Orange Chicken

October 16, 2011 · 95 comments

Orange Chicken

Growing up in a small agricultural community in Northern California, we had exactly 3 Chinese restaurants. Because my mom tended to cook almost every night, Chinese take-out was a rare treat that we all looked forward to.

My mom loved the “Mongolian” Beef, my step-dad the Sweet and Sour Pork, my sister was an Almond Chicken gal, and as for myself, I was a fan of the “Singapore” Noodles. After leaving home and making some “real” Chinese and Singaporean friends, I came to the the horrifying realization that the take-out I’d been eating out of those pagoda clad paper containers was not Chinese food at all.

Chicken dusted with potato starch

To me, it was a disgraceful hack at an ancient cuisine and I grew to shun the “fake” Chinese restaurants littering America’s strip-malls. Instead, I’d take great pains to seek out authentic holes-in-wall where they speak no English and their idea of service is to toss you out if you take too long to eat.

They say you grow wiser with age, or maybe I just outgrew my food snobbery. Either way, I realized that just as a Shanghainese person might crave the Scallion Pancakes they ate from road-side vendors as a child, or a Singaporean might crave Chicken Rice from a Hawker Centre, I realized that I craved the sweet sticky flavors of the American Chinese kitchen.

Fried Chicken for Orange Chicken

But there’s a fine line between moist and greasy, sweet and cloying, and savory and artificial. It’s a line that most American Chinese restaurants cross, and so I’ve decided to come up with my own versions of all my childhood favorites. The great thing is that almost all American Chinese dishes are simple to make and the ingredients easy to find. How else would a chef keep up with the 20+ pages of menu options that show up in most Chinese menus?

Orange Chicken

So to start things off, here’s my version of Orange Chicken. First I infuse the meat with a soy sauce and ginger marinade, before coating it with potato starch and deep frying. To glaze the savory chicken, I thicken a mixture of marmalade and orange juice with just enough starch to give the chicken a glistening sheen of sweetness. In this case, the cheaper the marmalade you use, the better your orange chicken will turn out, so don’t bother spending a lot of money on a fancy orange preserve.

Equipment you'll need:

Orange Chicken

serves 3-4

for chicken
1 pound chicken thighs, cut into strips
1 tablespoon soy sauce
1 tablespoon sake
1 teaspoon grated ginger
1/2 cup potato starch
oil for frying

for orange sauce
2/3 cup orange juice
1/3 cup marmalade
2 teaspoons potato starch (halve if using cornstarch)
1/2 teaspoon salt

Put the chicken in a bowl with the soy sauce, sake and ginger and marinate for at least 15 minutes. When the chicken is done marinating, lightly dust each piece with potato starch.

Heat a pot with at least 1/2″ of oil in it over medium heat until hot. In a separate pan, add the orange juice, marmalade, 2 teaspoons of potato starch and the salt and whisk to combine.

Orange Sauce for Chicken

Fry the chicken until golden brown and transfer to a paper towel lined plate to drain. When the chicken is done frying, heat the orange sauce over medium high heat, stirring constantly to prevent clumping until the sauce is thick and bubbly. Add the fried chicken into the orange sauce and toss to coat.

You can garnish it with some chopped red bell pepper for some extra color.

  • Emma

    My brother a minute ago made this recipe. It tasted wonderful except the fact that it was way to orange for our liking. Are we allowed to take the orange down a notch?

    • http://norecipes.com Marc Matsumoto

      Hi Emma, my guess is it might have to do with the marmalade you used. It works best with really cheap marmalade (one with more water and sugar than oranges) as a good marmalade will make the orange flavor too potent. If that wasn’t the problem you could try substituting the orange juice with water.

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  • Neil

    Hello Marc and thank you for this recipe. I’m new to cooking and found this relatively easy to make, although i think i can do it better the next time.
    I couldn’t follow the recipe exactly because in the UK its difficult to find potato starch on the shelf at a supermarket. I couldn’t even find corn starch so i had to make do with tapioca which came in these little balls about 1mm across which i ground up in a coffee grinder. Contrary to other peoples comments, i found the orange flavour not quite strong enough so i may try a more expensive marmalade next time or just add a little more. Also i found the soy sauce was maybe a little over powering. It was dark soy sauce, is there such a thing as light soy sauce? If so should i have used that?
    I served it with some boil in the bag white rice which i seasoned with some squeezed fresh lemon. I think it went with the chicken quite well but i’d like to know what you would normally serve with it? Thanks Marc.

    Regards, Neil

    • http://norecipes.com Marc Matsumoto

      Hi Neil thanks for dropping by to leave a comment. I think in the UK you guys call it “cornflour” but please make sure it’s white and powdery (not the yellow gritty corn meal). Although if you were able to get the tapioca ground fine enough I’m sure that would work too. As for the orange if you use a pricier marmalade you should get a more intense flavor (look for one with lots of orange peel in it). As for the soy sauce, I usually use Japanese dark soy sauce because it’s mild. There’s also Japanese light soy sauce which has a lighter color. I’m guessing you may have used Chinese dark soy sauce which is much more concentrated and has a more pungent aroma. I normally serve this with rice, and the lemon juice sounds like a great idea!

      • Neil

        Your right it was chinese soy sauce! I’ll have a look for Japanese next time or if i can’t find it i’ll use half the amount of the chinese and see if that works. Thanks Marc.

  • http://twitter.com/blizzystorm Franchesca

    wow, your recipes are just amazing and makes my stomach grow.
    I cannot wait to try them out! I’m so happy I found your website.

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  • Heather

    This was great! My kids *love* getting orange chicken whenever we go to the mall–they beg, even though we’re usually there for shopping. I made some a couple weeks ago, but it was *terrible*. They wouldn’t touch it (they’re 4 and 6). But I made this for dinner tonight with fried rice and veggies, and they devoured it. My 6 year old ate most of mine, too. Thanks so much!

  • Sammael

    I can’t find any orange marmelade, would tangerine marmelade do?

    • http://norecipes.com Marc Matsumoto

      It will taste different, but I don’t see why not.

  • Sheila

    Can’t wait to try the orange chicken. Between wheat allergy, low carb and no onions or peppers, my cooking is in an all time slump….I have some lemon curd I’ll substitute for the orange marmalade.

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