Best Chinese Orange Chicken Ever! With recipe for Chinese Stir-Fried Vegetable Rice with Egg Foo Young - It's a Numero Uno Winner!

Best Chinese Orange Chicken Ever! With a recipe for Chinese Stir-Fried Vegetable Rice with Egg Foo Young - It's a Numero Uno Winner!

Not complicated or difficult at all! This is a very simple yet tasty, but authentically delicious Chinese dish! – Hoison sauce marries very well with oranges in this recipe! You may even use this as a barbecue sauce – All you need do is braai or barbecue your meat and serve this sauce on the side. ;)

• Yum-Yum, it is soo delish!

Lovely served with Chinese Vegetable Stir-Fried Rice – Recipe bottom of the page.

Notes – Please Read before you begin... 

1. Orange zest must be cooked for 10 minutes to soften it – as it will not soften once the sugar is added.
2. The pectin in orange zest and pulp helps to thicken your dipping sauce – Providing you do not make the mistake of adding too much water!
3. If you do make the mistake of adding too much water.
4. Reduce sauce over high heat until thickened or to your liking – OR – You may make up a slurry of equal parts cold water to the cornflour (30 ml cornflour + 30 ml water stirred to a smooth paste). Bring sauce to boil in a saucepan over the stovetop – whilst stirring briskly, drizzle slurry into your sauce (not all – just enough) or until thickened to your liking. Once you can taste cornstarch is cooked – DO NOT cook any further or you will run the risk of cornstarch breaking down – creating a runny sauce again.
5. Replenish water only as needed, replacing some of the evaporation, but not to make a runny sauce. The sauce must be of dipping consistency.
6. If you don’t like too much heat start off with half a cayenne chili pepper – adding the balance if you feel you need more heat.
7. You may use half cornflour to all-purpose flour or cake flour if you wish.
8. You may use this recipe for homemade 3 fruit marmalade in summer when oranges are out of season to replace sugar and oranges – Just use the same formula but with 100% oranges instead of the grapefruit and lemons – and stash it away for the summer. ;)
9. Chicken schmaltz (chicken fat) will give you better results for frying than cooking oils and is what I have used.
10. I have made my sauce in the microwave which does not require adding any oils or fats.

Ingredients: 

700 g Chicken thighs, deboned weight – fresh (unbrined) 

Chicken schmaltz or vegetable oil for frying – You will need 2 – 4 cups of oil.

Ingredients – Batter: 

5 ml of salt 

5 ml of sugar, white 

Pinch white pepper 

250 ml (118 g) cornflour

1 egg, large

Ingredients – Sauce:

3 oranges, juiced, including zest 

1 clove garlic, grated – on the fine side of a grater or to taste

2.5 ml grated ginger – on the fine side of a grater or to taste 

1 cayenne chili pepper (red) – including seeds 

125 ml white sugar

45 ml chicken stock (Homemade) or browning sauce or soya sauce

45 ml finely chopped green onion – reserve some for garnish

A little water, as needed

Pinch salt to taste

45 ml  (28 g) cornflour (optional) See above in notes

Method (Sauce) – Stove Top:

First saute garlic, ginger, and onion in 20 – 30 ml chicken schmaltz (chicken fat) or vegetable oil until softened. – Soften orange zest in the microwave by following below method and then adding the balance of sauce ingredients to the onion-garlic mixture in your pan or wok.

Method (Sauce) – Microwave:

In a shallow container zest your oranges holding them in downward fashion, so that their spray collects in the container rather than dispersing out onto the air. Juice your oranges. Remove the orange pulp, not the white pith and add the pulp to the zest together with its juice. Discard the white pith, to feed to birds. Place zest, pulp and orange juice in a 1000 watt microwave oven and cook on high for 10 minutes. Add the balance of your sauce ingredients and cook a further 3 – 4 minutes on high or until chili releases its heat and sauce has fairly thickened up. If too reduced, replenish with a little water until of dipping consistency, but not runny. Remove sauce from microwave and with a stick blender, blend sauce until smooth. Taste for seasoning, adding a pinch salt if necessary and set aside.

Prepare Your Chicken:

Debone chicken thighs and place meat on the scale until you have 700 g.

Dice chicken up (including skin) into bite-sized pieces or nuggets.

In a bowl, mix cornflour with salt, sugar and white pepper.

Place chicken pieces into cornflour mixture – tossing well to coat.

