Orange chicken

Yes, it’s a variant of sweet sour chicken. No, it’s not Chinese although it may have been inspired by a Hunan dish called tangerine chicken. The Hunan dish is spicy; orange chicken is sweet and sour. The accepted history of orange chicken is that it was created by Chef Andy Lau of Panda Express back in 1987.

What makes orange chicken so good? I’m not privy to the secrets of Panda Express but I do have a few tricks to ensure that the chicken meat is succulent, and the orange flavor and aroma are pronounced without overwhelming.

For starters, I use skin on chicken thigh fillets. It’s more tasty than breast meat and it can withstand deep frying without losing flavor. Next, I’m a firm believer in the wonders of marinating the chicken despite being cut into small pieces. I also add finely grated orange zest to the marinade.

I don’t add starch dissolved in water (called slurry in America, a term that makes me roll my eyes) to thicken the sauce. Instead, I create a syrup by boiling down sugar with orange juice and vinegar. For added orange-y flavor and aroma, I throw in orange zest to the sauce too. And, for subtle heat and even more flavor and aroma, ginger is a must.

In making the syrup, it is essential that the heat be turned off at the right time. It takes about ten minutes for the sauce to reach the ideal syrupy stage. It may appear too thin but note that the sauce thickens as it cools so don’t wait for it to turn too thick.

To make sure that the surface of the chicken turns crisp while the inside remains moist, do not overcrowd the pan during frying. If your pan is not large enough to cook all the chicken cubes in a single batch, divide the chicken into portions and fry one portion at a time.

With a beautiful sauce done right and crispy chicken pieces fried correctly, all that remains to be done is to toss them together to let the sauce coat the surface of every piece of chicken and reach the deepest nook and cranny.