Updated on June 25th, 2022
I have wanted to try this recipe for Mandarin Chicken all summer, and I wanted to give my new grill pan a test drive so I decided to make it tonight. Let’s just say I wasn’t disappointed with the results, it was a big hit around here. The combination of seasoned grilled chicken and a delicious sweet mandarin sauce really made this dish a winner. Grilling the chicken was really a big change because normally with Asian recipes I am either frying the chicken in the wok or deep fryer. I used a grill pan, but by all means, if you have a nice outdoor grill feel free to fire it up. This recipe is very easy to make and takes little time. Grilling the chicken and making the sauce are about all that there is to it. Unfortunately, there is a lot of sugar in this recipe and if necessary, cut back on the amount of sugar a little bit. Mandarin chicken goes great served with white rice. Enjoy.
Mandarin Chicken Recipe
Ingredients
- 2 boneless skinless chicken breasts
- vegetable oil or cooking spray
- ½ tablespoon sugar
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ¼ teaspoon of garlic powder
- Mandarin Sauce-
- 2/3 cup sugar
- A ¼ cup of soy sauce
- 1 tablespoon lemon juice
- 1 teaspoon fresh garlic (minced)
- 1 teaspoon fresh ginger (minced)
- A ¼ cup of water
- 4 teaspoons cornstarch
Instructions
- Pound chicken breasts with a mallet to an even thickness and season both sides with sugar, salt, and garlic powder. Grill chicken 4-6 minutes on each side or until no longer pink inside. Remove from grill and cut into bite-sized strips. Set aside.
- In a bowl combine sugar, soy sauce, lemon juice, garlic, and ginger. Pour into a wok or saucepan. Heat the mixture until almost at a boil. Combine cornstarch and water. Once the sauce starts to boil add the cornstarch mixture and stir until thickened.
- Add grilled chicken to the wok and coat with the sauce. Simmer until heated thoroughly.
As soon as the picture loaded I said out loud “Yumm”. I really want to try this as soon as possible.
This looks delicious. I like the idea of grilling the chicken instead of frying it.
This looks simply great & I’m not surprised your family devoured it! I’ve recently finished a book review of Southeast Asian food where, just like this recipe, there are lots of grills and ligtht cooking with similar superb results.
That chicken looks so good!
I definitely prefer it grilled rather than fried, much healthier and maybe instead of sugar do you think that it can work with honey? I am not sure what you mean with mandarin sauce. We call mandarins the fruit also called tangerines but I do not see any in the recipe.
I looks so delicious!
that sauce sounds fantastic! most of my friends think i’m weird, but i love my chicken with a note of sweetness, so this is perfect for me. 🙂
Russell – It is really good, give it a try and let me know if you like it as much as I did :).
Esi – Thanks, grilling chicken is much more healthy.
recipes2share – Sounds like an interesting book that I would enjoy reading as well.
Kevin – It really is amazing.
Ivy – Sorry I’m late on getting back to you. I think that it would go great with honey instead of sugar. Good question about the mandarins, I was wondering the same thing myself actually. I’m guessing it is called mandarin sauce for one of two reasons. Either because the color of the sauce resembles that of a mandarin or because mandarin is a language spoken in certain parts of China. That is just my guess. I hope this helped. Thanks.
grace – If you love sweetness this is indeed perfect for you. Your friends would think I’m really weird, I have been looking into something called strawberry chicken. It sounds good to me 🙂
This looks fantastic. My kids love mandarin chicken, but I’ve never made it at home! I’m adding this to my “to try soon” list!
Wow…. drooling over the picture;)
Looks fanastic:)
I’m with Vani – I’m drooling!
Kristen – It’s probably very similar to what you are used to having. Enjoy.
Vani – Thanks, I’m craving more of it right now.
Deborah – Haha, thank you 🙂
hi!, Me again. I love this one and I’m gonna make it tomorrow. I already try one (Beijing beef)and my family love it, even my mom that hates this kind of food. Thanxs. You are totally breaking my diet.
Paola – Sounds good. I’m glad you enjoyed the Beijing beef. Let me know what you think of the mandarin chicken. Thanks!
I will definitely try this recipe coz its so yummmm mmy… i am waiting for the weekend to try this banana bread with my facourite bubble tea. mmmmmmmmm….
You have so many good recipes to try Thanks Kim
yummmmmmm….im making this tonight! that is if i can get me some lemons…
think i can do with out the ginger? im not too fond of it.
Hi from Croatia 🙂 I really love your site. I`ve just bought myself a wok and now I am looking for all the possible recipes in which I could put it to use. I think that I will start with some of yours. Love the photos.
The kids loved it!
Another hit with my family. Grilling the chicken was definitely the way to go!
So I have been trying to do this kind of recipe a couple times now but it just not the same. I usually get it without the sauce so do you know how they just cook and season the grilled chicken? And do they actually use dark meat instead of white meat? Any help would be awesome!
Sadie – That would all depend on where you are getting the chicken from. They could marinate it. Unfortunatly, I am sorry but I don’t have the answer for you.
This recipe is amazingly delicious. I cut the sugar down to 1/3 cup and used 1/4 cup mandarin orange juice with a small handful of mandarins instead of the water. Tasted amazing and will definitely use this recipe again.
Tried this last night and it was delicious! I do have a question, though. The color of the sauce ended up being a very dark brown instead of the orange glaze I see in the pictures. The only change I made to the recipe was using half a cup of sugar instead of 3/4 but I don’t think that would have done something so drastic.
Ideas?
Otherwise wonderful recipe!
Jesse – sounds like it came out about right. The sauce is not really orange, it just appears that way in the picture.
Is 4 teaspoons of cornstarch correct? My sauce didn’t thicken more then a tiny little bit.
Rob – Yes, 4 teaspoons is correct. If it didn’t not reach the desired thickness just keep adding until you get the consistancy you want. What I usually do is mix up about 2-3 tablespoons in a bit of water and just keep adding until It gets to the thickness I like.
This recipe wasn’t bad. I cut down on the sugar and it still was very overwhelming.
My family and I love this chinesse dish. It is one of our favorites.I added a little more water so the sauce wasn’t so thick.
EXCELLENT recipe! I made this last night and served it over stir-fried ramen noodles — yumm! Thanks so much for sharing!
Mandarin chicken is my favorite at Panda Express. I’m going to try this recipe and see if I can come close to duplicating the taste.
Mahalo!
This recipe was super easy to put together! I had to use flour as a substitute for cornstarch, but the consistency came out great. Thanks so much for sharing this recipe.
This recipe was easy and tastes good. The only thing that I would change the next time I made it would be to cut the amount of sugar in half. It was far too sweet.
This recipe is actually very close to Panda Express. I actually think that this recipe is a tad bit sweeter so I’m going to make it again tonight and cut out some of the sugar. I’ll let ya’ll know how it turns out.