Orange chicken is a popular dish for Asian food lovers and its origin can be traced back to the Hunan region of China. Indeed, orange chicken can really add an extra flare to your ordinary rice meals at home.
Orange chicken consists of battered and fried chicken in a thick orange sauce and it derives its name from the use of dried orange peel. Once you learned how to make it using the recipe below, your family and friends will be amazed at how skillful you are at cooking this delicious chicken dish.
Ingredients:
- 1/2 lb chicken breast, cut into cube size
- 1 teaspoon orange zest, minced
- 2 cloves garlic, minced
- 1 inch ginger root, minced
- 2 teaspoons oil
- some cooking oil (for deep frying the chicken cubes)
For orange sauce:
- 1/4 cup orange juice
- 5 teaspoons sugar
- 3 tablespoons chicken broth
- 1 tablespoon soy sauce
- 1/2 teaspoon sesame oil
- 1/8 teaspoon white pepper powder
- 1 teaspoon corn starch
- 2 teaspoons rice wine
- 1 teaspoon rice vinegar
- 1 pinch salt
For frying batter:
- 1/2 cup water
- 1/2 egg
- 2 oz plain flour
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 oz corn starch
- 1 teaspoon cooking oil
Instructions:
- In a bowl, add in the orange juice, sugar, chicken broth, soy sauce, sesame oil, white pepper powder, corn starch, rice wine, rice vinegar and salt. Mix them well to form the orange sauce.
- To make the frying batter, get another bowl and add in the water, egg, flour, baking soda, starch and cooking oil. Mix the mixture well so that everything is well blended. Dip the chicken cubes into the batter.
- Heat up the wok and pour in enough cooking oil for deep frying. Wait for a few seconds for the oil to turn hot then carefully drop the chicken cubes into the oil and deep fry them until they turn crispy.
- Once they turned golden brown, remove them from the wok and place them on a plate with some paper towels to absorb the extra cooking oil.
- Either clean the wok you have just used earlier or get a new clean wok. Heat the wok up and add in 2 teaspoon of cooking oil.
- When the cooking oil is hot, stir fry the garlic and ginger then add in the orange zest and finally the chicken.
- Then add in the orange sauce and continue stir frying until the sauce gets thick enough.
- Remove the dish and place in on a plate.
- Serve over with cooked rice.
