Amarante
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 Tue, May 26 2015, 1:10 pm
This is a really excellent recipe if you want to duplicate good restaurant style of this dish. The notes aren't mine except for doubling the sauce if you want to have plenty to put over the rice.
It's easier to slice chicken if it's partially frozen (my experience). You can make the sauce ahead of time and then warm which makes it faster since you only need to coat and fry the chicken.
The technique of marinating and then coating with cornstarch is also great for any other proteins in a stir fry dish even if you aren't "frying" or battering as it makes the meat more tender and provides a kind of luscious mouth feel - I believe it is called "velveting".
Chinese Orange Chicken
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Recipe By: Bon Appetit
Serving Size: 4
Summary:
Orange chicken is a Chinese-restaurant favorite for good reason. Think of it as a Chinese-American version of fried chicken nuggets coated in a savory citrus sauce punctuated with a light touch of chile heat. What's not to love? Making it at home—instead of resorting to takeout—is much easier than you might think, and probably involves about as much time as it takes to find the menu online and wait, wait, wait for the delivery. And we guarantee you will be bowled over by the layers of flavor and texture!
Ingredients:
For the chicken:
1 lb. boneless, skinless chicken thighs, patted dry and cut into 1 1/2-inch pieces
1 teaspoon soy sauce
1 teaspoon Chinese Shaoxing wine or dry sherry
1/2 cup cornstarch
About 2 cups canola oil for frying
For the orange sauce:
2 oranges
2 teaspoons cornstarch
1 tablespoon canola oil
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 teaspoons minced peeled fresh ginger (from 1-inch piece)
1/8 to 1/4 teaspoon crushed red pepper
1 tablespoon low-sodium soy sauce
1 teaspoon Chinese Shaoxing wine or dry sherry
1 teaspoon rice vinegar (not seasoned) or cider vinegar
2 tablespoons sugar
Thinly sliced scallion greens, for garnish
Thinly sliced fresh red chile, for garnish (optional)
Cooked rice for serving
Directions:
Start the chicken:
In a shallow, medium bowl toss the chicken pieces with the soy sauce and wine. Let stand while you make the sauce.
Make the orange sauce:
Using a vegetable peeler, remove 4 lengthwise strips of zest from 1 orange—each strip should be about 3/4 inch wide and 3 1/2 to 4 inches long. Arrange the zest in one layer between paper towels and microwave on high in 20-second increments until dry and brittle but not browned, 60 to 80 seconds total. Let the zest cool then finely chop it. If desired, use a Microplane to remove some of the remaining zest from the orange and reserve it for garnish. (If desired, zest the second orange for additional garnish.)
Squeeze enough juice from both oranges to measure 1/2 cup. In a small bowl, whisk together the juice and 2 teaspoons cornstarch until the cornstarch is dissolved.
In a 10-inch skillet, heat 1 tablespoon oil over moderate heat until hot but not smoking. Add the garlic, ginger, crushed red pepper, and dried orange zest and stir-fry until golden, about 30 seconds. Add the soy sauce, wine, vinegar, and sugar and stir until the sugar dissolves, about 5 seconds. Stir the orange juice–cornstarch mixture then add it to the skillet. Bring the sauce to a boil, stirring, then reduce the heat to low and simmer, uncovered, for 1 minute. Remove the skillet from the heat and set it aside while you fry the chicken.
Fry the chicken:
Line a large rimmed baking sheet with paper towels.
In a 10-inch cast-iron skillet, heat 1/2 inch of oil until a deep-fry thermometer registers 365°F. Meanwhile, coat half of the chicken, a couple pieces at a time, in cornstarch, making sure they are well coated and gently knocking off any excess, then transfer to a plate. Carefully add all the coated chicken to the hot oil, spacing the pieces apart from each other. Fry the chicken, turning it once or twice, until deep golden, about 5 minutes. While frying, adjust the heat as necessary to keep the oil at 365°F. Using a metal spider or a slotted spoon, transfer the chicken as done to the paper-towel-lined baking sheet. Continue to coat and fry the remaining chicken in the same manner, returning the oil to 365°F between batches.
Once the chicken is fried, place the skillet of reserved orange sauce over moderately low heat and bring it to a simmer, stirring and thinning the sauce with a little water if necessary. Add the chicken, and stir until thoroughly coated in sauce.
To serve:
Transfer the chicken to a serving dish and garnish with the scallions, and, if desired, the red chile slices and the freshly grated orange zest. Serve immediately with rice.
Notes:
Double the sauce ingredients to have plenty of sauce.
