Orange chicken served on a bed of brown Basmati rice
Serves 2
Many years ago Loraine and I lived in Port Charlotte, FL. We found a small, independent, Chinese takeout that made some of the best Chinese food we have ever had. One of the items that we craved was their orange chicken.
We were never able to find any restaurant in any other city that made orange chicken that tasted the way the orange chicken tasted from the restaurant in Port Charlotte. So, we had no choice but to try and recreate it ourselves. Taking numerous recipes for orange chicken from the web, trying them individually, then we merged some of them, tweaked them, removed seasoning and added seasoning until we came up with what we consider to be the ultimate Chinese orange chicken recipe. We hope you enjoy it as much as we do.
Ingredients
- 1 boneless, skinless chicken breast (10 oz) cut into thin slices
- 1 tbsp of corn starch
- 1 tbsp of all purpose flour
- 1 egg white
- 3 drops of sesame oil
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1/4 tsp white pepper
- vegetable oil for frying (we use peanut oil)
- 1 thumb size piece of ginger, chopped
- 2 cloves of garlic, chopped
- 8 oz of pulp free orange juice
- 2 drops orange oil (see note at the bottom of the page)
- 1 tbsp of light soy sauce
- 1 tbsp brown sugar
- 2 tbsp of rice vinegar
- 1 tsp of orange zest
- Crushed red pepper to taste
- 1 tbsp of corn starch diluted in 1 tbsp of water
- 8 oz brown Basmati rice (can be replaced with white rice)
- 4 oz red pepper diced
For the Chicken:
For the Sauce:
- Mix Together:
Thickener
Rice
Directions
- Cook the rice
- Add the chicken to a medium size bowl. In the same bowl, combine the egg, corn starch, flour, salt, and pepper. Using your hands or a wooden spoon, mix until the chicken is well coated.
- Pour some oil into a wok or pan and heat it to 350 degrees F or 177 C.
- Fry the chicken, in batches, for about 4 or 5 minutes or until it's golden brown. It helps to move the chicken around a bit so it doesn't stick together.
- Remove the cooked chicken and wipe the pan or wok with some paper towel and add a bit of oil in. Put the ginger and garlic in and sauté them, over medium high heat, until they become fragrant.
- Pour in the sauce mixture. Stir and bring the mixture to a boil.
- Add in the diluted corn starch and stir until the mixture thickens.
- Put the chicken in and toss until it's completely covered with the sauce.
- Serve over a bed of steamed rice (we use brown Basmati Rice with some diced red bell pepper) and garnish with some chopped spring onions. We use 1 cup of dry brown Basmati rice which makes about 3 cups.
Note: We buy the Lorann Gourmet Orange Oil from Michaels and we find it has truly intensified the overall orange flavour and is the primary key to the success of the dish. It is very highly concentrated. If you use a different brand orange oil you may need to add more.
