Fauzia's Kitchen Fun

Orange Chicken

108

Orange Chicken

One of my favorite sweet & sour chicken recipes. This is an easy dish to prepare, is extremely aromatic and tastes outstanding! The combination of sweet and spicy with that tangy orange flavour will make your taste buds sing. It tastes best served over steamed or fried rice. YUM!
Servings 5 people

Ingredients
  

Ingredients for Chicken Marinade

  • 500 gm boneless chicken breast cut in cubes
  • 4 tbsp. cornflour
  • 1 egg lightly beaten
  • 1 tsp. black pepper
  • 1/2 tsp. salt
  • 1/4 tsp. sugar
  • 1/4 tsp. red chilli powder
  • 1/2 tsp. ginger paste
  • 1/2 tsp. garlic paste
  • 1 tsp. soya sauce

Ingredients for the Orange Sauce

  • 3 tbsp. oil
  • 4 tbsp. chopped spring onions
  • 1 tsp. ginger
  • 1/2 tsp. garlic
  • salt to taste
  • 4 tbsp. sugar preferably brown, but even white will do
  • 1 cup water
  • 1 tbsp. orange zest
  • juice from one orange approx. 1/2 cup
  • 1 tbsp. lemon juice
  • 1 tbsp. corn flour mixed with water to form a light paste
  • 1 whole red chilli chopped
  • 1 green chilli chopped
  • 1 tbsp. soya sauce
  • 2 tbsp. dark vinegar
  • spring onion for garnishing the green part
  • sesame seeds for garnishing
  • orange slices for garnishing

Instructions
 

  • Refrigerate the chicken marinade mixture for half an hour. Then fry until golden (approx. 3-4 minutes on each side).  Do not over cook otherwise the chicken will become hard.  I normally shallow fry in a non stick pan.
    Next prepare your orange sauce.
    In a cup, mix the sugar, orange juice, lemon juice, orange zest, soya sauce and dark vinegar.  Set aside.
    Heat the oil in a pan or wok, add the ginger and garlice pastes followed by the spring onions and chopped green chili.  Fry for a minute until fragrant, then pour in the orange juice mixture.  let this come to a boil and let it simmer for a couple of minutes so that the sugar dissolves and the color changes slightly.  You can add some orange food color to brighten up the sauce if you like.  Then add the cup of water and a pinch of salt.
    When it boils, lower the heat and add teh corn flour paste while stirrring constantly.  The sauce will instatnly start to thicken.  Once it is of a good thick and sticky consistency, add the fried chicken and the chopped red chili.
    Stir together, making sure the chicken pieces are well coated with the sauce and adjust salt.  Cover and allow to simmer for 3 more minutes on low heat, then turn off the heat. Serve over fried or steamed rice, garnish with sesame seeds, some chopped spring onions and orange slices.
    Enjoy!  

Join the Conversation

  1. Love you fauzia for uploading
    Love you fauzia for uploading this recipe 🙂 I was looking for this recipe for a longg time and Here it is finally 🙂 ur site is so goood that sometimes even if I don’t have to cook something I just go through ur website ..u don’t know ur helping US alott by sharing so yummy n easy dishes ♥

  2. Hi Fauzia, I don’t have dark
    Hi Fauzia, I don’t have dark vinegar on hand… can i use white one instead?

  3. when you say dark vinegar, is
    when you say dark vinegar, is it same as rice vinegar? please advise. thank you!

    1. Double the amounts for the
      Double the amounts for the Orange Sauce section of the recipe. 🙂

  4. Is soya sauce the same as soy
    Is soya sauce the same as soy sauce?I looked all around the shops but can only find soy sauce which is used for chinese stir fries usually

  5. Can this recipe be used to
    Can this recipe be used to make sesame chicken?if so what are the changes?thanks

    1. Sesame chicken is a different
      Sesame chicken is a different recipe, will add it soon inshaAllah.

  6. i tried many of your recipes
    i tried many of your recipes all were good
    but when ever i tried to log in iam in trouble iam unable to lof in
    plz help

  7. Hi fauzia just wanted to know
    Hi fauzia just wanted to know is dark vinegar same as malt vinegar which is brown in color

  8. Tried this lovely recipe
    Tried this lovely recipe yesterday turned out really nice. Thanks for the great recipe.

  9. Fauzia, by dark vinegar do
    Fauzia, by dark vinegar do you mean apple cider vinegar or balsamic vinegar or something else? Do you get the same taste with white vinegar.