Equipment: 10-inch cast-iron skillet or other high-sided skillet (at least 2 inches deep), deep-fry thermometer, Microplane (for optional garnish)
Make a dynamite homemade version of classic orange chicken with ingredients found at your supermarket—no wok required
O n busy nights, it's understandable why so many of us resort to ordering takeout. It's so darn easy. But there are downsides, including the fact that food tastes best when freshly made. In reality, the longer the span of time from stove to table, the less ideal our favorites become. One dish that suffers from travel time is Chinese orange chicken.
Genevieve Ko, a food writer, recipe developer, and coauthor with chef Jean-Georges Vongerichten of Asian Flavors of Jean-Georges, grew up in Monterey Park, California, a Los Angeles suburb known for its excellent Chinese restaurants. While her parents made sure their children knew how authentic Chinese cuisine should taste, for Ko and her siblings, Chinese-American fast food was always the real treat. In that classic second-generation immigrant pattern, the kids jumped for joy when they ate at a place like Panda Express.
At home Ko's mother made a more classic Chinese version of orange chicken that was a light stir-fry without any deep-frying. But Ko knows firsthand how irresistible crunchy fried chunks of chicken bathed in a sweet and savory orange sauce can be. "There's something to be said for the delicate balance of takeout-style orange chicken when it comes right out of the pan. You get the sauciness and the crunch all at the same time. But a half hour later, forget it," says Ko. "The crust will start to get soggy and the sauce will start to congeal. It's so much better right out of the pan."
With the "homemade is best" mantra in mind, Ko devised a streamlined recipe that doesn't require a wok or a trip to your local Chinatown. Instead of deep-frying the chicken, Ko got excellent results from shallow-frying in a half inch of oil. Read on for Ko's tips on using a cornstarch coating, easy no-mess frying, and how to make the perfect orange sauce.
Prep Properly
Success in Chinese cooking is easily attained if you take the time upfront to get organized. It's essential to have all the ingredients prepared and ready to go before cooking, explains Ko, because the elements come together so fast. When making the orange sauce, get all your ingredients prepped and measured before you even heat the skillet. The same organizing principle holds true for frying. Assemble all the equipment before you start. Besides a deep skillet you will need a deep-fry thermometer, a metal spider or slotted spoon to remove the chicken as it's fried, and a rimmed baking sheet lined with paper towels for draining the fried chicken.
Coat Like a Pro
If you've never fried chicken with a cornstarch coating before, you will be amazed by the tender yet crisp results. Once fried, the cornstarch turns a mottled golden color, not an even brown, like flour, but you won't notice the variation once the chicken is coated in the sauce. Resist the urge to add all the chicken to the bowl of cornstarch at once. It doesn't work. Instead, dredge about two pieces of chicken at a time, making sure the entire nugget is well coated in cornstarch, then pat it gently to knock off the excess. Rest the coated pieces of chicken on a plate, spacing them apart so that they aren't touching one another. Only coat enough chicken for the first batch of frying and do it while the oil is heating. For your second batch of chicken, coat it while the first batch is frying.
Foolproof Frying
In lieu of deep-frying, Ko's recipe calls for a more approachable shallow-fry in just a half inch of oil. Be sure to use a high-sided skillet, such as a 2-inch-deep cast-iron pan, to allow space for the slight rise in the oil level as well as the bubbling that occurs when the chicken is added to the hot oil. Make sure to space the chicken pieces out around the skillet while frying. The addition of the chicken will drop the oil temperature, so you'll have to increase the heat to get it back to 365°F, then adjust it frequently to maintain the temperature.
Temperature Matters
To get a correct reading on your deep-fry thermometer, the bulb has to be submerged in the oil. If it isn't covered when you clip the thermometer upright to the side of the pan, turn it over and lay it facedown with the bulb in the skillet and the frame resting on the opposite edge. (If the handle is plastic make sure that it's far enough away from the hot edge of the pan and the heat source to keep it from melting.) When the thermometer is positioned this way, you'll have to lift it up often to check the temperature.
Master the Sauce
What makes this orange chicken recipe soar above others is the depth of flavor in the sauce, which can only be achieved by using both the juice and the rind of the orange. Feel free to use any type of orange, juice or navel. Authentic versions incorporate Chinese dried orange peel, but to save you a trip to an Asian market, Ko came up with a brilliant trick: She quickly dries strips of fresh orange zest in a microwave, then finely chops them.
Even though the recipe instructions say to dissolve the cornstarch in the orange juice ahead of time, the cornstarch eventually falls out of suspension onto the bottom of the bowl or cup as it stands. That's why it's important to stir it again right before you add it to the skillet.
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