I love Orange Chicken....

For dinner last night, I made orange chicken for myself and a friend. I LOVE orange chicken. It's probably my favorite Chinese dish but I rarely order it because I don't often like it when I get it from restaurants. So when I have that issue with a food I really enjoy, I learn to make it at home. The recipe for the orange sauce is pretty easy so I thought I'd share it on here today. Food posts are fun, right? Right? Okay. ;)



Most chicken in orange chicken dishes is breaded. I don't do breaded chicken in mine most of the time because I prefer to use grilled or broiled chicken* instead. The exception being when the boyfriend is home and eating it, then it's fried. You can do it which ever way you want. Since the fried way is more popular, I'll go ahead and post that up.

Ingredients:

• Chicken:

• 2 lbs boneless skinless chicken breasts (cut into 1-1/2” cubes)
• 1 ½ cups all purpose flour
• 1 eggs (beaten)
• ¼ teaspoon salt
• ¼ teaspoon pepper
• ¼ cayenne pepper
• Oil (for frying)

Directions:

• Combine flour, pepper, salt and cayenne pepper together.
  
• Dip chicken in egg mixture and shake in flour mixture to coat.
  
• Deep fry chicken in small batches in a wok or frying pan.
• Set chicken on paper towels.
  

Sauce Ingredients:

• 1 1/2 cups water
• 2 tablespoons orange juice
• 1/4 cup lemon juice
• 1/3 cup rice vinegar
• 2 1/2 tablespoons soy sauce
• 1 tablespoon grated orange zest
• 1 cup packed brown sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon minced fresh ginger root
• 1/2 teaspoon minced garlic
• 1/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes

• 3 tablespoons cornstarch
• 3 tablespoons water

A few notes: If you don't have rice vinegar not a big deal. I've used apple cider vinegar and white vinegar before in a pinch. It doesn't make that much of a difference so you'll be okay to use either of those.

I use 1/2 teaspoon of red pepper flakes because I like my food really hot. You can use more or less than 1/4 tsp based on how spicy you like your food.

2 teaspoons of orange extract works if you don't want to use the grated orange zest. (But why wouldn't you want to do that? Zest > Orange flavoring ;D)


Directions:

• Pour 1 1/2 cups water, orange juice, lemon juice, rice vinegar and soy sauce into a saucepan and blend the liquids together well over medium-high heat.
  
• Stir in the orange zest, brown sugar, ginger, garlic, and red pepper flakes. Mix well and bring to a boil.
  
• In a small bowl, combine 3 tablespoons of cornstarch with 3 tablespoons of water and mix thoroughly. Bring the sauce down to low heat and slowly stir mixture into sauce until it thickens. Remove from heat.

In your wok or skillet, pour the desired amount of sauce over cooked chicken pieces until fully coated.

I serve mine with plain white rice or occasionally (like last night) some jasmine rice. I also sprinkle a little more crushed red peppers on top as a garnish and ya know, because I love hot food, lol.

*Note: If you're going to broil the chicken instead of frying, soak the chicken pieced in a marinade for at least a couple hours before cooking them, it helps keep the chicken from being dry. 1/2 cup orange juice, 1/2 cup lemon juice, 1 tablespoon soy sauce, 1/4 teaspoon ground ginger, 1/4 teaspoon minced garlic. Mix it all together, stir in the chicken pieces and let marinate in the refrigerator for about 2 hours in a covered container or ziplock bag.

I also made these snazzy little treats.....



That is indeed a cupcake with a chocolate filled center. It's like a Death By Chocolate cupcake. Which is what my friends call these, actually. I made a big batch of those for a friend for a celebratory get together he was having (yes, on a Tuesday. His brother, roommates and some friends were celebrating some amazing news & it was their only night they all had free to hang out together) and ended up with a half dozen left over. Which I offered to them since they all paid me to bake these and paid for the ingredients but they didn't want to extras for fear of not being able to stop eating them, lol. I might also end up posting the recipe for this with a few pictures of the process sometime this week if I find I have nothing else I want to blog about, lol.

Happy Wednesday!