Orange Flavored Chicken

 I love Asian cuisine! I love the ability to make Asian food at home even more. Usually recipes for this type of cuisine are very simple to make and they always seem to make a lot. I actually have a few really good recipes that eventually I'll have to share, but for today I'm going to share my son's find this weekend. He was going through some cookbooks that I got from the library and he found a real treasure. The cookbook was America's Most Wanted Recipes.

Orange Flavored Chicken

The recipe that he found was Panda Express Orange Flavored Chicken.  It is a lightly battered chicken with a sweet and tangy orange sauce with green onions. Serve it with some rice and you've got an excellent meal.

My son and I were on a cooking binge this weekend and we got right to work on this one Saturday night.  We spent Saturday night together cooking dinner for the family and it was amazing. We actually made some wontons too, but those will come at a later date.


This recipe for Orange Flavored Chicken, however, will be a keeper for us and we even thought of a way to simplify it. If you don't want to cut up and fry chicken we thought that one could always buy the popcorn chicken from Sam's Club, bake it and add it to the orange sauce. We were thinking that this would make it easy for those that don't want to be deep frying chicken.

Here's the recipe. Hope you enjoy it.

Orange Flavored Chicken

1 lb boneless, skinless chicken breasts
1 egg white
1 t salt
1 t sugar

Orange Sauce
1 C water
1/2 C ketchup
1/2 C sugar
2 T apple cider vinegar
1 T soy sauce
1 T + 1 t cornstarch
2 t sesame oil
2 T vegetable oil
1 T grated orange zest
2 T chopped green onions


4 C vegetable oil, for deep frying
1 C cornstarch

1. Cut the chicken breast into 1/2 inch cubes and set aside.
2. Combine the egg white, salt and sugar in a bowl and stir vigorously until the ingredients are thoroughly mixed. Add the chicken cubes to the egg white mixture and stir to coat well.
3. To make the orange sauce, combine the water, ketchup, sugar, vinegar, soy sauce, 1 tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon cornstarch and sesame oil; stir and set aside. Place a pot over high heat. When the pot is hot, add the 2 tablespoons vegetable oil and heat. add the orange zest and green onions and cook, stirring for about 20 second, taking care not to burn the orange zest.
4. Pour the combined sauce ingredients into the pot and cook over medium heat, stirring frequently, until the sauce has thickened, 12 to 15 minutes. 
5. Heat the 4 cups of oil to 350F in a deep fryer.
6. Meanwhile, put the coated chicken in a resealable plastic bag containing the 1 cup cornstarch. Shake the chicken well for about 20 seconds, until the chicken is covered with the cornstarch. Shake off all the excess cornstarch and deep fry in hot oil. Remove with a slotted spoon, drain well on paper towels and set aside. Add to hot orange sauce and stir for 30 seconds and serve immediately.