Recipe: Orange Chicken

By Forrest Monnin


My father-in-law is back in Taiwan once again for two weeks after a brief trip to China. In spite of him not getting at residence that much these previous couple of days, I did manage to have inside a couple of lessons. For all those of you who didn't read the past messages associated to this subject, my father-in-law can be a chef with about 50 years of knowledge. I can not assist but be awestruck as I watch him perform in our kitchen at lightening speed in spite of his sophisticated age.

Yesterday I created a chicken dish which is somewhat equivalent to orange chicken (contact it that for lack of a far better name). He did not supervise me the entire time, but rather gave me a list of ingredients with approximate measurements.

For starters, I reduce up about three cups of chicken breast meat and set it aside. Next, I produced the following sauce which can be surprisingly basic, but delicious:

1 cup soy sauce 1/2 cup granulated sugar 1/3 cup white vinegar 1/4 cup freshly squeezed orange juice (approximation) About 1/4 cup water or low-sodium chicken broth (to dilute soy sauce - otherwise as well salty; I employed water) 2 or 3 garlic cloves (crushed) 1/2 teaspoon hot sauce

Note: At first I was against making use of so much sugar and vinegar, but my father-in-law insisted on making use of large amounts of near equal portions of each. Who's to argue with 50 years of experience?

About two hours prior to generating this dish, I poured just a little in the sauce mixture in using the breast nuggets so meat would soak up flavor. To do otherwise would not allow the sauce to deeply penetrate the meat. Yesterday, right after frying my initial batch of chicken, I tasted a piece and it was scrumptious with out the sauce! Soon after pouring sufficient of sauce to cover chicken pieces, I mixed in cornstarch (1/4 cup!) and let mixture sit in refrigerator.

Whilst mixture sat in refrigerator, I reduce up some red and green bell peppers and green onion (total of roughly 1 cup). Later, I beat a couple of egg whites until frothy and set aside. After removing chicken from refrigerator, I poured off sauce mixture and dipped chicken pieces in egg white (my father-in-law claims that this aids to tenderize chicken pieces - Essential.

Next, I mixed in at least 1/2 cup cornstarch (employing massive quantity - Essential - and mixed with hands until mixture became extremely gooey. Following putting meat back in refrigerator, I heated bit of oil in wok, added 1 clove of minced garlic and sauted bell peppers for about 3 minutes before adding green onions. I sauted for yet another 1 - 2 minutes just before removing from fire and adding a lot more oil to fry chicken.

Following oil was hot (about 360 degrees), I placed chicken pieces in oil, wanting to separate them as best as you can. Following frying chicken (about 1-1/2 - two minutes per piece), I drained pieces on paper towel-lined plate.

Subsequent, I added sauce to wok and heated for any minute or so ahead of adding about 1 1/2 tablespoons cornstarch mixed with equal amount of water. Following stirring, I added vegetables and brought mixture to boil. Afterwards, I reduced heat and simmered until mixture started to thicken, at which point I added chicken pieces and heated for about 1 minute.

This dish was served more than white rice and was scrumptious. The flavor was tangy and sweet, nothing at all like anything I've had ahead of. This would also be fantastic with pork!

I produced this dish without my father-in-law's supervision since he had a bunch of errands to run. He mentioned I did a pretty good job, but should have added just a little oil to the egg white/cornstarch mixture ahead of frying the chicken. This would have produced the nuggets crispier. Oh effectively, I guess encounter may be the very best teacher.

P.S. I also discovered a vegetable and sauce trick which I will post inside the close to future. Tomorrow I will probably make a crispy beef dish with my father-in-law. This time, even so, he promised to walk me via the actions instead of tell me what I need to do and after that disappear . I feel I have very good cooking instincts, but they can only carry me so far--especially when it comes to generating Chinese meals (lol)!

Servings: 4




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