What's up everyone?
Today we’re making Orange Chicken!
A lot of people don’t know this,
but restaurants have some pretty easy secrets
to create these crispy, tangy bites of fried chicken.
My dad’s gonna show us all of the simple tricks
that OG Chinese chefs know,
starting with a special technique to prepare the chicken.
Before we dive in,
I also wanted to thank today’s sponsor, Hauslane!
Hello, everyone!
Today, we're learning how to make
orange chicken!
Let's cut up the chicken first.
These fatty parts,
cut them off and throw them away.
Today, what we're using is
chicken breast, so let's make longer pieces.
We'll split this in half.
We’ll cut the chicken breast in half horizontally,
then into roughly 1/2 inch thick strips.
These thinner ones are fine.
What type of chicken is best?
Two options, either drumsticks or chicken breast.
Up to you, you can choose either one.
The color of this dish should be white and orange.
More light-looking.
Yes, more light-looking,
but if you use chicken thigh or chicken leg,
it will be dark, kind of a deep red color.
Restaurants use chicken breast.
We're done cutting the chicken up.
Let's season it.
1 tsp of salt.
1 tbsp of cornstarch.
1 tbsp of water to make the marinade easier to mix.
Dissolve the cornstarch.
We’ll do a quick mix of the dry ingredients with the water first
to avoid clumps when we mix it with the chicken.
Now that it's mixed together,
we're adding half a beaten egg to it.
Too much will make it too wet.
Save the other half of the egg for the frying batter.
The egg here will help the batter
stick to the chicken later when we fry.
Okay.
Now that we’ve prepared the chicken,
it’s time to tackle the signature orange sauce,
for which we’ll obviously need, oranges.
We need 5 oz of orange juice today.
First, we’ll slice an orange into 1/8ths.
Then we’ll squeeze the juice from it
until we have about 4-5 oz.
Don’t throw away the juiced orange slices,
as we’ll be using some of them for a later step.
All right, we have about 4-5 oz.
If you think there might be debris in it, you can strain it.
You might be wondering,
where is orange chicken really from?
This dish, like General Tso’s chicken, is wildly popular in the West,
but doesn’t really exist in China,
which leads some to call it “inauthentic”.
I have a lot of thoughts on quote unquote “authentic” food
and instead prefer the word “traditional”,
but the question remains,
if you can’t find it China,
where did it come from?
Well, orange chicken was invented in 1987 in Hawaii
by Panda Express Executive Chef, Andy Kao,
who was inspired by the flavors of China’s Hunan province.
Since then, orange chicken has spread around the world,
captivating the hearts and bellies of millions of people.
A huge part of its popularity is due to its luscious sauce,
in which orange juice is just one part.
How tangy do you like it,
and how sweet do you like it?
Some people like it more sour, others like it sweeter.
You need to try it and adjust to your liking.
If it's too sour, add more sugar.
If you like it more tangy, don't add as much sugar.
We’ll add 1 tbsp of sugar and 1 tbsp of vinegar,
but like my dad said, this is all down to your preference.
Do people ever use brown sugar or honey for this?
Just white sugar.
It's important to get the right color.
What about honey?
Because brown sugar would make it really dark.
I guess you could.
If you were to use honey, it'd only be a little bit.
Most of the flavor is from the orange juice,
and from the vinegar.
With our oranges, they wouldn't be tangy enough without vinegar.
If your oranges are already tangy enough on their own,
then you can use less vinegar.
What about oranges from the store?
Store-bought oranges are the same.
Have a taste to see how sour and how sweet they are,
you might not need vinegar.
If it doesn't taste sour enough, and you want it tangier,
then add some vinegar.
Whenever you have sweet-and-sour anything, you need some salt.
So this is 1/2 tsp of salt.
It'll enhance the tanginess.
A little bit of oyster sauce,
for its flavor.
How much?
1 tbsp.
Too much will darken the color.
Give it a stir.
If it seems good after you've stirred it,
then you can stop here.
If the flavor's not quite there yet,
adjust the flavor by adding sugar or vinegar.
We're adding some sugar.
My dad adds another tsp of sugar here.
Be sure to taste it
so the level of sweetness and tanginess is what you like.
We have all of these ingredients listed on our blog at madewithlau.com
along with step-by-step instructions and video clips
to guide you as you make the recipe at home.
Now our sauce is ready.
To thicken the sauce later,
we’ll make a slurry by mixing together
1 tbsp of cornstarch and 3 tbsp of water.
This is important
so that the sauce is not too watery
and can cling to the chicken.
Another important element in this dish
is the presentation of it.
For that, we’ll need an another orange.
We're going to cut another orange
for garnish on the plate.
We’ll first cut the orange in half,
then cut it into 1/4 inch slices.
We’ll use the orange slices that we juiced earlier for the peel.
Turning the knife horizontally,
we’ll cut off any leftover orange meat
and leave only the very top layer of the peel.
