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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.
I hope you enjoy this post as much as I do. If you try my recipe, please leave a comment and consider giving it a 5-star rating. For more easy and delicious recipes, explore my Recipe Index, and stay updated by subscribing to my newsletter and following me on Facebook, Pinterest, and Instagram for new updates.
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.
So, I tried this recipe and it turned out AMAZING!!! Thank you so much for posting this :) I do have a question though. In the directions for the batter, it says that you’re suppose to mix the eggs with the flour mixture. Is that correct? My mother-in-law cooks a lot, and she told me that I should dip the chicken in the egg and then into the flour. What is the correct way? What I ended up doing was mixing the egg in the flour mixture and then dipped the chicken… I thought this wouldnt fry well so I ended up putting it all in a plastic bag and added corn starch. This made it PERFECTTTT!!!! Again, thank you so much for posting!
Glad you enjoyed the orange chicken. All recipes on this site are absolutely delicious. For the batter, I always mix the eggs with the flour and it works very well. Best is to use only egg white and discard the egg yolk.
This looks so delicious, unfortunately though I don’t eat chicken but the sauce sounds amazing so I might try it with white fish or tofu, hope it works!
Hi Rasa, made this recipe and even though came out really good, the orange sauce was too thick. Not sure if I overcooked or if should I add more water next time. Definitively, I will try it again. Thanks for sharing.
Add water if it’s too thick and yes you overcooked.
I’m really looking forward to try out this recipe… But since I’m in Malaysia I don’t reckon we have Rooster brand. Can I replace it with another type of garlic chilli sauce such as Kampong Koh? Thanks so much for sharing!
Yes, any chili sauce is fine.
Just wanted to share – I made this last weekend for my mother in the hospital and made a few changes (used EVOO for cooking oil and stevia for sugar), paired it with steamed egg, stir fried yinchoy (Asian spinach) with wolfberries and quinoa instead of rice. My mother who didn’t have the best of appetites because of her illness ate quite a portion! I then made hand squeezed OJ right in front of her for dessert with the rest of the oranges that I bought. She just loved her lunch and her hospital room smelled of zest for the day. Thanks very much !
Every time I try to print 1 of your recipes it comes out in Chinese, which is weird when it is in English on the computer.
Hi Dorothy, I am sorry to hear that, it looks like it’s the printer driver issue, please save the recipe as a PDF first and then print out and it should be fine.
I am so bummed out. I’m sure this recipe is good, but I liked the old recipe a lot. All of my friends and family loved it too. I don’t remember all the ingredients but I can see that this one is way different, as it doesn’t called for the dried chili peppers, and it calls generically for sherry or dry white wine instead of rice wine. Can you please please send me a copy of the old recipe?
Hi Becky, yes I updated the recipe. Here is the old recipe:
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 powder
1/2 egg
1 teaspoon cooking oil
1 small pinch of salt
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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.
I and my husband love all of your recipes, easy cook and taste really good!!! Thank you, Rasa.
Uyen thanks for being a fan.
Look delicious and yum, loving it
It is a good idea. It is easy to understand I am to comment.
So I just made this tonight. It took me a great deal longer to prepare than the estimated time in your directions, but I think that had more to do with the fact that I have never made orange chicken of any kind before, so I was taking greater care to ensure everything was done properly. I absolutely loved the end result, but I was not expecting it to be as spicy as it actually ended up being (which was fine for me, I LOVE spice, and it was an unexpected surprise) though the rest of the group could not finish it. Next time I make it I plan to reduce the pepper. Either way, thank you for this amazing recipe! I am planning to try the Honey Soy Chicken Wings next, and I can’t wait!
Thanks Matthew. Yes once you get a hang of cooking Asian food, you will get faster and faster. :)