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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.
Yummy! On of my favorites!
Rasa
I read what you had to say about the Orange Chcken and I appreiate the info. I have never cooked it before, but I will try your recipe soon.
I know you live in the Orange County area, so I wanted to give you a place that my wife and I like to go for the best Chinese fast food Orange Chicken. Its called “China Luck” and its in Fountain Valley in the same center as Islands and Albertsons on Brookhurst just south of the 405. Everything else is good there too and a few years back they got a good article written about them in the Orange County Register. Prices are also good.
Thanks
Thanks John!
I would like to try your orange chicken recipe with the dried tangerine skin. how do I use it in your recipe? Much thanks. Laura
Laura, you can add a little bit of that to the recipe towards the end.
Sweetbreads? This recipe looks like it will produce a delightful result if I use sweetbreads in place of the chicken breast. Your thoughts? Have you tried doing sweetbreads a l’orange in any fashion?
I have been frustrated in my search for a recipe. I had the dish a couple of times at the Rainbow Room in 1970 (yes, I am that old) and it is spectacular! Since then I have not been able to find a recipe nor other restaurants that feature it.
I cringe to admitt it,but I actually enjoy that sticky, gooey, overly sweet mess that Panda Chicken serves up. However, your recipe definitely “tastes” better in my mind. Orange Sauce + Sesame Oil? Yes, yes, yes!
LOL thanks Susan. I know we all love Panda Express Orange Chicken but we just don’t want to admit it. ;)
Thank you for the nice recipe.
Recipe is great except according to measures batter is to thin, made it thicker, but do not put chicken in to it and stir fry it. The batter will fall apart instead after you have put orange zest, add the sauce and thicken it in wok and pour over the chicken and serve. While cooking chicken in batches remember to keep cooked pieces in the warm oven.
This sounds so much better than the recipe I’ve been using.
I love a lot of you recipes. I would probably love all of them, but I’ve only cooked a lot of them. I’m making this one tonight for my picky daughter, that I’ve noticed ordering this when we go out.
So, the reason for my comment, (other than to say thanks), do I really only use 1/2 an egg for the batter? I have to say this is the first time I have ever been asked to use only half an egg. I’m assuming I beat the egg before adding half of it to the batter?
Beautiful wok kitchen, btw. You should do a few videos.
Hi Michael, yes just use half of the beaten egg white. It will make the batter crispier, but you can skip. Thanks for comment and will try to do more videos. :)
love your recipes but your site is very slow to load (took almost 1-1/2 min. to load orange chicken recipe)I know it’s not on my end (checked it out many ways) is it because your using wordpress or your just trying to upload way too much c**p on your site. still love your recipes.
Hi where are you viewing the page from? My site loads very fast for me, and if it does load slow, it’s because of external ad calls of the ads which I have no control of. A new redesign is in the work which will speed up overall load time. Thanks for your patience.