Homemade orange chicken recipe as good as take out. A great side for rice or noodles. Sub the chicken for paneer or tofu for a vegetarian version.
Right before the lockdown started in India, I had a sudden craving for Panda express’ orange chicken. It’s been a while since I have eaten Panda express orange chicken, but along with their kung pao chicken it used to be a regular order whenever V and I visited Phoenix. The way we Indians have indianized chinese food, the same way in the US there is american chinese food, and Panda Express did it quite well.
Now I can’t confidently say the orange chicken recipe I am sharing today is a Panda express copycat recipe- it has been 4 years since I last ate at Panda express but its a recipe that we enjoyed nonetheless. Panda Express is yet to open their outlet in India. I saw this copycat recipe for orange chicken here and after reading the reviews and feedback and other online copycat panda express orange chicken recipes, I tweaked it to make an orange chicken version I like.
The one good thing that has come out of the lockdown is that our meat consumption has come down. I know it might be weird to make a note of that on a chicken based recipe- but well it is what it is. We haven’t fully converted to being vegetarian or vegan, but both A and I had been discussing how we should not be consuming the amount of non veg we had been consuming. Thanks to the lockdown and the non availability of meat products near us, we cooked more vegetable and legume centric dishes. But now and then we did miss our chicken and mutton/pork dishes. Once we got hold of a meat delivery guy, we ordered some for the house. And one of the first things that I made with the chicken was a repeat of this orange chicken to test the recipe out for the blog.
MAKING ORANGE CHICKEN
Boneless thigh meat works best, as it remains the juiciest, but you can also make this orange chicken with boneless breast meat.
Orange Sauce is a mixture of vinegar, soy sauce, sesame oil, sugar, orange zest and orange juice that is cooked and thickened in a pan. Boneless chicken pieces are dipped in egg and then coated with a cornflour-flour mix before deep frying it. The deep fried battered chicken is then added to the thickened sauce, and your orange chicken is ready. This orange chicken is great as a side with rice or noodles.
Feel free to add veggies like broccoli, or snow peas to the chicken if you like.
TO MAKE IT VEGETARIAN
You can sub paneer or tofu to make it vegetarian.
For the coating, mix the corn flour, flour, salt, pepper, 1 tbsp oil with a little water to make a smooth batter without any lumps. The batter should be of medium consistency- neither too thick nor too thin. Add the paneer to the batter, and when ready deep fry them till golden brown. Use the batter fried paneer instead of chicken in the recipe.
