How to Make Orange Chicken
When you learn how to make orange chicken, you can satisfy your craving for Asian flavors without paying for take-out! Plus the total cooking time clocks in at a cool 30 minutes -- about the same time it takes for your takeout order to be ready.China is home to a wide range of cooking styles -- Shandong, Guangdong, Sichuan, Hunan, Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Fujian and Anhui are among the more popular. Most "Chinese" food in America doesn't even vaguely resemble these regional cuisines; it's merely inspired by the techniques or flavors of a certain style.
With its dense color, savory flavors and crisp-yet-tender cooking methods, the orange chicken we know draws upon the cooking influences of Hunan cuisine. The Chinese do use the orange peel in both cooking and traditional medicine.
Transcript
-Hey everyone, I'm Judith. Today, I'm gonna be showing you
how to make Spicy Orange Chicken, a low fat, low
calorie chicken dish. So what you're gonna need is 2
10-ounce packages of baby spinach, 1 tablespoon cooking oil, one
orange which we've taken the juice out of to make
about
1/3 cup of orange juice, another orange which we've removed
the peel and taken out the white membranes off and
we've sliced them into segments. We have here 1 teaspoon
of honey, 1 teaspoon of freshly grated ginger, quarter of
a teaspoon of crushed red pepper, 1 tablespoon of soy
sauce, 1/4 teaspoon of black pepper, 1/4 teaspoon of salt,
1/2 teaspoon of corn starch, and 3 garlic cloves which
we've minced.
And right here last, but not the least, we have
1 pound of skinless, boneless chicken breast cut into strips.
So first of all, let's get our large pot right
here, put it to a medium heat and we're just
gonna get that cooking oil right in there to heat
up. Once that's heated, we're gonna put in all of
our spinach. So, we're gonna cook that covered now for
about 4 to 5 minutes until it's wilted and you
can stir that occasionally too. Once it's done, we'll serve
it on a platter and keep it warm.
Now, we've set our spinach aside on a platter. We've
cleaned or pot again. Now, it's time to continue with
our recipe. So, first thing is first, let's get our
large pot, put it to medium heat and we're just
gonna put in couple of teaspoons of the oil in
there. While that's heating up, we're gonna stir up a
lovely orange sauce for our chicken. So, our orange juice
goes in there, our soy sauce, our red pepper,
our fresh ginger which just gave such a lovely flavor
and nice kick to the dish. Our honey goes in
there too. That will go and our cornstarch goes in
there. So, we're gonna give that a good whisk together
to get all those flavors incorporated. Now, as our oil
is getting hot, we're gonna put in our minced garlic.
So, we'll let that
just get aromatic in the pot there for about 30
seconds. Now, we're gonna put our chicken strips in there.
We're gonna want to cook them until they are no
longer pink inside about 2 to 3 minutes before we
add our sauce. So, while the chicken is in there.
Don't forget to put on your salt and pepper? You
can do that before you put the chicken in as
well. So, once the chicken is on longer pink. It's
time to add in our orange sauce.
So, we're just gonna put that in there and cook
it and stir it until it starts to get nice
and baked and bubbly. So, our sauce now has gotten
nice and thick and bubbly and it just smells great,
the garlic, the orange, the peppers and it looks fantastic
too. So, all we wanna do now is spoon that
on top of our spinach like so and look at
that just gorgeous,
really quick and easy to do, and last but not
the least, let us top with our lovely orange segments,
which we've cut earlier. There you go. That is one
dinner to impress. That's how you make Spicy Orange Chicken.
What You'll Need
- 2 oranges
- 1 tablespoon cooking oil
- 2 10-ounce packages baby spinach
- 1 tablespoon reduced-sodium soy sauce
- 1 teaspoon honey
- 1 teaspoon grated fresh ginger
- 1/2 teaspoon cornstarch
- 1/8 to 1/4 teaspoon crushed red pepper
- 1 pound skinless, boneless chicken breast strips
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
- 3 cloves garlic, minced
Step By Step
1
Remove peel and white membrane from 1 of the oranges. Section orange; set aside. Squeeze enough juice from the remaining orange to measure 1/3 cup; set aside. In a 4-quart Dutch oven, heat 1 teaspoon of the oil over medium heat. Add spinach; cover and cook for 4 to 5 minutes or just until slightly wilted, stirring occasionally. Drain and transfer to 4 serving dishes or a serving platter. Cover and keep warm.
2
Meanwhile, in a small bowl, combine the 1/3 cup orange juice, the soy sauce, honey, ginger, cornstarch, and crushed red pepper. Set aside.
3
Sprinkle chicken with salt and black pepper. Wipe out Dutch oven with a paper towel. In Dutch oven, heat the remaining 2 teaspoons oil over medium-high heat. Add garlic; cook and stir for 30 seconds. Add chicken; cook and stir for 2 to 3 minutes or until chicken is no longer pink. Stir orange juice mixture; add to chicken in Dutch oven. Cook and stir until thickened and bubbly. Cook and stir for 1 minute more.
4
To serve, arrange orange sections on top of spinach. Spoon chicken mixture over oranges and spinach. Makes 4 servings.
At one time in Chinese history, imperial cooks were so highly regarded they had a say in the country's politics. Learning how to make orange chicken might not earn you a say in the government, but this recipe does feature satisfying flavors that have a way of bringing people together -- you could call it kitchen diplomacy.
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