucepan
- Heat it up at medium-high heat until it thickens and slightly bublles
- Turn off the heat and set aside
Chicken
- In a bowl, whisk together the cornstarch and the flour
- Add the chicken pieces to the bowl and mix
- Heat the oil in a shallow pan or deep fryer to 375 °F
- Working in batches, deep fry the chicken until it's cooked through, golden-brown, and crispy (3-4 min.)