This is a recipe for Chinese Orange Chicken that makes impressively crispy chicken pieces without deep frying. The sauce has great orange flavour, it’s not too sweet, and the background hint of ginger is a lovely touch.
Orange Chicken is a Chinese-American take-out favourite. As someone who’s generally very suspicious of fruit touching their meat, you might be surprised by how much you enjoy it. Crispy chicken coated in a sweet-savoury citrus sauce, it’s the sort of dish that’s dangerously easy to keep going back for “just one more piece” until all of a sudden — WHO ATE ALL THE ORANGE CHICKEN?!
Traditionally, the chicken is deep fried. But this recipe uses a shallow-frying method that delivers seriously good deep-fried-style results with a fraction of the oil. The chicken comes out golden and crunchy, and it’s a straightforward method where you won’t be left with a pot of used oil to deal with afterwards.
Ingredients in Orange Chicken
Here’s what you need to make this.
1. For the crispy chicken
- Chicken – You can use either thighs or breast. Thigh is preferred because it’s juicier.
- Soy sauce – This is the salt for the chicken. Use either light soy or an all-purpose soy. Do not use dark soy or sweet soy — these are too intense.
- Ginger – A hint of ginger flavour on the chicken is delicious, though it’s optional.
- Cornflour / cornstarch – This is what makes the chicken crispy. It fries up crispier than flour and stays crispier for longer.
- White pepper – For seasoning. You can substitute with black pepper.
- Oil – Vegetable, canola, peanut, or any other neutral-flavoured oil. You need enough for 0.5 cm / 0.2″ depth in the pan. Using a 30 cm / 12″ pan, that’s about 1 cup.
2. For the orange sauce
The key to a good orange sauce is making sure it actually tastes of orange. Using zest is essential because that’s where most of the orange flavour comes from. A short simmer time matters too — the longer you cook it, the more that fresh citrus flavour fades. To help the sauce thicken quickly without prolonged simmering, this recipe uses a little more cornflour than you typically see in orange sauce recipes.
- Orange – You need both zest and juice, so you need at least one orange. For the juice, fresh-squeezed is best but fresh bottled orange juice also works.
- Ginger and garlic – The garlic is sautéed to make it toasty, while the ginger is grated and simmered in the sauce for a fresher flavour.
- Soy sauce – This adds most of the salt in the sauce. Use either light soy or an all-purpose soy. Do not use dark soy or sweet soy — these are too intense and will ruin the sauce.
- Chinese cooking wine (Shaoxing wine) – Adds saltiness and depth of flavour. Without it, the sauce can taste a little flat. If you can’t consume alcohol, substitute chicken stock/broth.
- Rice vinegar – Essential for balancing the flavours; without it the sauce just tastes sweet. Regular white vinegar works fine if you don’t have rice vinegar.
- Cornflour / cornstarch – Thickens the sauce and gives it a shiny, glossy finish.
- White sugar – Orange sauce is a sweet sauce, but it shouldn’t taste sickly sweet. Reducing the sugar will make the sauce taste more savoury than traditional Orange Chicken, so adjust to your preference.
How to Make Crispy Chinese Orange Chicken Without Deep Frying
There’s only one little extra step needed to achieve deep-fry-level crispiness without deep frying: grabbing fistfuls of the cornflour-dusted chicken and clenching them in your fist to press the cornflour on firmly.
If you prefer to deep fry, you can skip this step — but it’s the only step you can skip.
1. Orange sauce
Mix up the sauce first, ready to pour into the pan at the end.
- Cornflour first – Whisk the cornflour and soy sauce together in a bowl or large jug until lump free. Mixing the cornflour with just a small amount of liquid first makes it easier to incorporate smoothly.
- Finish the sauce – Whisk in the remaining liquids: orange juice, vinegar, sugar, and Chinese cooking wine. This mixture will take only a couple of minutes on the stove to thicken into a shiny, glossy sauce, which you’ll do right at the end before tossing in the chicken.
2. Coating the chicken
Toss the chicken pieces in the cornflour mixture until well coated, then press firmly in your fist in small batches to help the coating adhere. This step is what gives the chicken its deep-fried-style crust when shallow fried.
3. Frying the chicken
Shallow fry the chicken in batches in about 0.5 cm / 0.2″ of neutral oil over high heat, turning once, until deep golden and cooked through. Drain on a rack or paper towels.
4. Making the sauce and finishing
Discard the frying oil, then use the same pan to sauté the garlic briefly until golden. Pour in the prepared sauce mixture and stir over medium-high heat for 1–2 minutes until it thickens and turns glossy. Add the fried chicken, toss quickly to coat, and serve immediately over steamed rice.
The combination of a well-seasoned crispy coating and a bright, lightly sweet citrus sauce makes this one of those dishes that genuinely rivals your favourite take-out — and you’ll have it on the table in well under an hour.
