Chinese Orange Chicken with Rice or Noodles
Thursday, September 03, 2020
Chinese orange chicken is a
super easy recipe made with crispy fried chicken
that's tossed in a delicious glossy spicy orange sauce,
which you can serve as is, or with rice or noodles.
I won't lie I was pretty skeptical to give this recipe a try.
I think it's because I had never tasted Chinese cuisine before,
so I personally was on the fence of how the combination between;
heat/spice and orange would taste to me.
However, I decided to just give it a try and make some Chinese orange
chicken
for Friday (Jummah) Lunch,
which for my family is usually a rice based family meal,
hence why I decided to serve it with rice.
I'm so glad I gave it a try,
it tasted so delicious and my family loved it as well!
If you like Asian food and/orange chicken or you'd like to give it a try,
now you can make it at home,
and I also share some important tips down below (after the
method)
be sure to check it out.
- INGREDIENTS -
5 - 6 Chicken Breasts
- BATTER -
1/3 Cup Corn Flour
1/4 Cup Flour
1/2 tsp Salt
1/2 tsp Pepper
1 Egg
1 1/2 tsp Soy sauce
1/3 - 1/4 Cup Water (approximately)
1 1/2 Cup Oil for frying (approximately)
- SAUCE -
2 1/2 Tbsp Orange Juice
1 Tbsp Orange Zest (1/2 an Orange)
1 tsp Freshly Grated Ginger
1 tsp Freshly Crushed Garlic
1 - 2 Tbsp Sriracha Sauce/Hot Sauce (adjust depending on your spice/heat preference)
1/2 tsp Red Chili Powder
2 1/2 Tbsp Soy Sauce (I used the brand Vital)
1 Tbsp Zaatar and Zeal Spicy Asian Reduction (optional - available in Southern Africa)
1 Tbsp White Vinegar
1 1/2 tsp Brown Sugar
Pinch of Salt
1 Tbsp Corn Flour mixed with 1 Cup Water
- SIDE RELISH -
1/3 Cucumber sliced
3 - 4 Tbsp White Vinegar
Pinch of Salt
Sesame Seeds
- Side relish is best served if you're making the orange chicken to eat as is or serving it with rice. It doesn't pair well with noodles.
- GARNISH -
Handful of Chopped Spring Onions
Sesame Seeds
- SERVE WITH -
Noodles or Rice
- METHOD -
- Cut your chicken breast meat into cubes, roughly just over an inch in size.
- Depending on what you would like to serve this Chinese orange chicken, you can prepare either your noodles or rice now or towards the end of cooking the meal.
- Make a batter by mixing together all the batter ingredients. (check my notes below for the extra tip); add a little water at a time to get the right consistency, not too watery and not too thick (sounding a bit like Goldilocks there), should be a batter consistency so it coats the chicken well.
- Mix your chicken in the batter and leave aside for 10 - 15 minutes.
- At this point only if you're serving the orange chicken as is or with rice you can make the cucumber side relish by adding into a bowl the sliced cucumbers, vinegar, salt and sesame seeds, cover it and place the relish in the fridge to chill.
- Next, heat up your oil and fry your chicken for around 20 - 30 minutes, till golden, before removing the chicken from the oil and draining it on some parchment paper.
- Mix all your sauce ingredients into a pan, on a medium heat bring the sauce to a boil till it thickens up before turning down the heat .
- Once the sauce is glossy and thick in consistency add in your fried chicken and make sure all the chicken is coated well.
- Leave it to simmer on a low heat for around 5 - 10 more minutes.
- Finally, before serving, garnish with some chopped spring onions and sesame seeds, serving as is or on top of your rice or noodles.
- SOME EXTRA TIPS -
-
When making the batter, add little water at a time to your dry batter ingredients to get the right consistency. You want it to not be too watery and not too thick (sounding a bit like Goldilocks there), the batter consistency should be able to easily coat the chicken well.
- When it comes to frying, you could deep fry your chicken but I personally shallow fried the coated chicken and it came out just the same as if I deep fried them.
- Depending on how saucy you want the chicken to be depends on your preference. I personally liked it more saucy so I added a little more of the ingredients and the cornflour-water mix.
- I used fresh orange juice, you could use packaged orange juice as a substitute if you can't get your hands on any oranges.
- The relish pairs better when serving this dish with rice, you can skip the relish if you're eating it with noodles.
- PIN IT -
It is so easy to pin a recipe you like right onto your pinterest
boards,
simply click on the picture and it will automatically take you to
pinterest.
When you share the picture the link shares as well,
which makes it easier for you and any one else to find the
recipe.
I've also shared some more rice based dishes on my blog
before.
If you'd like to check out some of those recipes,
here are the links;
Be sure to check out my social media,
I share a lot of the behind the scenes on there and
reviews:
8 comments
Your photography of your food is amazing!! And it looks so delicious! It's great that you gave extra tips at the ends as things like that can pop in one's mind so you've answered those queries
ReplyDeleteThank you so much, I really appreciate the kind feedback. I always find the tips are so important, which don't always get shared and it can save someone a panic attack while cooking lol
DeleteOhh yummm! Ma shaa Allah �� The photography is lit too! Made me want to try this recipe. Jazakillah Khayr -F
ReplyDeleteJazakallah so much :) I really appreciate it, hope you get to try it out and enjoy it too :D
DeleteOh wow never heard of this and never considered putting orange in with chicken!
ReplyDeleteSounds soo good! One I really want to make the effort to try.
Lol I was just as skeptical, the only 'citrus' I add to my chicken is lemon juice, but this was definitely worth the try and surprisingly it tasted delicious and it was easy to make. Hope you get to try it.
DeleteWhere do you keep coming up with these mouth watering and good looking recipes lol. Can't wait to try this!
ReplyDeleteLol scrolling on IG at 2am, getting hungry, thinking of what to cook day after day, leads to major experimenting, that turns out to be a win! Thank you so much, I hope you get to try it out.
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