The recipe below is adapted from a recipe on thenoshery.com (http://thenoshery.com/2010/03/19/better-than-takeout-orange-chicken/), which is itself adapted from a recipe on blogchef.net (http://blogchef.net/orange-chicken-recipe/). The orange sauce is borrowed from a recipe on norecipes.com (http://norecipes.com/blog/orange-chicken-recipe/). I didn't like the complicated recipe from "The Noshery," so that's why I made a hybrid of the two. Yes, it's very convoluted.
Ingredients (for about four people):
The Chicken
2 pounds of boneless, skinless chicken of your choice (breasts, thighs, tenderloins, etc--I used tenderloins)--cut into bite-sized chunks (eyeball it)
1 1/2 cups of cornstarch
2 cups of panko bread crumbs (regular bread crumbs work, too, but I think the panko is intended to give it a little extra crunch and lightness)
4 eggs, beaten
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp pepper
Oil (for frying--take your pick; I used grapeseed oil)
The Sauce
1 1/3 cup orange juice
2/3 cup orange marmalade
2 tsp corn starch
1 tsp salt
1. Mix the cornstarch with the salt and pepper in a bowl. Make a second bowl with the eggs and a third bowl with the bread crumbs.
2. Dump a couple of large handfuls of chicken into the eggs. Transfer to the cornstarch. Dip the pieces a second time in the eggs, then finish with the bread crumbs. Repeat this until all of the chicken pieces are breaded and ready to go.
3. Heat the oil in a pan on medium high until it is around 375 degrees (this takes about two or three minutes, give or take). Fry the chicken until it is done--about 10-15 minutes, turning every three minutes or so. This really depends on the size of the chicken pieces and how thawed they were at the time of breading. More on this later.
4. In a large saucepan, combine the orange juice, marmalade, cornstarch, and salt. Stir on medium heat for a few minutes until the mixture starts to thicken (look for a syrupy consistency). Allow it to boil for a few minutes before switching the heat off.
5. Pour the sauce over the chicken and stir to coat. Serve how you would like (we ate it with prepared Uncle Ben's Oriental Rice and some green beans with roasted carrots and broccoli).
A few notes are in order in reference to this recipe. First of all, I have doubled the eggs, bread crumbs, and the whole sauce recipe. This is because my brother thought we needed more sauce for the chicken. The flavor was nice, but it wasn't bold enough for us. While doubling may result in a little extra sauce, I don't think that's the worst thing in the world. It's better than not having enough and being sad about it. The chicken also sucked up more of the bread crumbs and eggs than I thought it would, so I needed to increase those ingredients. Another note is that this recipe is an absolute mess. It's advisable to wear a good apron because there will be a lot of cleanup other places (i.e., the counter, the floor, the stove, etc...), and your clothes should not be one of them. A third note is that if you wanted to make this a vegetarian recipe, you could use tofu or some other faux-meat product in place of the chicken, but I would have to investigate to see if any changes to the recipe would be necessary. I wouldn't think so. Finally, try to work with chicken that is as thawed as possible, and try not to cut the pieces of chicken too big. That way, the chicken will cook faster, and you won't be standing over the stove drooling because it all smells so good but isn't quite done yet. Don't be me. Learn from my mistakes, young ones.
One thing that I also would have liked to change is getting the chicken browner and more evenly coated with the bread crumbs. There were a lot of exposed pieces, and the dish didn't have that nice bubbly appearance that I'm used to. I think I just need to practice flipping the pieces in the pan so that all sides get the same amount of exposure to the bottom of the pan. Mom says that over the summer, she will teach me how to make beef cutlets, which will be a similar experience, so I will get more practice with frying breaded meat. Huzzah!
That said, this was a really well-received recipe. Even my sister's picky-eater boyfriend indulged and admitted liking it. Score! I do have to divulge that my master cook of a mother helped me quite a bit with this one. She coached me as to how to set up my breading station, how to cook the chicken thoroughly while retaining the brown crunchiness of the bread-crumb exterior, how to replenish the oil, etc. She made the sides we ate with it and cooked the second batch while I was busy chowing down with my sister, her boyfriend, and my brother. Needless to say, it felt really good to finally sample what I had been working on. This is obviously not something I am going to make a lot because it sort of stressed me out. I think I learned a valuable lesson about how I can't be too ambitious yet and maybe I was taking things a little too quickly in my eagerness. Hopefully next week's meal will be less stressful. I guess I also learned that cooking is no fun when you make a chore out of it. I suppose I should have put this one off until Friday, but I wasn't sure if I'd end up at work longer than expected again. Oh, well. I think I made the best of the situation considering all the factors and such. I did really enjoy the sauce. It had a nice consistency and sweetness. I love orange marmalade, so I liked biting into the orange peel pieces every now and then when I ate a chunk of the chicken. I hope that, with practice, I will soon get the chicken up to par with my favorite restaurants, although I'm beginning to see how they made their money. Some things are just not very reproducible in the home kitchen (but this was probably a more healthful version, "so I got that going for me"...kudos to you if you get that movie reference). Until next time, chitlins!
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| My well-deserved dinner. Photo enhanced by Instagram filtering. |
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