orange chicken

When my husband and I were in college, we used to go to Panda Express and get orange chicken. It was comfort food for me -- fried chicken smothered in sweet and tangy orange sauce. Yummy! But when we moved to California, we found other wonderful Chinese restaurants, so we stopped going to Panda Express. My cravings for orange chicken still remained, so I looked up for a recipe. This recipe is quite good! This recipe is a long version, but see TIPS for 'quick' version.

Ingredients: 

Chicken breasts - 2 (cut in bite size pieces)
All-purpose flour - 3/4 cup
Salt & pepper - 1/4 tsp each
Olive oil - 3 TBS

Sesame seeds - for garnish 

[Orange Sauce]
Water - 1 1/2 cups
Orange juice - juice of 1 orange (*see TIPS)
Lemon juice - 1/4 cup
Rice vinegar - 1/3 cup
Soy sauce - 2 1/2 TBS
Grated Orange zest - 1 TBS (about half of the orange)
Brown sugar - 1 cup
Ginger juice - 2 tsp (or minced ginger)
Green onin - 2 TBS
Red pepper flakes - 1/4 tsp

[Cornstarch slurry]
Cornstarch - 4 TBS
Water - 3 TBS

Prep:

1. In a saucepan, put all the orange sauce ingredients and bring it to boil. Turn the heat off and let it cool for about 10-15 minutes.
2. In a ziplock bag or in a bowl, mix cut chicken breast with 1/2 cup of orange sauce, salt and pepper. Let it marinade for 2 hours (in a hurry? see TIPS)
3. Mix cornstarch and water together in a bowl. 

For quick version, go right into coating chicken with salt, pepper and flour

In a saucepan, mix all ingredients and bring to boil (sorry a bit blurry)

Cook:

1. In a wok, heat 3 TBS of olive oil. Coat marinated chicken with flour. When it's hot, fry marinated chicken pieces until golden brown on the edge (about 5-7 minutes). Flip half way through.
2. In a small saucepan, heat up the remaining orange sauce. Add cornstarch slurry and stir until the sauce thickens. 
3. Drizzle or pour sauce on top of the chicken pieces. Top with white sesame seeds. 

Fry until golden brown

Serve: 

1. Serve with hot white rice and Chinese veggies or steamed veggies. 

TIPS

• If you are in a hurry, skip the marinade part and get right into frying chicken. Just season chicken with salt & pepper and flour. Then fry in a wok (follow cook #1).
• For orange, you can use the one whole orange for the juice and grated orange zest, or you can use orange juice (2 TBS) and omit orange zest if you don't have oranges in hand.