Chinese Orange Chicken
Not even Panda Express can beat this homemade orange chicken!
Today was just one of those days. My photography shoot went awry. I burned myself when frying an egg. There was an ant party in my kitchen trash. I hit the worst kind of traffic on a Saturday afternoon for a 3 mile drive. The list goes on.
The highlight of my day was that I still had some of this orange chicken left. This is a Chinese favorite of mine, especially from Panda Express, involving crisp, fried chicken bites smothered in a wonderfully sweet and tangy orange sauce. There is a bit of prep work involved here but at the end of the day, nothing beats homemade, right? And believe me when I say that not even Panda Express will beat this version!
Chinese Orange Chicken
Ingredients
- 1 ½ pounds boneless, skinless chicken breasts, cut into 1-inch chunks
- 1 cup plus 2 tablespoons cornstarch, divided
- 2 large eggs, beaten
- 1 cup vegetable oil
- ½ teaspoon sesame seeds
- 1 green onion, thinly sliced
For the marinade
- 1 cup chicken broth
- ½ cup freshly squeezed orange juice
- ½ cup sugar
- ⅓ cup distilled white vinegar
- ¼ cup soy sauce
- 2 cloves garlic, minced
- 1 tablespoon orange zest
- 1 teaspoon Sriracha, or more, to taste
- ¼ teaspoon ground ginger
- ¼ teaspoon white pepper
Instructions
- To make the marinade, whisk together chicken broth, orange juice, sugar, vinegar, soy sauce, garlic, orange zest, Sriracha, ginger and white pepper in a large bowl.
- In a gallon size Ziploc bag or large bowl, combine chicken and 2/3 cup of the marinade; marinate for at least 30 minutes, turning the bag occasionally. Drain the chicken from the marinade, discarding the marinade.
- Heat remaining marinade in a medium saucepan over medium heat. Bring to a boil and stir in 2 tablespoons cornstarch combined with 2 tablespoons water. Cook, stirring frequently, until thickened about 1-2 minutes; keep warm.
- Working one at a time, dip the chicken into the eggs, then dredge in remaining 1 cup cornstarch, pressing to coat.
- Heat vegetable oil in a large saucepan. Working in batches, add chicken and fry until golden brown and cooked through, about 1-2 minutes. Transfer to a paper towel-lined plate; discard excess oil.
- Serve chicken immediately, tossed or drizzled with the marinade, garnished with sesame seeds and green onion, if desired.
Did you make this recipe?
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I made this tonight it was perfect 🙂 followed the recipe exact except I used peanut oil! thank you so much it for posting it
Hi are you using a wok? Could I use a cast iron skillet to fry the chicken
Either will work just fine.
Excellent flavour on the marinade. I made it as written but doubled the Sriracha. I was in the mood for a little more kick but I may have gone overboard.,,,,we will soon find out! :0)
Chicken is marinading for 2 to 3 hours. Thank you for the recipe!
This is good. I mean really good. I know how to cook and do a pretty damn good job at it. LOL. This recipe worked! So many recipes from the web or even a blog won’t.
My family loved this recipe and I have made it twice so far. I am getting ready to teach it to my kids in our middle school cooking class. I will let you know what they think.
Thanks for your hard work.
This is AMAZING! My whole family (including 3 kids, 2 of which are crazy picky) LOVE this! I love it for so many reasons besides the amazing taste:
1- we live in the middle of no where so take out isn’t even an option.
2- I’m literally having a baby in 9 days and this is so amazing, totally worth standing in the kitchen for over an hour to make it (I make a ton at a time)
3- it’s amazing cold or warmed up as left overs, and my family is not big on left overs at all.
Thanks for sharing this! I’ll be making it again for dinner tonight, hopefully I’ll have some left overs tomorrow!
This was ridiculously good! I made it exactly as written except I halved the recipe. The orange flavor was so pronounced my 3 year old said it tasted like orange juice (he loved it!). It was crisp and sticky. I served it over white rice with roasted broccoli. Thank you for such a great dinner recipe!
I made this tonight for dinner. Actually, I marinated my chicken overnight only because I started into it late and just decided to cook the next day…that really allowed the flavor to soak in & dont think 30 min would have given off the deep flavor result I got. Dipping in egg and dredging in cornstarch kept my fingers messy lol! I did cook my pieces for at least 5 min…jus didnt wanna chance it being undercooked. It came out nicely…my son loved it… I had a couple of pork chops in the freezer so I cut those up and did those too, as well as some ‘chick-less’ soy strips for my vegetarian daughter. Im used to restaurant orange chicken being a lil sweeter but overall an easy and tasty dish. Thx!
