Are you craving the sweet and tangy flavors of a classic Chinese takeout dish, but feeling hesitant about making it at home? Look no further than this easy orange chicken recipe that will have you cooking up a storm in the comfort of your own kitchen. Picture yourself savoring each bite of succulent chicken bathed in an irresistible orange sauce, without the hassle of complicated techniques or hard-to-find ingredients. This homemade orange chicken will leave you wondering why you ever settled for takeout. It is sure to become a staple in your weeknight dinner lineup.

1. Sauce Pan
2. Air Fryer
3. Liquid Measuring Cup
4. Measuring Spoons

1. Orange Juice
2. Rice Vinegar
3. Soy Sauce
4. Brown Sugar
5. Ground Ginger
6. Minced Garlic
7. Red Pepper Flakes
8. Water
9. Green Onions (optional)
10. Cornstarch

Directions for Orange Chicken

To make this meal quickly, we buy pre-breaded chicken. This usually comes in a kit to make orange chicken, but we’ve found the sauce never tastes that good. Plus, we know what goes into our sauce.

If you want to make your own breaded chicken, toss cut-up chicken in 1/4 tsp salt, 1/4 tsp pepper, and 1/2 cup of cornstarch. Fry it in some oil until it is golden and you can skip to making the sauce.

If you are doing the easy method of making chicken, then get out the air fryer! Set it for 8 minutes.

Set the temp to 400F degrees, and let it cook. You can start prepping the sauce, while you wait

When the timer goes off, shake that chicken around and let it go for another 8 minutes and 400F. You may need to make adjustments here depending on your air fryer.

To make the sauce, add brown sugar to a saucepan.

Add the water.

Then add in the orange juice, soy sauce, ginger, and garlic.

I’m making the red pepper flakes there own section here. This is what will give you heat/spice or whatever you want to call it to the dish. We don’t add a lot and it comes out just fine for our taste, but feel free to go crazy if that is your thing. I don’t drink hot sauce for fun, so I’m happy with what we do.

Green onions are optional. They do add flavor, but we’ve had this meal without them and it tastes just fine.

Set the pan on the stove and get it boiling. You want to get all those flavors cooked together for a bit. I usually get it boiling and reduce to simmer for 2 minutes.

While the sauce is cooking to deliciousness, we need to make a thickener. Mix the cornstarch with some water.

When your sauce has cooked for a bit, it should look like this.

Add your thickener to your sauce.

When everything is done cooking, add your chicken to your orange sauce, and enjoy!

We ate ours over white rice with broccoli!

Until next time,
Hubby

Orange Chicken

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Course Main Course

Cuisine Chinese

Equipment

• 1 Air Fryer
• 1 Sauce Pan
• 1 Liquid measure cup
• Measuring Spoons

Ingredients

  

• 1 bag Pre-Breaded Chicken
• ¼ cup Orange Juice
• ⅓ cup Rice Vinegar
• 2½ tbsp Soy Sauce
• 1 cup Brown Sugar
• ½ tsp Ground Ginger
• ½ tsp Minced Garlic
• 1/4 tsp Red Pepper Flakes
• 2 tbsp Green Onions optional

Thickener

• 3 tbsp Cornstarch
• ¼ cup water

Instructions

 

Pre-Breaded Chicken

• Cook in air fryer for 8 minutes at 400F.
• Remove and shake to allow all the pieces to cook evenly.
• Cook for another 8 minutes at 400F

Orange Sauce

• Combine brown sugar, water, rice vinegar, soy sauce, ginger, garlic, and red pepper flakes in a saucepan. You can optionally add green onions.
• Set the saucepan to boil and then reduce to simmer.
• Allow the sauce to simmer for 2 minutes.
• Add the thickener to the sauce.
• Add chicken to the sauce or pour sauce over completed meal.

Thickener

• Mix cornstarch and water.