Updated on December 5th, 2022
Today I’m back with yet another Chinese-American dish – Orange Chicken. It seems as though you can find orange chicken almost anywhere you want to eat these days. It is most commonly found at fast food restaurants, but don’t worry, this is so much better than anything you will find there. What really makes this recipe stand out is the combination of both orange and lemon juice. Once again we are also using the deep fryer for cooking the battered chicken. Now I get a lot of questions from people wondering if they can use a wok instead. The answer is yes; a wok would work just about as good as a deep fryer and can be used without a problem. Just be sure to add enough oil. Great oil for frying this battered chicken would be peanut oil. Using peanut oil will give you the most flavorful chicken. If you’re looking for a simple Chinese dish for dinner this evening be sure to give this recipe for orange chicken a try.
Orange Chicken Recipe
Ingredients
- Chicken-
- 2 lbs boneless skinless chicken breasts (cut into 1–1/2” cubes)
- 1 ½ cups all-purpose flour
- 1 egg (beaten)
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- ¼ teaspoon pepper
- Oil (for frying)
Orange Sauce- - 1 ½ cups water
- 2 tablespoons orange juice
- ¼ cup lemon juice
- 1/3 cup rice vinegar
- 2 ½ tablespoons soy sauce
- 1 tablespoon orange zest (grated)
- 1 cup packed brown sugar
- ½ teaspoon ginger root (minced)
- ½ teaspoon garlic (minced)
- 2 tablespoons green onion (chopped)
- ¼ teaspoon red pepper flakes
- 3 tablespoons cornstarch
- 2 tablespoons water
Instructions
- Combine flour, salt, and pepper. Dip chicken in the egg mixture and shake in flour mixture to coat. Deep fry chicken in batches at 375 degrees in a deep fryer (or use a wok) until completely cooked.
- Meanwhile, in a large saucepan combine 1 ½ cups water, lemon juice, orange juice, rice vinegar, and soy sauce. Blend well over medium heat for a few minutes. Stir in brown sugar, orange zest, ginger garlic, and onion. Bring to a boil.
- Combine 3 tablespoons of cornstarch with 1/4 cup of water and mix thoroughly. Slowly stir cornstarch mixture into sauce until it thickens. Pour sauce over breaded chicken, and if desired add red pepper flakes and garnish with green onions. Enjoy.
Excellent recipe!!!! Thank you for sharing! 🙂
I made this for dinner tonight and it was very good. fairly simple, and full of flavor.
Very yummy!
You can also make ‘Orange Peanut Butter’ to go with the chicken. I know it sounds strange, but if you blend OJ with peanut butter to make a sauce to pour over the chicken, it’s really, really good!
Yummo!!! Loved it.. But we didnt have vinegar so we added balsamic vinaigrette and it was awesome!!! Plus we added about a half cup of Fresh squeezed OJ to add a little more zest.
The OJ quantity needs to be increased for it to actually taste like Orange chicken. and instead of orange zest, I added 4 tablespoons of orange marmalade…It tasted great!
This is my second time making it. I think the orange zest is what increases the orangy taste. Love the recepe! Add more shavings!
This looks so great. im excited to try this. I really love orange chicken (especially spicy) and cant wait to make some from scratch. What can i add to make it even spicier?
Briana G – You could try adding some hot chili sauce or more red pepper flakes. I hope you enjoy the recipe.
Wow, I can’t wait to try this out. Bobby, your making me very hungry!!!!
Anyone have success with this: “3/4 cornstarch and 1/4 flour for the coating?”
we love orange chicken and we go to nathan hale high schhool and we are going to cook this tommorow
i wud love to try this
I’ve just cooked this receipe> WE LOVED the taste.
It is very easy and lovely.
This looks amazing! Going to try this one during the week. and it definitely looks like a keeper! Thanks!
I made this recipe and it was FABULOUS! My family really enjoyed it. It was gone in minutes! lol!
And I enjoyed it for simplicity and great taste. Going to blog/post about it soon! Thank you!
It is Christmas Eve and we are all going to Mom’s for dinner. She loves orange chicken at the Malls so I found your recipe and I am trying it out on my family tonight. We live in Portland Oregon and we have been snowed in for 10 days and unable to shop for Christmas. No gift exchange tonight just food. I will let you know what Mom thinks of it since she does not normally eat chicken…only orange chicken at the mall food court. I am soooo happy to find this recipe….it looks simple and I do not have to buy extra ingredients. Thanks
This recipe is excellent! My friend and I had a craving for orange chicken and this was perfect. I made the toss and tossed it over chicken that was already breaded. I didn’t have any lemon juice, so I substituted orange juice for all of it. I also used just regular vinegar instead of rice wine vinegar. Still great! I’ll definitely be coming back to this website!
Amazing – my family is thrilled – we love this kind of chicken in the food court in the mall – so I thought I would give it a shot – perfect! Another post suggested adding more orange zest – be careful – it gets very orange very quick – stick to the exact recipe – its perfect! I love your site and intend on making every single thing on this site in the coming months. Thank you for the great recipes and super pictures – they are fantastic!!
My Hubby loved this recipe. Thank you.
how many people does this recipe serve?
Emma – I would say it makes about 4-6 servings.
Isn’t it funny how the Western world totally made up certain dishes and called it Chinese food? It doesn’t matter because the food is yummy. 🙂
omg this was soooooooo good i just made some and it came out delicious!!!1
This is AMAZING!!! I found it easy to make and couldn’t wait till it was ready to try it, my boyfriend could not believe I made it!!His face was speechless. I had to show him the skillet with the sauce cause he seriously thought I got it from a takeout place.
