Tasty Orange Chicken

Nothing says Chinese food like a good old serving of Orange Chicken. A few weeks ago, I chanced upon a video of a tasty looking, easy-to-cook recipe for orange chicken on Buzzfeed Food. This recipe, by Tasty Meals (see blog entry), was inspired by US restaurant chain Panda Express.

Fast forward to a few weeks after, aka a few days ago, when a good friend of mine decided to host a potluck dinner in his apartment instead of us going out for dinner. A few friends mentioned bringing some home-cooked food that they were going to make, and others were going to buy food to bring in. I wasn’t sure what I was going to contribute, and usually I end up just buying food to bring over. Somehow, this time, I decided to cook something, but I wasn’t yet sure what to make.

At the end of it, I decided to go with Orange Chicken, especially after remembering the cooking video.

I didn’t have a couple of the ingredients at home – rice wine (sake) and chicken breasts, which I had to go out to the grocery to buy. But aside from that, all the other ingredients are pretty much staples in any kitchen (especially an Asian one) so it’s actually not that hard to make from ingredients you have lying around the house.

This is a great side dish to any meal you have prepared. It’s easy to make, not that difficult to prepare, and most of all – it’s delicious.

I had to alter the original recipe to fit my group of friends (7-8 pax) and here’s the ingredient list I ended up with below…

RECIPE

• 1 egg
• 1 teaspoons of white pepper
• 1 teaspoons of salt
• 9 chicken breast fillets (cut into smaller pieces)
• 1/2 cup of corn starch
• 1/4 cup of  flour
• 2 tablespoons cooking oil
• 2 teaspoons of garlic
• 1 tablespoons of ginger
• 1/2 teaspoons of red chili flakes
• 1 tablespoons of rice wine
• 1 1/2 tablespoons of soy sauce
• 3 1/2 tablespoons of vinegar
• 2 1/2 tablespoons of water
• 3 1/2 tablespoons of sugar
• 2 tablespoons of orange zest*
• 2 tablespoons of corn starch slurry (dissolve corn starch in water, ratio is 1:1)
• chopped scallions for garnish**

* Orange Zest is the grated part of the orange’s skin. Get a grater (box or flat) and gently grate one side of the orange about 2-3 times, then turn orange to another side and repeat process. Don’t re-use a part that’s already been grated.

**I wasn’t able to add this in

INSTRUCTIONS

1. Add the egg, white pepper, and salt into one bowl. And then mix.
2. Cut the chicken breast fillet into smaller bite-sized pieces.
3. Coat the chicken pieces into the mixture from no. 1. Make sure it’s well coated.
4. In a new bowl, combine the corn starch and flour together. Coat the chicken in the mixture. Make sure each piece is coated well.
5. Prepare a saute pan, or wok, and add in a decent amount of oil (up to you) to fry the coated chicken. Fry until golden, or light brown. And then set aside and drain excess oil.
6. In a new saute pan, or wok, add in the oil, garlic and red chili flakes. Stir around but don’t let it fully cook.
7. Add in the rice wine and stir the mixture around to let the flavor seep in.
8. Add the other ingredients one by one – soy sauce, vinegar, water (1 1/2 tablespoons), sugar, and orange zest. Mix it all together.
9. Add the fried chicken (in batches if they don’t fit) and make sure to coat it in the sauce that’s on the pan. Add the corn starch slurry and a bit more water (as you see fit) to the mixture to thicken the sauce and to better coat the chicken.
10. Mix around for about 2 minutes per batch, and then remove. Top off the entire dish in the remaining sauce left in the pan.
11. Serve. Best eaten with rice.

Serves: 4-6 if this is the only side dish.

Note: This recipe is not mine and the instructions listed are taken from Tasty Meal’s youtube video/blog. I do not claim ownership over the recipe, though I’ve reworded the instructions. For the original recipe, check the original blog.

 

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Sources:

Tasty Food’s Blog

Tasty Food’s Youtube Page