Fell upon this recipe and website last night. Quickly through this together with no time to marinate. Yummo! The family loved it! Thanks. I’ll be back for more, I love food blogs and now I’m hooked. We’ve decided to use this sauce as a wing coat too.
I unfortunately did not have time to make a homemade sauce so I used store-bought, but the chicken recipe was delicious! I made it twice, and it actually works really well to just put all of the chicken pieces and cornstarch in a bag and shaking it. It’s a little messy but it makes the process way faster and you can make everything at the same time. But great recipe! 🙂
I made this and it is DELISH!!!!
That recipe looks so good ! Iwant to cook it but therefor I need to know: What brand of sriracha sauce did you take ? And what kind? because i found some that was called hot, really hot, ginger, onion, garlic and lemon gras And i didn’ know which one i should take
I used Huy Fong.
Hello. I like your photography.
I decided to make this recipe last minute and use up some veggies in the process. I didn’t marinate the chicken but instead used it to make the sauce. I skipped the egg dip, tossed the chicken in whole wheat flour and fried it in a small amount of hot oil, then set aside. Sautéed carrots, snow peas and onions in the pan, added the marinade liquid and when bubbling. I made a roux with cornstarch and chicken broth and slowly added to the sauce and veggies and it thickened up nicely. I added the chicken back in, and when all was heated through, thick and bubbling, I added some frozen pineapple chunks. The whole family loved it, it was easy to make and goes on the permanent meal rotation. If I plan ahead, I can try marinating the chicken. Great recipe!
Second time making this recipe, and it is the best orange chicken ever!! I’ll be trying more recipes from your blog–fool-proof is the best! Thank YOU!
This orange chicken was absolutely delicious!! I followed the directions almost to a “T!” I did not have white pepper, so I used black. I used freshly squeezed oranges for the juice and I do not have a zester, so had to forgo that. It was so very good! I did end up needing to make more sauce b/c it did not make enough for the amount of chicken I coated! This is one of the best orange chicken recipes I have tried!!
Here’s the critical steps to get a crunchy result:
Use potato starch for the coating but still use corn starch for the sauce thickening. (trust me)
Try to dry the chicken before coating with egg.
Do small batches so as not to cool the oil too rapidly. A deep fryer with peanut oil is the way to go. I feel like the vegetable oil gives a spoiled oil flavor. Peanut oil is near flavorless.
Experiment with deep frying times. I like to allow it to sit in the oil until the bubbling subsides (like popcorn in a microwave)
Consistant cut sizes with no dangling meat. Give that part to the begging cat.
Even after sitting in my sauce for 5 minutes my bites give an audible crunch.
I was too lazy to marinate it beforehand and I feel like the moisture left on the chicken bites takes away from the crunchy result. Plus, the sauce is coating the bites anyway.
Thank you for this comment. I was actually reading through them to see if the recipe author ever addresses this issue. I thought the sauce tasted amazing but the second I added it to the chicken, my nice crunchy fried coating turned to absolute mush. I was wondering if there was a better way to keep the chicken crispy (like Panda Express does, even as the Orange Chicken sits in the heated pan for extended periods of time). Maybe it would be better to fry the chicken with a batter coating to keep the crunchy layer?
Lynn, once the chicken is tossed in the sauce, it is inevitable that it’s crispness is lost over time – there’s really no way around that. If the crispness is most important to you, you can always keep the chicken dry and use the sauce as a dipping sauce.
This is by far one of my favorite recipes to make!!! It is easy and delicious!! It is one of my Husbands favorites to eat!!! Love your blog and your recipes!!!
EXCELLENT!! Thanks for a great recipe!
i made this tonight for our New Year’s Eve celebration. It was fantastic! I am very picky when it comes to orange sauce and am always a little skeptical but this knocked it out of the park. I didn’t have any issue with the breading falling off but I also upped the oil to 3 cups to speed up the frying process. My Panda Express loving husband says this tops the list now. Thank you so much!
I want to try this really bad, but I always fail when I try to fry anything! Do you remember how high you set the temp when heating up the oil? Thanks! Btw: I love your site and since discovering it, it’s my “go-to” when planning my meals for the week…..we’ve had your One-Pot Pasta once a week for past two months!!!!
Kelly, I honestly can’t remember how high the temp was as I was not using a thermometer. I just let it sit on medium heat for about 3-4 minutes. Hope that helps!
350 degrees is the optimal frying temperature for most foods.