Orange Chicken

This homemade Panda Express Orange Chicken recipe has been recommended to me so many times, but since we don’t have a UK Panda Express (what?!), not only have I never tried their Orange Chicken, I’ve never had anything from Panda Express at all! I love a bit of lemon chicken, and to be honest, I’d pick orange over lemon any day, so I thought I’d finally give the DIY Panda Express Orange Chicken a go. If you want to hop on board the Panda Express with me, the Orange Chicken recipe is below!

Panda Express Orange Chicken Recipe

Chicken coating

• 900g (2lb) boneless, skinless chicken thighs
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 tsp pepper
• 125g (1 cup) cornflour
• 375g (3 cups) flour
• 1 egg
• 360ml (1.5 cups) water
• 2 tbsp oil
• 1.5l (6 cups) oil for frying

Orange Sauce

• 1 tbsp oil
• ¼ tsp chili flake
• 1 tbsp garlic, grated or chopped
• ½ tsp ginger, grated or chopped
• 50g (¼ cup) sugar
• 50g (¼ cup) brown sugar
• 60ml (¼ cup) orange juice
• 60ml (¼ cup) white distilled vinegar
• 2 tbsp soy sauce
• 2 tbsp water
• 2 tbsp cornflour
• 1 tbsp sesame oil
• First chop up that delicious chicken thigh into bite size chunks.
• Now mix together all the ingredients to coat the chicken. Start with the dry ingredients: the plain flour and cornflour, with a shimmy of salt and grind of pepper, then the oil, water and 1 egg. Bring the mixture together with a whisk to create a little swimming pool for the chicken thigh chunks to jump into! Dunk the chicken in, make sure it’s well coated, then cover and chill in the fridge for half an hour.
• While it’s chilling, prep for the next step. Lay out a few sheets of kitchen paper in a bowl to drain the chicken when it comes out of the fryer, and fill the pan or fryer with oil. Heat the oil to 180C (350F) then carefully add the individual chunks of chicken to the hot oil one at a time, making sure not to overload the pan.
• Now for the orange chicken sauce! Measure out the orange juice and white vinegar. Then heat up the oil in a pan and chuck the garlic, ginger and chilli flakes in for 30 seconds. Next the sugar goes in, stir to mix together, then the orange juice, white vinegar and soy sauce.
• In a separate bowl, whisk together the water and cornflour then pour this slurry into the pan, stirring over a slow steady heat until it’s thickened to a maple syrup consistency.
• Now dollop the battered chicken into the sauce and stir to make sure it’s all covered in the delicious sticky sauce.
• Finally serve up in a bowl with a little drizzle of sesame oil to serve, and enjoy!