In a teacup – beat egg with a fork. Add egg mixture to corn flour-coated chicken pieces. Massage all in well together – until chicken pieces are completely covered and paste is smooth and lump-free.

To Fry Your Chicken (How I do mine) – If you have a Halogen or FlavorWave Oven): Heat 1 -2 cups chicken schmaltz or vegetable oil in large pizza pan – just  enough to come halfway up the sides of your chicken nuggets – I bend the outer lip of my pizza pan a little inward just to fit within the halogen oven’s extender ring which I place onto my microwave metal turntable which fits perfectly over the top of my halogen ovens glass bowl onto which the pizza pan gets placed.  (I make and store my Melba toast in glass oven bowl – so it does not come into contact with any fat or drippings. ;))  I then position the halogen’s metal extender ring onto turntable – onto which I fit the element head.. Set Halogen oven’s element head to 180 C and make sure that the oil is hot and sizzling before adding your chicken cubes.

To Fry Your Chicken in Wok or Large Shallow Saucepan: 

Heat temperature to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C) – You will need 2 – 4 cups of oil or schmaltz. 

Fry chicken cubes or nuggets at room temperature for about 2 – 3 minutes each side or until done. 

When lifting element head of your halogen oven to peek for doneness, do so quickly to prevent the temperature from dropping and turn nuggets over quickly but gently without breaking their coating, then place element head back on as quickly as possible. Do not overcrowd the pan or you will run the risk of temperature dropping which will result in oily soggy nuggets. 

Drain on paper towel-lined colander, sieve or paper plates. Set aside.

Chinese Stir-Fried Vegetable Rice

Notes: Optional seasonings which may be added to taste are.. 15 ml browned chicken stock – or – crumbled bits of a chicken stock cube – or soya sauce.

Lovely to add is shredded cabbage to your Egg Foo Young and Rice, but I had run out of the cabbage.

• This one had cabbage when I needed to use up what was left of the cabbage and eggs.

Ingredients:

30 – 60 ml oil to stir-fry, rice, veggies, and Egg Foo Young or as needed

430 g rice (uncooked weight)

240 g carrots, peeled weight (finely diced)

A small handful of peas, frozen

1.5 celery stalks with leaves, diced

1 onion, large (diced)

8 eggs, large

Salt to taste

White pepper to taste

3 spring onions, finely diced (greens reserved)

• Picture a bit on the steamy side

Method – Rice:

In a micro safe, sealed container, add your rice together with enough water just to cover the rice and cook, covered in a 1000 watt microwave oven for 7 minutes. Remove and do not open the lid. Set aside for 10 – 15 minutes. After the time is up – open container lid and scratch rice with a fork to separate the grains – Close container and set aside again.

Prepare all your vegetables and divide them in half – Set aside.

• Note: Lovely to grill some crispy chicken thighs – Debone – Break up and toss in your leftover orange Hoison sauce and then toss up together with leftover rice and Egg Foo Young for a quick snack or a light supper the following day.

In a wok or large saucepan – add your chicken schmaltz or oil and stir-fry one-half of your veggies excluding peas until crisp – just cooked on the outside but not completely through to the center. 

Add your rice and continue stir-frying over medium heat. If rice threatens to burn, add more fat or oil. Keep tossing and turning until rice is coated with oil. Do NOT dredge rice in oil!

Toss in your peas. Turn off heat and blend all through. Remove and set aside.

Egg Foo Young: Beat eggs with a little salt and white pepper to taste.

Heat up enough chicken schmaltz fat or oil in a pizza pan in your halogen oven set at 160 C (as explained above) – or – in another wok or in a separate saucepan set on medium heat.

Add a light sprinkling of salt to oil in a saucepan and toss in the other half of your veggies excluding peas.

Stir-fry until crisp or just cooked on the outside. – Lastly, add your peas – give it all a quick stir and pour in your eggs – just enough to almost cover your veggies but to contain and to set them within the egg mixture. 

Lower the heat or turn down to medium-low – peeking every now and then using a non-scratch (non-metal or plastic-type egg lifter or spatula) lift the edge of your pancake to make sure it doesn’t burn underneath.

Lower heat if pancake looks like it’s going to burn.

When pancake has set to your liking and is golden brown underneath, gently lift from underneath and flip over to cook the other side. When done – toss pancake out onto a plate and repeat with the rest of your egg mixture. Roll the pancake up and cut into strips with a knife or pizza cutter. Add to rice, whilst breaking pancake up and give all a good toss. - Serve and enjoy! :)