    1. I mean the distilled brown
      I mean the distilled brown vinegar. NOT balsamic not apple cider. You can use white if you don’t have the brown/dark one.

  10. Tasted nice. It was a punch
    Tasted nice. It was a punch of surprise :).
    My family likes having more gravy. I used 1 cup orange juice but seems like I will have to use 2 cups of orange juice next time for the same amount of chicken mentioned as above. Do you think I should double the other ingredients as well for the orange sauce since I am increasing the amount of juice for more gravy?

  11. Easy peasy & delicious
    Easy peasy & delicious Chicken recipe i’ve ever tried!! Awesome…Kids’ favourite.

  12. Asalam o alikum fauzia… Plz
    Asalam o alikum fauzia… Plz help me can I use fresh orange juice in this recipe??

    1. W/Salaam, do you mean freshly
      W/Salaam, do you mean freshly squeezed? That is exactly what I have used in the recipe. 🙂

  13. AA dear Fauzia, i wanted to
    AA dear Fauzia, i wanted to share that when i started making this chicken everything was perfectly fine and the taste was awesome until i added the orange peel after that the bitterness was dominant than the other flavours and i didnt enjoy the meal as much as it was supposed to be.i added just 1 tbsp of orange peel as u have mentioned but dont know where it went wrong 🙁

    1. W/Salaam, sounds like you
      W/Salaam, sounds like you grated more than the peel. You must have grated the white part which is under the peel, called the pith. That is what has the bitterness. You have to be very careful never to grate that, and only use the zest/outer orange peel.

  14. oh yes i think u r right will
    oh yes i think u r right will try to be careful next time IA thankx for pointing out the fault 🙂 and jazakALLAH khair <3 for sharing wonderful recipes

  15. jUST DISCOVERED THIS SITE
    jUST DISCOVERED THIS SITE TODAY AND AM LOVING IT! :d
    can u please let me know how to make orange zest? am a new cook :$ 🙂

    1. Finely grate the peel from an
      Finely grate the peel from an orange. JUST the orange peel not the white pith under the peel as that tends to be very bitter.

  16. Salams..can i use normal
    Salams..can i use normal onions instead of spring onions?

  17. Salaam alaykum. I’m not too
    Salaam alaykum. I’m not too keen on orange zest. If I omit, will it affect the taste much?

    1. W/Salaam, the orange flavour
      W/Salaam, the orange flavour will be subdued but otherwise the taste will still be good.

  18. Aslm, its mentioned to use
    Aslm, its mentioned to use 4tbsp sugar in the sauce… won’t the dish be too sweet? Can i reduce it to 2 tbsp?

    1. W/Salaam, you can reduce the
      W/Salaam, you can reduce the sugar for less sweetness but since this is sort of a sweet and sour recipe, you may miss that extra sugar in the final results. 🙂

  19. Hi, Fauzia.
    Hi, Fauzia.
    I just made Orange Chicken. It was amazing but it had an after taste, sort of tangy flavour. Is it the natural flavour or did I mess it up a bit?

    Thank you!

    1. Hi, could it be that you
      Hi, could it be that you grated some of the pith when you were getting the zest off the orange?

  20. Hi
    Hi
    I made this today
    Alhamdulillaah it was nice. The sauce tasted just like orange juice. In fact, what with all the effort of zesting the orange and squeezing it for the juice and adding sugar etc, I feel the same result could’ve easily been achieved using store-bought orange juice. Lol.

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