Thanks so much!
This is my favorite recipe for orange chicken, I have made other versions that I found online, and this by far is my favorite!
Great dish…taste was awesome but I must be doing something wrong because, even with TWICE the amount of corn starch, it still comes off as way too runny 🙁 Anyone know what my problem might be?
Thank you!
It was delicious!!!
It was like someone canned delicious and served it to me on fried chicken.
This looks YUMMY, I am a bit concerned about the amount of brown sugar VS the amount of citrus juice. But I am going to try this. I have been buying frozen orange chicken and its just “okay” I was spoiled living the first 42 yrs. of my life in So. Cal. now I live on a farm in Minnesota out in the middle of no where. As I look at the frozen landscape and remember the taste of my past I am suddanly excited and inspired to try this. Thank you. ~L~
3 months pregnant. CRAVING CHINESE! I am going to try subing with marmalade. I cant wait!
Okay…I tried it and it was GREAT! I am NOT easily impressed either. I did use a generous portion of orange marmelade and used balsamic vinegar. SO YUMMY. Very glad to have leftovers.
Have fun!
This recipe looks yummy… but i am wondering if it would make a difference if i didn’t put orange zest in the sauce cause i am allergic to orange peels… also I cook for a family of 8 4 adults and 4 kids how would you sugest I doulbe or triple the recipe to feed my house hold??
thanks
MotherOfThree – It will taste fine without the orange peel but it wont have as strong of an orange flavor. Also, if they are big eaters, I would triple the recipe, if not double. I hope this helps. thanks.
I tried this recipe last month and everything was excellent, however the orange was a bit overpowering. I think I added too much orange zest… maybe pushing it into the tablespoon a bit too much? I think I’ll try little or no orange zest next time. Otherwise the texture and everything was great!
great recipe! I tried it tonight and it was excellent. I started by cooking a couple cups of rice so I could serve it as the picture suggests. I used a big wok and divided about 1.5 lbs of cut up chicken into 2 batches.
I’d recommend putting the breading mixture into a large shallow bowl to make it easy to roll the chicken pieces to get them battered up nice.
After frying up the first batch I put it aside and ran the 2nd batch. They fried up nice and crispy on the outside and were a beautiful golden brown color.The sauce came out perfect.
I made this tonight and it was delicious! I doubled the recipe and used potato starch and the Swedish equivalent of brown sugar. They don’t seem to have normal brown sugar here in Sweden and the one available is sweeter, so I used less. I also used a little less of the starch. In my haste, I forgot all about the egg and dunked all the chicken into the flour first – it turned out more crispy, I think, since I re-dipped the batch.
Very good! It was my first time ever to make orange chicken and the first time I’ve ever grated anything in my life – it was memorable and the recipe is a keeper!
Tack så mycket!
i cant wait till i make it…so delicious!!!
We really enjoyed this recipe. The lemon juice and orange juice combined to make a pungent orange flavor. It came out great, but we did make a couple minor modifications. For dredging the chicken we used 2/3 cup of flour and 1/3 cup of cornstarch. We’ve found this to provide a crisp coating. The red pepper flakes were changed to 2 red chili peppers chopped with seeds, and added to the sauce with the garlic, rather than using for garnish. Now that we’ve tried your Orange Chicken recipe, we can’t wait to try more of your recipes. Thanks, Deb.
i came across your recipe, and it looks absolutely wonderful.
i am making it tonight for my boyfriend and my mom.
my boyfriend is nuts about chinese food [and so am i]…so i hope this pleases him.
thank you so much for the recipe!
:]
Outstanding recipe! I started making it thinking it would take me an hour and it ended up only taking 35 minutes to make.
I actually used Fish instead of Chicken though. I used Tarpon which has a very similar texture to chicken. I am an angler always looking for recipes to try on fish and this one turned out excellent!
thanks!!
you saved my grade
its so delicous
Just made this last night! So impressed! Sooo yummy. Great recipe, great pictures, great website. I’ll definitely bookmark your page and use you in the future!
Thanks!
Amazing amazing i have tried this several times and making it again this week…Thanks Boby!!!!!Try it believe me its so good
This was wonderful!!! I had extra sauce left over; froze it for next time. Tasted exactly like my favorite chinese resturant from back home! No I am not that home sick!
I fixed this for dinner tonight. My husband’s comment was “That’s a keeper!”
My sauce looks different than yours. It is a lot darker but it still had a wonderful flavor! The only changes I made were to the breading. I tried the 3/4 cornstarch and 1/2 flour mentioned by Karen.
Thanks for the great recipe! I’m discovering that the best recipes are to be found on food blogs like yours.
Thanks!!! I just made it tonight and it tasted great!!! I’ve been looking for a good oj chicken recipe for a while. Next time, I might put a little less vinegar. My 4 yr old also LOVED it! He ate his whole plate. yippee!
Thank you for the recipe! My mom cooked this for some company and they (and we) loved it! Keep it up. 🙂
sister tried the recipe and it was delicious… pictures look like they will help too thanks
This is GREAT!!! my hubby has talked about this dish to everyone after i made it. i made this about a month ago and my husband was still talking about it last week when we went to go see his mom…is comparing it to the real chinese food in boston
I made this last night in it was da bomb. Give it a try, it’ll knock your socks off!