Hi guys!I'm Laura Vitale and on this episode of Laura in the Kitchen, I'm bringing you
the highly requested Orange Chicken recipe!
It has been requested here over the years - I can't even tell you how many times, and
this is my version of an inspired - an Asian inspired Orange Chicken that is absolutely
divine, you do not need to go to the take-out to get orange chicken because you can make
it at home, and I can promise you, it will be ten times better for you and it will taste
that much better!
So, let's go over the ingredients so we can get started!
You'll need some orange zest and juice, some chopped scallions, brown sugar, some corn
starch, soy sauce, chopped ginger and garlic, rice wine vinegar, pinch of hot pepper flakes,
chicken stock, an egg white, some additional corn starch, a little bit of salt, and you
will need some chicken and some vegetable oil.
Now, the chicken I prefer to use for this recipe is boneless skinless chicken thighs
that I have cut into bite sized pieces.
Now that's what I have in this bowl, you could by all means, use chicken breast.
I think chicken thighs just taste much better, I've left a little bit of fat on, but I removed
most of the fat, I just think a little bit of fat gives you wonderful flavor, so I do
like to leave a little bit on.
You can make the same thing with chicken breast if you prefer, try it with the chicken thighs,
because I think they just give this dish so much flavor, I can't even tell you - and the
chicken thighs just are succulent.
So, the first thing I'm going to do is I'm going to work on the chicken.
I'm going to season my chicken with a little bit of salt, corn starch, I know this sounds
weird, and looks pretty strange, but trust me when I tell you that it works.
And an egg white, what this does, is it creates like a coating around the chicken that helps
keep the chicken - like it gets nice and crispy and helps keep it moist - kind of like makes
the outside get crispy, but keeps all the moisture inside.
And now, I'm just taking a fork and mixing this together until - I want to get everything
pretty combined, and now I'm just going to set it aside and let it sit at room temperature
for about ten minutes.
That's about it!
My chicken has been sitting for about ten minutes, and what I have here is a skillet
with high sides with a little bit of vegetable oil getting pre-heated over about medium-high
heat, I want the oil to be nice and hot, because when I add my chicken I want it to sizzle,
I want it to develop really good color.
So, I'm just going to test it with one piece of chicken.
Let's see.
Yep!
That's nice and hot.
I'm going to add my chicken right into the skillet.
And now, I'm just breaking it up with my wooden spoon, and it looks like there's a lot of
oil in there, there's only like a little less than three tablespoons of vegetable oil, it's
just that when you put something in, it kind of moves to the side a little bit, but anyway,
you're going to cook this for about three to four minutes, giving it a stir every once
and a while until it's developed really nice color.
Now, in the meantime, I'm going to take my orange juice and zest, now I do use fresh
orange juice and zest, it makes a big difference.
I've got my chicken stock with chicken concentrate and a little bit of water - like you guys
know I like to use.
My soy.
Then my rice vinegar.
And give this a stir with a fork along with the brown sugar.
I just like to mix those ingredients together to get them out of the way.
And now I'm going to babysit my chicken, I'm going to tidy up a little bit and I will show
you the next step once we are there!
My chicken has just beautiful color, I'm just looking at this - you can just tell it's going
to be delicious.
I'm going to just add in my ginger and my garlic now, I'm going to stir this in, I've
lowered my heat just a little bit to medium because it was a little bit too high, and
I don't want to burn my garlic and ginger.
Ah!
The smell!
The smell of garlic and ginger sizzling - it's amazing!
Going to let this cook for about a minute, and then we'll add in our sauce.
Going to add in our sauce that we mixed together.
Looks like a lot, it's going to reduce quite a bit, don't worry.
I'm going to add just a pinch of hot pepper flakes, you can make it as hot or as mild
as you'd like, and now I'm going to just let that sauce reduce - I've turned the heat back
up to medium-high and I'm going to let that reduce until it's reduced by about half, it
could take up to about fifteen minutes, so keep your eye on it and then we'll be pretty
much really close to having an awesome dinner!
That looks gorgeous!
I'm going to thicken up the sauce just a little bit, you can see it's reduced a lot and it's
only been about ten minutes.
I've got a little corn starch here and a little bit of water, maybe a little bit too much
water.
I'm going to use this fork right here.
I'm going to add this slurry, and then all you're going to do is you're going to let
that cook for just a couple of minutes and then all of the sudden you have a thick and
gorgeous sauce - unbelievably good!
Now what I'm also going to do is I'm going to add some - not all - of my scallions because
I want to serve some from the top - for the top.
Right there!
Oh, just gorgeous!
I'm going to let this cook for just a minute or two until that slurry sort of cooks out,
and then we're done!
Look at that!
I mean, tell me that doesn't look ten times better than takeout!
You know it does!
Don't lie!
Love it!
Done.
Now, I've got a beautiful plate of fluffy rice here and I'm going to put my chicken
right in the middle - look at that!
That is just a meal fit for company!
I'm so excited to eat this!
And of course you need some fresh scallions on top.
Mmm!
I love fresh scallions.
Okay, I'm going to go for this piece right here simply because it looks left out, so
I'm going to make him feel a little bit better by me eating it!
It has the most delicious, beautiful orange flavor.
Not overly sweet, it's a perfect balance of salty and a little bit of - little bit of
tang from the rice vinegar but it is absolutely divine.
I'm going to go back in for another piece.
LauraintheKitchen.com will have the recipe ready for you, I hope you have enjoyed this
and I would love to hear from you how you make your orange chicken - and what you would
like the next take-out in-home recipe to be.
I've been getting a lot of questions and requests to do take-out recipes at home and I just
don't know what kind.
So please leave your suggestions down below, and I will see you next time!
Bye bye!