Slice it thinly.
We'll use it when we're cooking later.
All right, that's enough.
It'll start to get bitter if we have too much.
Just a bit's enough.
Cut into thin strips.
Someone asked,
"Mine tends to taste bitter,
and I'm not sure where I messed up."
She's likely using orange peel.
If she's using orange peel,
she has cut away the white pith like I do,
and slice very very thinly.
Do you have to use orange peel?
No, you don't have to.
I use it because it looks nice,
and because I like to eat it.
Next, we'll learn how to craft a simple batter
that'll fry into an amazing crispy texture later.
I'm using 3 tbsp of flour.
1 tbsp of cornstarch.
A 3:1 ratio.
If you use only flour,
the crust will be too soft.
If you use only cornstarch,
the crust will be too hard.
That's why we're using the 3:1 ratio
in our batter for the crust.
After that,
1 tsp of baking powder.
When that's all in, mix 4-5 tbsp of water in,
depending on how thick the mixture gets.
See how thick or how runny the batter is.
Mix it up.
So that's not runny enough.
My dad adds a total of 6 tbsp of water here.
We’ll mix the elements together thoroughly
until there are no more clumps of powder
and the batter is smooth.
Stir it well, until there are no lumps.
This is too thick.
We still have that half of the egg.
We’ll pour in half of the leftover egg from before.
With that half of the leftover egg, the consistency is perfect.
Finally we’ll add one tsp of cooking oil
and mix until it is thoroughly combined.
Why do you add oil?
The oil makes the crust much nicer.
All set.
The consistency of the batter should look something like this.
The orange chicken is ready
and we can start frying now.
Before we start frying, I'd like to show you
our newly installed range hood from Hauslane!
The great thing about this range hood
is that it suctions the air from all directions.
This is the filter that restaurants use
to filter out grease.
You can see two large vents.
They're very powerful with really strong suction.
Now, with this brand new range hood,
it's very easy to remove and put in.
Just push it in.
These filters are really easy to clean.
They're unbreakable.
The best thing is you can put them in the dishwasher.
Wash it in there, but don't wait too long between washes.
Wash it about once a month.
If you go too long without cleaning it, the oil hardens and sticks,
and it'll be more difficult to clean.
Let's start frying today's orange chicken.
Turn on the stove.
First, we’ll heat up our pot on high for about one minute.
Turn on the range hood.
Turn it on, how strong?
This is level 4.
For deep-frying,
I want it at level 5.
Especially whenever you’re stir-frying or frying foods at home,
you’ll want to turn up your ventilation to the highest setting,
because a powerful range hood is kind of
like an invisible shield that protects our family
from fumes that can be harmful to our health.
When we were installing our new range hood from Hauslane,
our technician was showing us how clean the inside of our vent was,
which is actually a REALLY BAD THING,
because that means our previous range hood
was not capturing grease and fumes,
instead letting spread throughout our house and into our lungs.
Since there's still some moisture in the wok,
let the heat dry it up before pouring the oil in.
Then we’ll add about 16 oz of oil to the pot,
making sure our range hood is on.
We just need enough oil to submerge the chicken.
For the first fry, we’ll want to heat up the oil to 275°F-300°F.
While the oil is heating up, we’ll get our batter ready.
It's at 300°F now.
Now we're going to mix the batter in with the chicken.
After it's mixed, they can go in for the first fry.
Now, when we're frying,
make sure they're not sticking together.
Put them in separately, see?
We're going to fry in two batches.
Push them apart gently with chopsticks.
Once the chicken is frying,
we’ll stir it occasionally
to make sure the pieces don’t stick to each other.
How long do you fry it for?
Fry it until they're slightly golden,
then you can scoop them out and start the second batch.
Medium heat is good.
We’ll cook it in batches to not overcrowd the pot.
It's sucking away all the smoke and grease.
I've only turned it up to level 5.
I can't even smell any grease from here.
This range hood is fantastic.
If you look back at any of our older videos,
you can see our old range hood,
and I think you’ll agree that this one looks a lot more sleek and modern,
and it’s also pretty affordable for
the restaurant-grade quality that we’re getting.
I helped set this up for my parents
and Hauslane made it super easy with their live consultation service,
and they accommodate almost any kind of kitchen and vent opening.
They have free shipping and returns,
as well as a limited lifetime warranty on their products.
Daddy Lau also said that having tried so many range hoods,
this one is his favorite, right?
Yeah, this one is my favorite.
This is our favorite.
If you’re interested in upgrading your range hood
and a healthier kitchen,
click the link in our description and
use the code MWL5 for 5% off your purchase!
We started at 300°F,
while we've been cooking, it's gone down to 275°F.
Does it have to be at 300°F?
Just about 300°F or lower.
The first fry, can you see that it's a bit golden?
After 2.5 to 3 minutes
or when the outsides are slightly browned,
we’ll remove the chicken.
