One of my newest favorite things to try this year is homemade Chinese dishes… or as close as I can get to them! So far I’ve only gone as far as chicken… but that’s what we eat 80% of the time in this household anyways! I was cruising Damn Delicious the other day… which may I add there are some great recipes there and I’m sure I’ll be back!! I came across her Chinese Orange Chicken recipe and had to give it a whirl… That is the one go to dish when we hit up Panda Express while doing back to school clothes shopping!
So this was my first time making this dish… and I hit a couple bumps in the road while doing it… I stopped myself and made some changes… and it turned out great! Biggest thing was this recipe was working with cornstarch… I’ve never been a big fan of cornstarch… but I did give it a try on a few pieces of chicken… Didn’t like how it was turning out, so I swapped it out with flour! Also the recipe called for 1 TBLS of cornstarch in the sauce… it thickened it so much I couldn’t even use it … So I quickly made up some more sauce and added just 1/2 tsp of cornstarch to it… worked great!
Lesson learned here… Don’t be afraid to try new things… but also listen to your gut instinct and play around with recipes! I love being in the kitchen and trying new things… Sometimes my family calls themselves the “Guinea Pigs” … But I’d rather have them as my “Guinea Pigs” then serving them the same things over time and time again!
Homemade Orange Chicken
Ingredients:
- 2 TBLS oil divided plus more for frying
- 1 egg
- 1 1/2 tsp salt
- pepper to taste
- 1/2 cup flour
- 1/2 tsp cornstarch
- 2 lbs boneless skinless chicken breast cut into chunks
- 1 TBLS fresh ginger minced
- 3 cloves garlic minced
- 1/2 tsp red pepper flakes
- 1/4 cup chopped green onion
- 1 TBLS rice wine
- 1 1/2 TBLS soy sauce
- 5 TBLS sugar
- 5 TBLS white vinegar
- zest from one orange
- Juice from one orange or 1 1/2 TBLS water
Steps:
- In a bowl add the orange juice (optional) and the zest from the orange
- Add soy sauce, sugar, vinegar and mix together
- Toss the chicken in and marinate it for 20-30 mins… strain chicken keeping the sauce.
- Over medium high heat add 1 TBLS oil then the ginger and garlic stir around for 30-60 seconds… then add the red pepper flakes and green onion and saute for another 30-6- seconds. Add the rice wine for 10-15 seconds and then add the remaining orange sauce.
- Bring to bowl and set to low to simmer.
- Dip the chicken in the egg wash and then in the flour coating evenly
- mix 1 TBLS water and 1/2 tsp cornstarch and add it to your sauce to thicken.
- Fry the chicken over medium high heat… you don’t need much oil… or if you have a deep fryer that works great
- Add the chicken to the sauce and mix well… Top with chopped green onion (optional) Enjoy!!
I forgot to snap a picture for this next step….
Over medium high heat add 1 TBLS oil then the ginger and garlic stir around for 30-60 seconds… then add the red pepper flakes and green onion and saute for another 30-6- seconds. Add the rice wine for 10-15 seconds and then add the remaining orange sauce.
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