Servings : Serves 4-5
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!
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! 🙂
Salams..can i use normal
Salams..can i use normal onions instead of spring onions?
W/Salaam, yes you can.
W/Salaam, yes you can.
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?
W/Salaam, the orange flavour
W/Salaam, the orange flavour will be subdued but otherwise the taste will still be good.
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?
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. 🙂
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!
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?
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.
Hi, fresh is always better
Hi, fresh is always better and healthier. 🙂