Easy Orange Chicken Recipe
This Easy Orange Chicken recipe is perfect for weeknight eating. This dish is something everyone in the family will love and it couldn’t be more delicious!
A Note from Teri on Orange Chicken
For this Orange Chicken recipe, I wanted to keep things simple, but still unbelievably delicious. This is the kind of meal that you make when friends come over for lunch. It’s easy enough to throw together and a crowd pleaser.
To get the chicken crispy, we do a quick dredge in egg and flour. To make this process quicker, you can do a few pieces at a time. Fry them in a pan and toss them in the sticky orange sauce. It’s absolutely fantastic.
To complete this dish, I like to serve it with rice, but you can serve it however you would like. This easy orange chicken is delicious on its own, with cauliflower rice, or with a little stir fry of vegetables. Take this recipe and make it totally your own.
Ingredients and Variations
- Fresh orange juice – freshly squeeze orange juice for the base of flavor in your sauce
- Ketchup – this adds some sweetness and makes the sauce a little sticky
- Unsweetened rice vinegar – add rice vinegar to brighten up your sauce
- Coconut aminos – the aminos add some umami to the sauce while also keeping it sweet
- Toasted sesame oil – make sure to use toasted sesame oil for the best flavor
- Garlic – add a pressed garlic clove to complete your sauce
- Arrowroot powder – the arrowroot powder slurry thickens your sauce
- Large eggs – use the eggs for your chicken’s batter
- All-purpose flour – you can use all-purpose or gluten-free all-purpose flour, such as Bob’s Red Mill 1:1 or Dove’s Free gluten free flour
- Salt and freshly ground black pepper – season your chicken with salt and pepper
- Skinless, boneless chicken breasts – cut them into evenly sized chunks. You can also use chicken tenders
- Light olive oil – use light olive oil for frying your chicken. If you don’t have light olive oil, use another high smoke point neutral oil
- Scallions and sesame seeds – these make the perfect garnish for your orange chicken
How to Make Orange Chicken
Step One: Make Sauce and Prep Chicken
In a saucepan over medium-high heat, combine the orange juice, ketchup, rice vinegar, coconut aminos, sesame oil, and garlic and bring to a gentle boil. While the sauce is heating up, stir the arrowroot powder with one tablespoon of cold water. Once the sauce has reached a boil, whisk in the arrowroot slurry to combine. The sauce should thicken almost immediately. Set aside.
Season the chicken chunks with 1 teaspoon salt. In a shallow dish, beat the eggs with a splash of water. In a second shallow bowl, add the flour, 2 teaspoons salt, and pepper and mix to combine.
Step Two: Dredge and Cook Chicken
Dip a couple of chicken chunks in the egg mixture with one hand and allow the excess egg to drip off then transfer to the bowl with the flour mixture and with your dry hand coat the chunks then set aside on a large plate or baking sheet. Repeat with all the remaining chicken.
In a large nonstick pan, heat oil over high heat until hot but not smoking. Reduce the heat to medium and add a third of the chicken, make sure not to over-crowd the pan. Cook chicken pieces for a total of 4-5 minutes, turning halfway through cooking time, until golden brown and cooked through. Note that the time can vary based on your pan and the heat of your stovetop.
Step Three: Toss Chicken in Sauce
Transfer fried chicken pieces to a tea towel-lined plate to drain. Add more olive oil as needed and if the oil gets too cloudy, wipe out the pan with a paper towel and add clean oil between batches.
As the chicken nearly finished cooking, reheat the sauce until warm. Add the chicken to a large bowl and pour 3/4 to 1 cup of the sauce and toss to coat. Serve on a platter garnished with sesame seeds and scallions and the remaining sauce in a small bowl for serving. Feel free to serve over a bed of white rice or on their own.
Recipe FAQs
It’s important to use a high smoke point neutral oil like light olive oil.
Heat your oil until it is hot but not smoking. Once it is hot, reduce the heat and pay close attention as your chicken cooks.
Use an arrowroot slurry to thicken your orange chicken sauce. Once the sauce is boiling, add the slurry and your sauce will thicken.