This next step is the critical technique
that Chinese restaurants use with fried food:
the all-important second fry.
Heat the oil until it's about 400°F,
and then put the chicken back in for the second fry.
On the first fry,
the crust absorbed the juices from the chicken.
If we want to make it crispy,
we need to do the second fry
to fry away the moisture in the crust.
Then it'll be crispy!
Is that how restaurants do it?
Yes!
Restaurants do the first fry in large batches,
set them aside somewhere,
and then do the second fry as the orders come in.
They fry it again.
They have it fried already and set aside.
All right, we're going to go in with the second fry now.
See?
Once the oil gets up to 400°F,
we’ll put all the chicken into the pot.
If your range hood is not powerful enough,
it'll get really smelly here.
We're going to fry them until they're golden brown.
Golden.
All done.
Take them out.
After another 2.5 to 3 minutes
or when the pieces are golden brown,
we can take out the chicken.
Turn off the heat.
We've finished deep-frying them.
We're going to wait a bit
before we turn the range hood off,
Why?
Let it keep sucking away the smoke and grease.
You can set it to turn off automatically after 3 minutes.
After it cools, we can reuse this oil for our stir-fry later,
so don’t throw it away!
I also wanted to make a special shoutout to thank all of our
wonderful Patreon supporters for helping bring this video to life.
If you enjoy our videos and are interested in supporting us directly,
head on over to patreon.com/madewithlau to learn more!
Now that the chicken is fried,
we’ll move on to stir-frying everything together,
and my dad will explain why
he uses a stainless steel wok over other types of woks
for orange chicken specifically.
I'm going to use this stainless steel wok for the sweet and sour sauce.
The benefit to cooking this in the stainless steel wok
is that you just need to wash it clean and dry it.
You don't have to season it with oil again.
With a carbon steel wok, if you cook something sour,
you have to wash, dry, and season it with oil to make sure it doesn't rust.
You could also use a frying pan, like the non-stick kind.
You can wash those normally.
Now we'll start cooking the sauce.
Turn the stove on.
Now, we’ll be creating the defining orange sauce.
It’s really easy and will turn out great
as long you follow my dad’s simple sequence
and keep a few nuances in mind.
We’ll add just 1/2 a tbsp of oil to the wok.
My dad uses the oil that we just fried the chicken with.
Orange peel.
Give it a stir.
Is it on high heat?
This is on high heat.
It's just a quick stir.
Pour the sauce in,
the orange juice mixture from earlier.
While the sauce cooks,
we’ll plate our orange slices on the outside edge of our plate.
After we've arranged the orange slices, the juice has come to a boil.
The slurry we made earlier,
We’ll make sure the slurry is well mixed before pouring it in.
This is low heat.
If the heat is too high,
the slurry will turn into a big lump.
Slowly.
All right, now turn the heat back up.
Can you make this with lemon?
Yeah!
So is lemon chicken the same thing?
Yeah, it's made the same way.
The sauce is a little different.
Would you add more sugar for lemon?
More sugar for lemon chicken.
Okay.
Add some oil.
We’ll add another tbsp of oil here,
and we’ll turn off the heat as to not cook off too much water.
See that?
My dad likes this thinner and lighter consistency of sauce,
but my parents will explain how to get that thicker
Panda Express-style sauce.
At Panda Express,
they say that every piece of chicken is smothered in thick sauce.
Drenched.
Then thicken the sauce
by cooking it longer.
Cooking it longer will cook more water out.
But I like it lighter.
I like this.
This is light, yeah.
This you won't feel as guilty afterwards.
Now we’re ready to add our chicken.
Now we'll add it in.
We’ll turn on the heat quickly just to heat up the chicken a bit.
Wow!
David, our translator, asked,
"How do you keep the chicken crispy?"
Hi, David!
Hello!
If you want it at its crispiest,
you have to eat it right away.
Don't let it sit.
If it's been sitting out, it doesn't matter who made it or how, it'll get soggy.
The sauce is wet,
and the crust is soaking it in,
so it'll always start to get soft.
It should stay crispy for about ten minutes.
What about the frying step?
Double frying: fry once, take them out, and then fry again.
Then it'll be crispy.
We don't have an air fryer at home, right?
You guys can try it.
Put it in the air fryer.
I think the air fryer would be the best way to reheat it.
After we mix the chicken with the sauce for about 15-20 seconds,
we’ll turn off our heat
and drizzle just a bit more oil, about a teaspoon,
to give the dish some added shine.
Orange Chicken!
We're going to plate it.
Then we’re ready to plate on our orange slice-lined plate.
We’ll sprinkle some sesame seeds on top
and now we’re ready to serve.
Hong Doy, time to eat!
Our Orange Chicken is complete!
I hope everyone enjoys it!
Yummy!
Ooh, I'm excited.
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Let's see if they're right.