Orange Chicken - Flavourfull chicken from Chinese Cuisine / With step wise pictures

   Panda Express is my destination ,to quench my thirst for orange chicken.I am a die hard fan of this chicken.But Panda Express is not that near to our apartment.We have to travel atleast 20 minutes to visit "Panda Express".So whenever we go to that particular mall,We'll grab that chicken to-go. Sometimes,I don't feel like travelllling for 20 minutes to eat my favourite Orange chicken.This made me to find the recipe for making orange chicken.Here is my version of "Orange Chicken".Chicken is marinated in spices,fried and added to the orange sauce.This is a sweet and sour dish.where we get the sweetness from the honey and sour from oranges.So if you feel that the orange is too sweet,then we can alter the amount of honey.If the oranges are too sour,then we can increase the amount of honey.Its purely a balancing act to suit our tastebuds..

Ingredients:
For Chicken:
1.Boneless Chicken              -           20 - 25 pieces
2.Egg                                     -          1
3.Pepper pwdr                        -          2 tsp
4.Soy sauce                            -           1 tbsp
5.Salt                                       -           1/2 tsp
6.All purpose flour                  -          1/4 cup
7.Corn flour                             -           1 tsp
8.Oil                                         -           for deep frying

For the sauce:
1.Orange juice                          -          3/4 cup
2.Water                                     -          1/4 cup
3.Soy sauce                               -          2 tsp
4.Corn flour                               -          1 tsp
5.Ginger (crushed)                     -          1/2 tsp
6.Garlic  (crushed)                      -          1/2 tsp
7.Red Chilli flakes                      -          1 tsp
8.Sesame.Oil                                -          1 tsp
9.Brown sugar                              -          1 tbsp
10.Honey                                      -           2 tbsp


Method:
* Wash and pat dry the chicken well.Take a mixing bowl,add whisked egg,soy sauce,salt ,pepper pwdr.Now dump in the chicken pieces and coat it well with the marination.Keep this for atleast half an hour.

* Take all purpose flour,corn flour ,1/4 tsp of salt and 1/4 tsp of pepper pwdr and mix well.Now take a piece of marinated chicken,roll it in the flour mixture and coat it.

 

* Heat oil in a pan ,drop the coated chicken into medium hot oil and fry it till golden brown.

 

* Don't crowd the pan with more chicken pieces.This will make the cooking process bit slow.So fry them in batches.This will also avoid chicken absorbing more oil.

 

 

 * Take the excess oil ,by placing the chicken on a tissue paper.

 

 

Preparing the Sauce:

* Extract the juice from the oranges and scrape the zest.Chop garlic and ginger finely.Take water a  tbsp or 2 in a bowl and mix with the corn flour.Mix it without any lumps.

 

 

* Take a pan,add sesame oil and slighly saute ginger garlic with chilli flakes.Toss it till it changes coloue slightly..Sesame oil gives a Chinese touch,so don't skip it.If you don't have sesame oil then add olive or canola oil.

* Now add the orange juice,water,and bring it to a boil.Always keep the flame in medium high.

* Now add soy sauce and taste the sauce.Adjust the amount of soy sauce according to your tastebuds.

* Add brown sugar to the sauce.If you don't have brown sugar,then add normal sugar.Simmer the sauce ,and let it cook well.

* Now slowly add the corn flour mixture into the sauce.Now after adding corn flour,the sauce will start to thicken.When the desired consistancy is reached,turn off the stove immediately.If it thickens too much,then dilute it with water to the desired consistancy.

* At last add honey to the sauce.This step is very essential,as it gives sweetness to the chicken.We can also increase the honey level and skip the use of sugar.Or use both.The sweetness can be altered according to our taste.Now we can also add a pinch of salt,to balance the amount of sweetness and sourness.

 

*Now add the fried chicken to the sauce and mix it.Coat the chicken with the sauce well.

 

* Let it get cooked with the sauce for 3 to 4 minutes,or untill chicken absorbs the sauce.Now we can add ,ornage zest to the sauce.Don't add too much of orange zest.It may over power the flavour of orange.

*Serve it with fried rice and with a bowl of steamed vegetables.

 

 

Sending this entry to "Flavours of Chinese Cuisine",now happening at "Erivum Puliyum" blog