Yes, you can air fry your orange chicken. It will not get the same level of crispiness, but you will still have a delicious chicken bite. Spray your dredged chicken bites with oil and put them in the air fryer at 400F for 10 minutes, flipping halfway through.
Try These Other Breaded Chicken Recipes
If you try this Easy Orange Chicken recipe, be sure to review it below and let me know what you think! If you’re looking for more inspiration, subscribe to my Substack, and follow along on Pinterest, Instagram, and TikTok to join in all the fun!
Easy Orange Chicken Recipe
Ingredients
Sauce
- 1 ½ cup orange juice freshly squeezed
- 3 tablespoons ketchup
- 3 tablespoons unsweetened rice vinegar
- 3 tablespoons coconut aminos
- 1 ½ teaspoons toasted sesame oil
- 1 clove garlic pressed or grated
- 2 teaspoons arrowroot powder
Chicken
- 2 large eggs
- 1 ½ cups all-purpose or gluten-free all-purpose flour such as Bob’s Red Mill 1:1 or Dove’s Free gluten free flour
- Salt
- ½ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
- 1 ½ pounds skinless boneless chicken breasts or chicken tenders, cut into 1 ½-2-inch chunks
- 8 tablespoons light olive oil divided
- 3-4 scallions thinly sliced, to garnish
- Sesame seeds to garnish
Instructions
- In a saucepan over medium-high heat, combine the orange juice, ketchup, rice vinegar, coconut aminos, sesame oil, and garlic and bring to a gentle boil. While the sauce is heating up, stir the arrowroot powder with one tablespoon of cold water. Once the sauce has reached a boil, whisk in the arrowroot slurry to combine. The sauce should thicken almost immediately. Set aside
- Season the chicken chunks with 1 teaspoon salt.
- In a shallow dish, beat the eggs with a splash of water.
- In a second shallow bowl, add the flour, 2 teaspoons salt, and pepper and mix to combine.
- Dip a couple of chicken chunks in the egg mixture with one hand and allow the excess egg to drip off then transfer to the bowl with the flour mixture and with your dry hand coat the chunks then set aside on a large plate or baking sheet. Repeat with all the remaining chicken.
- In a large nonstick pan, heat 4 tablespoons of oil over high heat until hot but not smoking. You can check to see if the oil is hot enough by sprinkling a little of the flour into the pan. If it bubbles up vigorously, it is ready. Reduce the heat to medium and add a third of the chicken, make sure not to over-crowd the pan. Some gluten-free flours can burn easily so keep an eye on the chicken and keep toggling the heat between medium-low and medium. Cook chicken pieces for a total of 4-5 minutes, turning halfway through cooking time, until golden brown and cooked through. Note that the time can vary based on your pan and the heat of your stovetop.
- Transfer fried chicken pieces to a tea towel-lined plate to drain. Add more olive oil as needed and if the oil gets too cloudy, wipe out the pan with a paper towel and add clean oil between batches.
- As the chicken nearly finished cooking, reheat the sauce until warm.
- Add the chicken to a large bowl and pour ¾ to 1 cup of the sauce and toss to coat. Serve on a platter garnished with sesame seeds and scallions and the remaining sauce in a small bowl for serving. Feel free to serve over a bed of white rice or on their own. So delicious!
Hey Teri!
I have a question,I used regular ketchup and I tossed my chicken in flour, which was fine. What I noticed is I didn’t get much of an orange flavour. I had more of a hot sauce flavour. Did I do something wrong? I’m not complaining. This chicken dish is addictive!!!!!! I couldn’t stop eating it. Thank you!!
Right. The regular ketchup has all of that sugar and also my grain free version has a much subtler lovely flavor. My suggestion is maybe reduce the ketchup some and you can add some more orange. When we change parts of the recipe. It changes the overall taste
Ya, I was concerned about the extra sugar. Next time I will reduce ketchup amount, increase orange juice and reduce the hot sauce a bit. My mom can’t tolerate hot spicy food at all so I want to make a version she can enjoy. Thanks for responding so promptly, I appreciate it and I’m kinda fan girling right now,not gonna lie 🙂
Hi Teri,
Can you tell me the ratio of how much of each flour you used for the breading? Thanks for your help!
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