Takeout favourite Crispy Orange Chicken recipe!! Crispy chicken coated with delicious sweet, tangy, sticky orange sauce. With our simple instructions, you can make crispy orange chicken at home, way better than your local takeout.
What is orange chicken?
Orange chicken is a very popular American-Chinese dish, originally created by the Hunan-Chinese chef of Panda Express (American-Chinese restaurant). One of the most loved takeout dish and many restaurants sell Panda Express style copycat recipes. If you haven't tried it yet, must give it a try this crispy tangy chicken! Your family will definitely love it!
Simple Cooking Process :
1. Seasoning the chicken
Chicken need to be tenderized and well-seasoned before you coat with the batter mix. I usually marinate with soy sauce, sesame oil, garlic paste and white pepper. Baking soda is the key ingredient to tenderize the meat and keeps the meat most and juicy when you deep fry them. But you don't need to add a lot, you will only need quarter teaspoon for this recipe. You can leave the marinade for 10-15 minutes but if have more time, you can leave longer hour. Or you want to make preparation ahead, you can leave it overnight in a fridge with an air-tight container.
2. How to create a perfect crispy coating
Most Chinese crispy fried chicken are dip and coated with corn starch or potato starch. But in this orange chicken recipe, you will need to create a batter mix instead of dabbing in the flour. This batter is the main difference from other dishes like Sweet and Sour Chicken and General Tso’s Chicken. This chicken batter will stays crispy even after you tossed with the sauce. You will need only two simple ingredients, egg and corn starch to make the crispy, non-greasy fried chicken coating. Mix the egg and corn starch with a bit of water to create a thick batter and ready to dip your marinated chicken pieces.
3. Homemade Orange Sauce
Orange peel, zest or juice are commonly use in baking and sweets, but in a dish is not very common. When you hear orange in a sauce you might think that is such a bizarre sauce. I've thought the same before I haven't tried out this recipe. Actually orange, soy sauce and sugar are perfect combination to create this delightful dish. If you are not a sugar fan, feel free to add honey instead of sugar. I love to add chicken stock to bring more umami flavour, but vegetarian stock or Japanese dashi stock would taste great too.
How to serve this dish:
This dish can be serve with noodles, fried rice, plain rice, salads, steamed vegetables or delicious on its own. I usually serve over hot steamed rice topped with extra toasted sesame seeds and spring onions. My family never seem to have enough of this orange chicken whenever I make at home. So I had to always make extra. This is a very addictive dish that all kids and adults loves, so you need to make sure to make it into very large batch!
Frequently asked questions
Can you fry it in air fryer? Definitely you can! Spray or brush a bit of oil on both side the coated chicken and fry it with the pre-heated 350°F( 177° C) air fryer for 8-10 minutes until done. Flip halfway through.
Can you bake it in oven? Pre-heat the oven to 350°F( 177° C). Place the coated chicken on the baking tray, brush a bit of oil on both sides and bake for 8-10 minutes until crispy. Turn sides on halfway.
How to make spicy orange chicken? This recipe doesn't come with loads of chilli inside, but you can always adjust the spice level according to your taste. To make it extra spicy, you can add dry red chillies, cut and deseeded or fresh chopped bird eye chillies.
MY OTHER CRISPY SAVOURY CHICKEN RECIPES TO TRY :
📖 Recipe
Crispy Orange Chicken
Ingredients
- 250 g Boneless chicken thigh/breast
- 1 cup Corn flour(starch)
- 1 egg
- 2-3 tbsp water
- ½ tsp Grated ginger
- 1 tsp Grated Garlic
- ½ tsp Crushed chilli flakes ( optional )
- Spring onion for garnish
- Toasted sesame seeds for garnish
- 1 tbsp Vegetable oil
- Oil for frying ( Peanut/Canola/Sunflower or any neutral flavour vegetable oil )
- 1 tsp Orange Zest
Orange Sauce
- 3 tbsp Orange Juice ( fresh squeeze )
- 2 tbsp Light soy sauce
- 2 tbsp Brown Sugar ( or white sugar/ honey )
- ½ cup Chicken/vegetable stock ( or water )
- 1 tsp Corn starch (flour)
Marinate for Chicken
- 1 tbsp Light soy sauce
- 1 tsp Sesame oil
- 1 tsp Garlic paste ( finely grated)
- ¼ tsp Baking soda
- ¼ tsp White pepper
Instructions
- First of all cut the chicken into small bite size pieces.
