I make ridiculously good orange chicken. Here’s how:

Equipment Needed

• Deep fryer or deep pot and lots of good frying oil
• I use coconut oil
• A big pan or wok to coat the chicken in sauce

Ingredients

Dipping mixture

• Corn starch (1.5 cups)
• Unbleached white flour (1.5 cups)
• Salt (.5 tsp)
• Pepper (.5 tsp)

Chicken etc

• Chicken breast, thawed and diced into 1-2 inch cubes (2-3 lbs)
• Eggs (2)
• Orange juice (1 orange)
• Orange zest (.5-1 orange)
• Salt (.5 tsp)
• Pepper (.5 tsp)

Orange sauce

• 6 Tbsp sugar
• 6 Tbsp rice vinegar (any flavor/style is fine)
• 3 Tbsp soy sauce
• 3-4 Tbsp water
• Orange juice (fresh from 1.5 oranges)
• Orange zest (from 1 orange)

In pan

• 1-2 Tbsp olive oil
• 1.5 Tbsp minced garlic
• .5 Tbsp minced ginger
• 1/4 cup chopped green onion

Last stuff

• 1/4 cup cold water
• 1 Tbsp corn starch
• Spicy sesame oil

Steps

1. Get your oil heating to 375 F minimum. Be sure you have a slotted spoon or a basket to help with gathering the cooked chicken. (I cook outside in our deep fryer– much oil smoke and steam is produced.)
2. Prepare chicken- thaw and dice- and put in a large bowl.
3. Add all ‘Chicken etc.’ stuff to the diced chicken. Stir until it’s well combined.
4. Prepare your dipping mixture in a deepish, wide pan. Combine well.
5. Place your bowl of chicken mixture and dipping mixture near the hot oil. Also get a large plate or a cake pan and line it with a couple layers of paper towel.
6. Prepare a large pan– a wide sauce pan is best– by putting it on the stove– no heat yet!– and adding the oil, garlic, and ginger.
7. Combine the orange sauce ingredients in an appropriate sized bowl. Keep this bowl near to the pan.
8. Now, in small-medium batches, toss the goopy chicken in the flour mixture, coating evenly, then immediately cooking. It will cook in 4 minutes. DON’T OVERCOOK. Remove from the oil and put it in the cake pan lined with paper towel. Cook all the chicken in this manner. Your hand will get goopy. It’s okay.
9. The moment you put the last batch of chicken in the oil to cook, go turn the heat on under the pan with oil, ginger, and garlic. Keep the heat on low-medium.
10. When all the chicken is cooked, set it next to the heating pan of oil, ginger, and garlic. Put the chopped green onions in the oil, ginger, garlic mixture as soon as it is fragrant. Turn the heat to med-high and saute the green onions until they’re slightly cooked.
11. Time to rock and roll!
12. Give the orange sauce mixture one last mix to dissolve all sugar. Now pour it in your hot pan of oil, ginger, garlic, and green onions. Bring it to a quick boil.
13. Turn the heat back down to low.
14. Put the cooked chicken in the pan, gently coating it with the dark orange sauce.
15. When the chicken is coated, decide if you want the sauce to be thicker. If so, decide how much. Also, turn off the heat. (YOUR JOB HERE IS TO NOT ACTUALLY COOK THE CHICKEN ANYMORE WHILE STILL COATING IT.)
16. If only a little thicker, use half the water and corn starch as listed above.
17. Either way, mix the corn starch in the cold water- leave no lumps.
18. Drizzle this over the hot pan of chicken and stir well. The sauce will thicken immediately.
19. When the chicken is fully coated and the sauce is nicely thickened, serve immediately.

We like to have this with rice, Asian slaw, and roasted sweet potatoes.

Yum