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.
This is a very good recipe, I have found exactly what I have been looking for…!!
Thank you very much..!!!
I loved the pictures and clarity of the instructions. I tried this recipe today, it was too sweet, but i still enjoy it. Probably i’ll reduce the brown sugar to 3/4 cup next time i try it.
Thanks for the recipe
This was soo good!!!! I’m definetly going to make this again. thanks!!
Excellent recipe, was a hit, made it last night 🙂
I tried this for dinner tonight and it was fantastic. We’ve been using some of the frozen orange chickens but this was far better… tastier sauce and FAR better chicken.
We won’t buy it frozen again. The only change I made was using 1 1/2 cups of chicken broth rather than water in the sauce. I had it in the fridge and had to use it. Not sure if it added significantly to the dish as I didn’t try it the other way but it was a rich, yummy, sweet and sour and orangy sauce that everyone loved.
Thanks!!!
I loved this. I don’t eat meat or eggs though, so I used Chik’n Strips and dipped them in a combo of water and mustard. It was amazing. Even my meat eating boyfriend loved it!!
This chicken was wonderful! It was better than the restruant but it took me awhile to make it. I didn’t have a fresh orange so I just put in fresh lemon zest instead since I had a fresh lemon. It was really nice because I had all the ingredients except the orange juice (in which I used the concentrate stuff because I saw it used in other recipes).
Annyosumnah!
Great.
Sorry i dont speak cery good english or write.
Thanxs zou! 🙂
Ok, this looked so good, and I love Oranged Chicken!!!!!! My friend and I had made some before, but I was more of not know what was going on. It came out ok, but seemed like something was missing or not right. So today I came to this website, and decided to make my own. What do you know it came out GREAT, and my kids loved it. My 11 year old was like it tasted like I bought it, and looked like it too.!!!!! Every one you have to try this.
Thanks Candy!!!
I made this for my niece’s graduation party, so made enough for over 30 people. Turned out great! Everyone loved it. I tried substituting the water for chicken broth and broke up the flour used for the chicken coating to the 2/3 c. flour and 1/3 c. corn starch.
Only I see that you have to use the amount of water you mix with the corn starch to the 1/4 c. he has in his written instructions, not the 2 tblsp. in the list.
Great recipe! Had plenty of sauce left over to make more, thanks!
although i don’t own a deep fryer, i cooked them with a skillet and enjoyed them just as much. This is a must have recipe for anyone who enjoys different types of orange chicken.
i made this tonight — my husband thinks i am a complete culinary wizard…thank you
Ok well im pregnant but my babys daddy is the one with the cravings. So orange chicken it is!!! Wish me luck on making this. It looks fantastic I can’t wait to eat it!!!!
i love orange chicken,
i’m so gonna try to make somwe,some day
LOVE IT! I MAKE IT ATLEAST ONCE A MONTH. GREAT W/O THE GREEN ONIONS TOO!
This is my favorite food and ur recipe was PERFECT!!
I LOVED the chicken it tasted GREATTT!!! wonderful recipe=)!
My friends and I used your recipe just 3 nights ago. It was easy and delicious. I’m going to use it again this week for my family. =)
we made this for a themed dinner for our married couples small group at church, it was a huge hit!
tastes great,easy to make, and makes a great presentation! making tonight for our own family (lots of boys): )
I know it will be a hit!
Thanks for a great recipe!
This was SO good. I’ve made about a million Asian stirfry dishes, and this sauce was one of the best. I just added some veggies. YUM, so good and so easy too. And, as a bonus, my super picky boyfriend liked it too. 🙂
I FOUND YOUR RECIPE AND DEF. GONNA TRY IT OUT TONIGHT… COOKING FOR THE WHOLE FAMILY PLUS THE INLAWS…. ILL LET U KNOW HOW IT TURNS OUT
I’ve made this recipe and all I gotta say is that its marvelous. Its tastyflavorful and worth the time. I tasted it and O WOW! It made us all say.
Tey using fresh oranges and lemons, cut in 1/2, then take a spoon and use to juice and scrape pulp, do same with lemons. this makes the sauce very thick and more flavorfull.
I used this recipie on my boyfriend once, he was skeptical when I said I was going to make orange chicken, he asked me: “like the kind you get from take-out? no one can make that stuff as good as take-out”
needless to say that I proved him wrong, he now requests me to make orange chicken on a weekly basis!!
Thank you for posting this great recipe!
