Orange Chicken

Dr. Sweetpea and I don't order take out regularly. We're the ones that prefer to eat homemade meals, even if it's time consuming, because we know what went into our food. Plus, it's SOOOO much healthier to make food at home because we always use fresh produce in our meals. So when we had a craving for Orange Chicken earlier this week, I scoured the internet to find a good recipe. I came across the recipe from Big Bowl and decided to give it a try. We were BLOWN away by how good this was. Seriously, the sauce was identical to what we had in restaurants. The chicken could have been crispier, but I think I didn't heat the oil enough so our chicken wasn't as crispy as we would have liked. Dr. Sweetpea told me to put this in our regular monthly rotation because it was SO good. 

Orange Chicken

(Source: Big Bowl)

Chicken:

3/4 pound chicken breast cut into 1 to 2″ slices

1 egg, beaten

1/4 cup flour

2 tablespoons cornstarch

1/2 teaspoon salt

Orange Sauce:

2 tablespoons light soy sauce

1/4 cup lemon juice

5 1/2 tablespoons sugar

1/4 teaspoon salt

3 tablespoons julienned scallion

3 tablespoons julienned ginger

8 slices red Fresno pepper, julienned (I used Serrano peppers)

2 fresh water chestnuts, peeled and sliced

2 1/4 cups peanut oil

3 thin orange slices, peeled and cut into quarters (I sliced up a whole orange)

1/4 cup chicken stock

1 tablespoon cornstarch mixed with 1/4 cup water

Mix the chicken slices with the beaten egg, flour, cornstarch and salt. Let sit for 10 minutes and, rubbing with your fingers, work the chicken together with the flour mixture again—repeat in another 10 minutes. Meanwhile, make the orange sauce. Combine the light soy sauce, lemon juice, sugar, and salt.

In a wok or skillet, heat 2 cups of the peanut oil to 375 degrees. Keep it at that temperature while you cook the sauce.

Heat a skillet or saucepan to hot and add the remaining 1/4 cup peanut oil. When hot, add the scallion-ginger mixture. Cook, stirring rapidly, for about 15 seconds just to coat with oil. Add the orange slices and cook another 10 seconds. Add the soy-lemon-sugar and salt mixture along with the chicken stock and bring to a boil. Recombine the cornstarch-water mixture and add to the sauce. Allow to boil, thicken and clear, then turn off the heat.

Meanwhile, add the chicken to the oil and fry until crispy. Remove to drain. Immediately add the chicken to the sauce that you just made and toss briefly to coat. Serve with rice.