Skinny Orange Chicken Recipe (2024)

FAQs

How to thicken up orange chicken sauce? ›

To thicken the sauce, pour it into a small saucepan on the stove over medium-high heat. In a small bowl, combine 2 tablespoons cornstarch with 2 tablespoons water to make a cornstarch slurry. Once the sauce starts to bubble in the pan on the stovetop, add the cornstarch slurry and stir to combine.

Working with 1 chicken breast at a time, place inside a gallon zip-top bag and seal the bag, pressing out as much air as possible. Pound the chicken thin. Pound with the flat side of a meat mallet, rolling pin, or small skillet to an even 1/4-inch thickness.

Orange Chicken is traditionally coated in batter and deep fried. This increases fat content and increases the caloric density of the dish.

How to make the orange chicken sauce. The orange sauce is made from a mixture of the orange juice and zest, sugar, soy sauce, garlic, ginger and rice vinegar. This is bubbled up in the wok until slightly thickened. The chicken is then added back in, and tossed in the sauce until fully coated.

Mix 2 tablespoons (16 g) of flour with 1/4 cup (60 mL) of cold water, then add to your sauce and stir over medium heat until it thickens. Alternatively, create a sauce-thickening roux by whisking 1 tbsp (15 g) of butter and 1 tbsp (9 g) of salt together, then adding the mixture to your sauce.

Alginate, k-carrageenan, xanthan, guar gum, pectin, hydroxypropylmethylcellulose (HPMC) and some modified starches are extensively used in the formulations in the Chinese traditional cereal foods, especially for noodles and CSB.

Brine. Like a marinade, a brine helps chicken breast soak up as much moisture as possible before cooking. It only requires three ingredients: water, salt, and a pinch of sugar.

The USDA recommends not keeping poultry in marinade for longer than two days, as it's possible that the marinade will start breaking down the meat's fibers and cause it to become mushy. A good rule of thumb is to keep marinating time under 24 hours.

No, it is not. Traditional orange chicken is full of fats, carbohydrates, added sugars and a lot of salt, all things that are not good for your body, weight management, or overall health.

What is the difference between orange chicken and sesame chicken? ›

Orange chicken and sesame chicken may both feature boneless chicken meat, but they are distinct dishes that differ in several key ways. While sesame chicken uses a base sauce of soy sauce and sesame oil to create a savory, nutty flavor, orange chicken incorporates soy sauce and orange zest for a sweet and tangy taste.

Orange chicken is a popular item at Chinese restaurants. It consists of small cubes of chicken that are breaded, pan-fried, and coated in an orange sauce. The orange sauce is sweet with a little tang and a hint of spice. It's mainly known for its orange flavor (as you can guess from the name).

Ingredients: dark meat chicken, water, sugar, distilled vinegar, modified food starch, corn starch, potato starch, contains less than 2% of: wheat, orange extract, caramel color, salt, garlic, phosphoric acid, rice wine, sesame oil. *The dish uses a proprietary batter and sauce.

In Chinese, this dish is known as "陳皮雞", literally "dried citrus peel chicken", referring to dried orange or tangerine peel. However, the taste and recipes of this dish differ due to cultural and geographical factors.

While tangerine chicken is made with pieces of chicken that are stir fried in a tangerine spicy sauce, the chicken in orange chicken is breaded just like General Tso's chicken, and tossed in a sweet orange chili sauce.

Cornstarch is a good choice for this technique because it thickens quickly and evenly without clumping. It also doesn't have much flavor of its own, so it won't interfere with those already present in the dish. Rice starch would be a good substitute if you don't want to use cornstarch.

Use Flour and Water

Combine 2 tablespoons flour with every 1/4 cup cold water and whisk until smooth. Add the mixture to your sauce over medium heat, and continue to stir and cook until you've reached your desired consistency. Test with a spoon.

Much like French food, which relies on a roux for a perfect bechamel sauce or beef bourguignon and involves butter cooked with flour, Chinese and Cantonese cuisines use cornstarch to thicken sauces. However, it's predominantly added at the end of the cooking process rather than at the start.