I made this last night exactly as posted except using vegetarian chik’n strips from Trader Joes, and even my ‘meatatarian’ boyfriend said it was DELICIOUS and he couldn’t hardly tell the difference (he eats restaurant orange chicken all the time). Served it with rice and steamed broccoli, the sauce on the broccoli was divine! Next time though I will make the sauce first, then fry the chik’n.
I just tried this recipe and it came out perfect and tasted really good. Thanks for posting this recipe.
Absolutely excellent. My wife was surprised about the amount of brown sugar, so we’d probably cut back a little on that. We made it with the garlic green beans (same website) ( totally awesome just like the restaurant ) and the egg drop soup (same website), but I’d use only 2 eggs for the soup, 5 is too many. Overall, absolutely great.
Without a doubt the best orange chicken I have ever had; wouldn’t change a thing. Kudos to you!
Cheers from Tallinn!
I happened to pick your blogs website out of a long list claiming to have an orange chicken recipe. I was so glad I found it. I like “Chinese” food but hate ordering take out or getting fast food. Your recipe tastes great. I made a few changes as I added a little more garlic and exchanged the amounts for the lemon and orange juice. I also used more cornstarch to fry the chicken as I know from experience it helps create a lighter, crispier texture to fried chicken. All in all your recipe is very good and I will definately try it again. Thanks!
I made this tonight and used the tip of less flour and more cornstarch. It was awesome!! My 2 kids loved it as well as my mom….next time maybe a few moe pepper flakes
I used your list of ingredients, adding nothing else(which is very rare)and did my own thing with them which worked out great. I’ve never taken the time to blog about a recipe before but I have to say that I am very happy to have found yours.
1) Found your recipe
2) Sourced the items needed
3) Cooked chicken in batches
4) Worked like a charm
Problem – Gave a taste to kids and wife. They would not leave the stove area. They were eating the batches as they were coming out of the deep fryer and I was pouring the sauce on.
We made this tonight! Great Recipe…. We put green onions right in the sauce, but, we never made orange chicken before, but it’s just too delicious! Thanks SO much for posting! Now to wow our future Dinner guests!
ok, i just made this for lunch with some jasmine rice and it was spot on. i have never been able to make this at home – until now, that is. thank you so much for posting this recipe!
This sounds like a very good recipe. I`ll be sure to try it. Thanks xoxoxo
On a scale of 1 – 10 how hard is this dish to make?
colton – I would say no more than a 5!
I noticed the use of an egg to bater the chicken, does the chicken have an egg flavor? I am wondering if the egg can be eliminated. I ask because so many asian restaurants around me use egg in battering their chicken and coating tends to be soft and definitely tastes like egg which is no fun for me. Just curious.
John – Sure, just coat the chicken bits with cornstarch, salt and pepper,
Delicious …. I just made it and I will be making it again and again. I would say the difficulty is a 3 or 4. Not difficult to make, but requires some quick hands to get the timing right if you are cooking by yourself. I added just a pinch of vanilla extract and I enjoyed the extra flavor.
I have not made this yet but the instructions are pretty simple, I will no longer spend $6 to eat orange chicken in restaurants and will take this to my country India.
Thanks a lot author.
Raja
ahhh,i love orange chicken i get it whenever i can, the only problem is that i can not eat anything that is way to spicy, and finding a recipe for this that is mild is hard to do. do you have anything for this recipe that is not too spicy?
I have tried numerous Orange Chicken recipes and yours was by far THE BEST I have EVER tried. Thank you so much for posting this!
Cheers!
alex- just dont use red pepper flakes, the dish wont be spicy at all.
OMG! I LOVE Orange chicken……I’m gonna make it right this minute!=)
Just curious if anyone used regular or low-sodium soy sauce? I’m worried the regular will make it too salty.
my roomie and i tried an orange chicken chicken recepie from another site and it turned out atrocious. We’re gonna try this one and it’s looking promising because the other one didn’t even tell you how to make the glaze. =.= we felt to dumb. Thanks for telling us how to actually do it, and correctly.
This was so yummy! And as said it was so much better than going to a restaurant. I used regular soy sauce and it wasn’t too salty. I also used rice vinegar with red pepper because regular was sold out. Killing two birds with one stone. 🙂 Totally delicious!
This looks delicious!! 🙂
i cant wait to make it! i just have one question…
what oil should be used to fry the chicken in?
I love orange chicken, ever since I tried it at our local mall, and would love to make it for my family, thanks for recipe!
Abby – You could use peanut oil, or canola or vegetable would work as well.