Orange Chicken

Lately my family is loving Asian food. This dish works particularly well because it’s the perfect balance of sour, sweet, and heat. It’s a combination of a few methods from other recipes but the sauce is essentially the same as Modern Honey’s with a minor update to use brown sugar and zest wasn’t necessary for us as our daughter doesn’t like bitterness.

A note on the chicken. The classic Chinese restaurant version has a battered chicken deep-fried. My version is a little lighter but you still get a great crisp skin. The key for maximum flavour is to use skin on chicken thighs. I haven’t found any without the bone, so I usually bone them myself.

Serve with your favourite steamed rice; ours is basmati.

Equipment

Deep sided sauté pan

Small sauce pan

8x8 small oven pan or similar casserole dish

Ingredients

8 chicken thighs with skin on, cut in half. Debone if bone still in.

Corn starch

Olive oil for shallow frying

Sauce

1 cup fresh orange juice

1/2 cup brown sugar

2 TB soy sauce

2 TB rice vinegar

1/4 tsp fresh ginger grated

1/4 tsp garlic powder or 2 garlic gloves minced

1/2 tsp chili flakes

2 TB water

1 TB corn starch

Method

Preheat oven to 400F. Make your rice.

Make the sauce - in a sauce pan, combine everything in sauce ingredients except the water and cornstarch. Heat until bubbly. Mix the water and corn starch together until fully dissolved. Mix into the sauce and stir over low heat until thickened. Set aside.

Season both sides of the chicken thigh pieces (with skin on) with salt and pepper. Dredge in corn starch on both sides. Heat olive oil until hot, then fry off the chicken until browned and cooked through. When cooked through, place in the casserole dish.

Pour the sauce over the chicken in the casserole dish. Bake in the 400F oven for 10 minutes. Put in a serving dish and pour over the sauce. Garnish with chopped cilantro, chives, and green onions.

Let me know if you make this and feel free to tag me on Instagram @wherelizis