When you’re in need of a delicious dinner, it’s hard to go wrong when Chinese takeout is calling your name, and when it does, the allure of tasty orange chicken can be hard to resist. With crispy chicken in a tangy and flavorful citrus glaze it’s hard to go wrong, it’s a classic for a reason! Luckily for you, this week’s recipe will give you the power to not only make a delicious orange chicken, but it will be chicken so crispy, coated in a sauce so flavorful that you won’t want to go back to takeout when you know you can make it this good.
Starting with the chicken, we used Midamar’s Halal chicken breast, and you can never go wrong with this, it’s always so easy to prepare and cooks into the most tender, juiciest chicken you could ask for. After cutting it into bite sized pieces, we gave ours a light coat in a simple marinade of things like apple cider vinegar, a little sugar, and ginger, just to give each piece a little hint of the sweet and tangy flavors of this recipe started early. This light marinating will also help the cornstarch adhere to each piece before you fry them.
The chicken won’t marinate for long and that’s a good opportunity to make your sauce, the most important part of this recipe. While some takeout can over-due it on the sugar and underdeliver on the orange, that isn’t the case here. The crispiness you get is from perfectly fried chicken, not overly sugared chicken, and the sauce delivers all the citrus flavor you could ever want. Another surprise star of this recipe is the addition of a few dried red chilies and star anise fried in the pan later. These make the whole dish so much more flavorful and complex, with the added bonus that they smell amazing, so do yourself a favor and don’t forget these! But I digress, the sauce includes both orange juice and Halal chicken broth as its base and orange zest mixed in, because you came for orange chicken and we’re gonna make sure that that’s what you get. The rice vinegar continues to add tanginess and the oyster sauce also contributes to this in a big way, just make sure you use oyster sauce, and not oyster flavored sauce, they sound very similar but oyster flavored sauce won’t give you same flavor profile as the oyster sauce.
When it is time to start frying the chicken, take the time to do it in small batches in peanut oil heated to about 350°F, and let the oil heat back up between batches so each cook just good as the last. Remove the chicken when it’s lightly brown to drain on some paper towels, but we aren’t done with the oil just yet because we’re double frying the chicken. This is what will make it so delectably crispy. When it’s all added back to the oil and deeply golden brown is when you’re good to go! When it’s removed from the oil a final time, let it cool before removing it from the pan because the sauce can be made in it right after.
After the chicken is done, frying up the star anise, chilies, garlic, and sliced orange peel not only makes the sauce that much better, but they will also make your kitchen smell incredible. Then add in the sauce to simmer and mix until it starts to thicken. If needed, add a few tablespoons of a cornstarch slurry to help the sauce thicken up. When it is thick enough to coat a spoon, toss in your chicken and mix until each piece is evenly coated and you are now the proud owner of the most flavorful and crispy orange chicken, serve with some rice or your favorite takeout side and you’re all set.
That’s all we have for this week’s recipe, and that’s all you need to enjoy your new favorite dinner recipe. If you’re a fan of orange chicken, and I’m hoping you are if you’ve made it this far, this is in my unbiased opinion one of the best recipes for this dish out there. So do yourself a favor, make it, enjoy it, share it, and tell us what you think or what you did differently, and as always, we’ll see you next week with another fantastic recipe.