- In a mixing bowl, mix the chicken pieces with the ingredients from the marinate list. Mix well and set aside.
- To prepare the orange sauce, mix all the sauce ingredients in a small bowl and set aside.
- Beat one egg in a large mixing bowl, add one cup of corn flour and 2 to 3 tablespoon of water. Whisk well to make a thick batter.
- Pour the marinated chicken pieces in. Coat the chicken pieces with the batter evenly.
- Heat the oil into 350° F, you can test with wooden chopstick or spoon. When the oil bubbles steadily come out near the chop stick, its ready to fry.
- Fry the chicken pieces until crispy golden brown. Remove from oil and transfer to cooling rack or paper towel.
- In a large wok/pan, heat 1 tablespoon of oil into medium heat, add the chopped ginger and garlic. Stir for few seconds and add the crushed chilli and continue stir 10-15 seconds.
- Pour the orange sauce in, stir continuously until the sauce reduce to half and become thick. Add the chicken pieces in and coat the chicken pieces well. Add one teaspoon of orange zest.
- Toss well to combine all ingredients evenly until the sauce become glossy. Transfer to serving pate and garnish with chopped spring onions, toasted sesame seeds and orange wedges.
- Serve immediately! Enjoy!
Nutrition
To make a wholesome Chinese dinner, I recommend to try with this following recipes :
If you enjoy our recipe, please leave a comment and give us a rating! If you've tried this recipe, tag me on social medias, I would love to see your creations! Follow me on social medias Facebook, Instagram and Pinterest for latest updates.
Chace’s mom says
This was fantastic ! I used one large boneless skinless chicken breast. I served it over rice & broccoli…so next time, I will double the sauce. (There wasn’t enough sauce to spoon over the side dishes.) But it was delicious! Thank you.
Why OrderTakeout? This is SO Easy! says
After making this recipe, I don't think that we will ever order orange chicken via takeout again! My family loved it. I used boneless chicken thighs for an extra layer of flavor. Served it as a one dish meal on a bed of steamed jasmine rice and sprinkled with sweet peas and sesame seeds. Delish! I finally got the chance to use my wok!
Khin says
So glad that you enjoyed this recipe! Love it with sweet peas and sesame seeds. Thanks for sharing feedback.
Rosa says
Super yummy and easy! My whole family wanted more.
Morag Summers says
Love this recipe !
Trying to do some batch cooking and wondered if I cooked the chicken then froze in batch and mixed all the sauce ingredients and froze in another bag/tub do you think this would work for a quick meal. Do you know if anyone has tried to do this?
Khin says
Hi Morag, so pleased that you enjoyed this recipe. You can freeze the chicken separately and keep the sauce ingredients in a fridge in an air-tight jar/container. Hope this helps.
Val says
Do you use corn flour or corn starch for crispy orange chicken recipe.
Khin says
Hi Val, corn starch or potato starch is best for crispy coating texture.
Rose says
it was soooo yummy! I made it for my mom's birthday and she loved it! great recipe.
Devin says
Loved your recipe! It was simple and tasted great!
Khin says
Thank you so much Devin! So glad that you enjoyed it!
Evicka says
It was super super delicious! I love orange chicken and was super excited to make it. But my chicken didn’t get crispy anymore when I added the sauce to it 🙁 Why was that? Maybe you can give me a tip for future attempts please?
Khin says
Thank you so much Evicka! Suggest adding the fried chicken pieces when the sauce starts to get thick and use corn starch or potato starch instead of regular flour. Hope this helpful for you.
Mia Troisi says
The BEST orange chicken I have ever eaten - and I have eaten a lot of orange chicken.
Khin says
So glad that you enjoyed our Orange chicken recipe! Thank you so much for feedback Mia!
Kevin ball says
I made the crispy chilli beef on sunday made it with fillet steak absolutely delicious thank you
Khin says
I am so glad that you enjoyed the recipe. Thank you so much for your comment that keep me going to make more recipe.
Mary says
Love all your recipes so much
Thank you for sharing them
Khin says
So glad that you enjoyed our recipes Mary! Thank you for sharing your feedback.
Chris says
Great recipes we love that all keep up the good work,
Theron Pollock jr says
Orange chicken was fabulous