Chinese Orange Chicken (Crispy Chicken without Deep Frying)
An easy orange chicken recipe that creates crispy chicken without deep-frying and a scrumptious orange sauce that is very fragrant.
Recipe => https://omnivorescookbook.com/orange-chicken/
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Dinner Recipe: Orange Chicken
TIME: ★★✰✰
PRICE: ★★★✰
EASE: ★★★✰
CLEANUP: ★★★✰
The original recipe I learned off of is meant to be a dupe of a now discontinued Applebee's dish that I loved. It takes about 1 hr but I have since streamlined it so it takes more like 30-40 minutes. It flies by if you have your ingredients set up in advance! Even so, if you have the time or motivation, I'd recommend trying the original recipe as written first!
This recipe takes longer if you decide to fully fry the chicken, but you can totally skip the fry step and just cook it if you want!
While I like using a lot of fresh produce (I'm a veggie fiend,) you could easily cut down on the cost by using frozen stir fry veggies. Hoisin sauce is pretty important to this recipe though, and a bottle can be like $5. HIGHLY recommend having it in your fridge anyway, though, if you like Chinese food!
The recipe is fairly easy, though I think the original recipe makes it seem more complicated than it is. I can kind of wing it at this point, but it took a couple passes.
Cleanup can be fairly quick, but there will likely be things that touched raw chicken that need special attention and the sauce could be annoying to clean depending on what kinda pan you used.
Ingredients:
Chicken (I’ve made it with breast and thighs) 2 breasts? For leftovers.
Cornstarch
Oil for frying
Garlic
Preferred veg (broccoli, carrot, frozen peas, and bell pepper is what I use!) About 1-2 cups total, depending on how much you like.
Sliced almonds
Rice
IF you want to fry the chicken, you will also need an egg and flour (and more oil)
For the sauce
Orange juice (1 cup)
Hoisin sauce (½ cup)
Brown sugar (¼ cup)
1. Cut the chicken into preferred bite-sized cubes/strips.
If you want to fry it, mix a 1/2 cup of flour with 1/4th cup of corn starch in one cup. Then use a fork to whisk the egg in a separate bowl. Dunk each piece of chicken into the egg, then into the flour mixture before putting it into the pan. (You can do a light crisp instead of a fry by JUST coating your chicken in cornstarch. It takes a lot less time!)
Cook it up in a wide pan with about 1/4th"-1/2" vegetable oil, REMOVE THE CHICKEN FROM THE PAN (place it in a paper-towel lined bowl to absorb some of the residual oil)
2. Drain MOST OF (but not all of) the oil. Be sure the pan isn’t too hot, then cook some minced garlic (I do onion, too.) Once the garlic starts smelling good, add the sauce ingredients and simmer it until it begins to thicken.
3. Tossed your chopped veg into the sauce and cook it for a bit in there until the sauce begins to thicken around it. If I feel I didn’t make enough sauce, I’ll alternate between splashing some orange juice in and adding a little more hoisin sauce.
4. Add the cooked chicken back in and mix it with the veg/sauce. Serve it on rice. Top with almonds, orange slices, sesame seeds...or nothing! Whatever floats your boat!
Leftovers: This could make SO many leftovers depending on how much chicken and rice you add to it! But I wouldn't recommend freezing it! Try to eat within 3 days of cooking!
For the full, original recipe (probably with better instructions,) check out Applebee's Crispy Orange Chicken Bowl from Food . com
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Orange Chicken
A traditional dish from Chinese-American restaurants, orange chicken consists of crispy fried chicken mixed in a tangy, sticky citrus sauce. But, others would argue that if you've just ever ordered it for takeout or delivery, you've been losing out.
There is much to be said for the delicate balance of orange chicken prepared in the style of takeout when it is first removed from the pan. You simultaneously experience the crunch and the savoriness. But after 30 minutes, forget it. Just out of the pan, it tastes so much better. Thankfully, it's simpler than you may imagine to bring the staple of Chinese takeaway home.
"Food is everything we are. It's an extension of nationalist feeling, ethnic feeling, your personal history, your province, your region, your tribe, your grandma. It's inseparable from those from the get-go." - Anthony Bourdain
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