Orange Chicken

As I've said before, our family loves eating out and one of our favorite fast food meals is Panda Express or the Rice Garden restaurant inside of Basha's. Even though it's great to eat out, it can get expensive!! So I decided to tackle learning how to make a family favorite; Orange Chicken. I'm sooooo glad I did! This is easy to prepare, don't get intimidated by all the steps. Once you've made and tasted this, you may never go back to Panda Express again! The sauce on this is to die for good, made with fresh fruits and ginger. I taught an Asian cooking class at church last week and made this and everyone loved it, I know you will too!! We love serving this with cooked vegetables like snow peas, broccoli, or green beans and putting some of the yummy sauce over those too.

Orange Chicken

Print Recipe

Sauce:

2  cups Water

2 teaspoon Chicken Bullion Powder

4 Tablespoons Orange Juice

1/2 cup Lemon Juice

2/3 cup Rice Vinegar

1/3 cup Soy Sauce

4 Tablespoons Orange Zest (peel)

2 cups Brown Sugar

2 Tablespoons fresh Ginger Root

1/2 teaspoon Garlic Powder

4 Tablespoons Green Onion

1/2 teaspoon Red Pepper Flakes

To thicken later:

4 Tablespoons cornstarch

3 Tablespoons Water

Chicken

2 pounds boneless skinless chicken breasts, chopped into bite-sized pieces

1/4 teaspoon Salt

1/4 teaspoon Pepper

1/2 cup Cornstarch

1/4 cup Flour

Olive oil for frying (3-6 Tablespoons)

In a sauce pan, stir all the ingredients together EXCEPT the cornstarch and water under "thicken later." Stir and cook over medium heat til combined for about 2-3 minutes and then bring to a boil. Remove from heat and cool for about 10-15 minutes.

Place the chicken breasts in a Ziploc bag. Remove exactly 1 cup of the sauce and coat chicken. Place chicken in fridge for at least 2 hours.

In another Ziploc bag, stir together the 1/2 cup cornstarch, flour, salt and pepper. Add the marinated chicken pieces, seal the bag, and shake to coat. Heat the olive oil in a large skillet over medium heat. You can do this in 2 batches. Add the chicken

and brown on both sides.

You can see here that I turned the chicken when it was getting nice and toasty brown. It should take about 3 minutes on each side.

Remove to a plate, you can line with paper towels to drain if you want to. Cover with foil.

Wipe out your skillet and place the orange sauce in there. Stir together the 4 Tablespoons cornstarch and water and stir into your sauce to thicken. Heat over medium high heat to a boil; reduce heat to medium-low. Add the chicken pieces and, if using, you can also add cooked veggies and stir for about 5 minutes to coat. Serve over rice!!

Recipe Source: Adapted from allrecipes.com and Even More Top Secret Recipes by Todd Wilbur