Orange Chicken

A mild and fruity favorite for the whole family. Crispy fried chicken thighs in a sweet and sticky orange sauce are hard to resist.

Here is a fairly simple recipe for a classic dish from many restaurants serving Asian food. For my part, there is a ChopChop (Asian Express) in my city and I definitely ordered both one and two orange chickens there over the years. This recipe makes orange chicken that is at least as good, or maybe even a little better!

This variant of orange chicken is fried in a deep-frying batter, which I think is close to the one you buy at a restaurant. Although it has a lot of ingredients and steps, it's a pretty simple and quick recipe and the end result is very tasty.

First you clean the chicken thighs so that any small pieces of bone and skin are removed, then you cut the chicken into smaller pieces. Then you roll the chicken in cornstarch so that the batter will stick to the chicken more easily. The frying is then done in batches (so that the oil doesn't cool down too quickly and the chicken pieces don't stick to each other) and when the chicken has been dripping with excess oil for a while, you turn it around in a sweet and sticky orange sauce.

Why chicken thighs?

Chicken thighs are more tender than chicken breasts and can handle cooking at a high temperature without becoming dry that quickly. In general, however, chicken thighs cost a little more than other chicken parts, so if you want to save some money, you may have to wait for discount prices or choose something else.

Breading instead

Instead of using a frying batter as in this recipe, you can make a slightly more classic breading-style of the chicken. Then skip the frying batter completely, and first turn the chicken pieces around in a beaten egg and then dip them in a mixture of flour (150g) and cornstarch (25g) and then fry them directly.

How to make the sauce

I use 2 large oranges to squeeze out approx. 150g of orange juice. Of course, the definition of "large" oranges differs. The last time I bought oranges, I weighed a large orange to a little over 300g. You can easily get 75-100g of orange juice from such an orange by pressing through an orange press.

The sauce is then made from freshly squeezed orange juice, sugar, soy sauce, garlic, ginger and rice vinegar. Cornstarch (mixed with a little water) is also mixed in to create a thicker sauce. Finally, orange zest (finely grated peel) is used to adjust how much orange you want the sauce to taste like. Personally, I like the orange flavor so I use zest from half a large orange.

Potential changes

• Not spicy enough? Add some chili flakes or sriracha to the sauce as it cooks.
• Don't have a deep fryer? It works great in a frying pan (or pot) with high edges or a wok instead. However, use a thermometer to check the temperature and be careful with the hot oil.
• Which soy sauce should I use? I have used Chinese, Japanese and lower salt varieties. All have worked great. The most important thing is to check allergens in the soy sauce if you need to take that into account.
• Use dried garlic and ginger powder? Works well, but I think it would be a little better with fresh varieties instead (which might just be an illusion).
• Use bought orange juice instead of fresh oranges? It works, of course, but then you miss the zest of the orange, which adds a lot of flavor to the sauce, so I wouldn't recommend it.
• Vegetarian version? Instead of chicken - use tofu. Replace the eggs with a vegetarian alternative.

Crispy chicken

After making this recipe a few times, I realized how important it was to be quick when cooking the chicken. After the pieces leave the fryer, they are crispy, but they quickly soften. So lately I've instead made sure to prepare the orange sauce in a smaller saucepan and fry one portion at a time. The fried chicken then lies dripping a little oil for not more than a minute or so and then I serve it on a bed of rice and drizzle the orange sauce over everything before the plate lands on the table. That way I have crispy chicken every time.

Another option would be to cook all the chicken pieces at the same time, but that would require a large or many small fryers instead and I don't have access to that...

The nutritional value

The nutritional value for this recipe does NOT include the oil added during the frying process. Exactly how much is added is very difficult to estimate, so I'll simply let it be.

Ingredients

Directions

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