Sticky Orange Chicken

Natalie Marten

Ingredients

  • For the chicken:
  • 2 chicken breasts or 4-5 de-boned thighs, diced, skin removed,
  • 50/50 mix of plain flour and cornflour to coat chicken,
  • Salt and white pepper to season
  • For the sauce:
  • 2 large oranges, juice extracted, rind grated from one,
  • 2 tbsp Light soy sauce,
  • 1 tbsp dark soft brown sugar or honey as substitute,
  • 2 tsp sesame oil,
  • 2 tbsp Chinese rice wine
  • Other:
  • 4 cloves garlic, minced,
  • 2 inches freshly grated ginger,
  • Pinch red chilli flakes, to taste,
  • 1/2 tsp MSG (optional)
  • 1 tbsp cornflour mixed with 2 tbsp cold water,
  • Cooking oil for shallow frying
  • To garnish:
  • 3 spring onions, finely sliced,
  • 2 tsp sesame seeds

Directions

  • Slice the thigh/breast into chunks after trimming any sinue/fat and then mix together some plain flour, cornflour and season with salt and white pepper. Dredge the chicken pieces well in the mixture until completely coated then lay the pieces out on some kitchen roll until the moisture begins to soak into the flour. This will probably take 8-10 mins. After this has occured, dredge them once more. Set aside.
  • Heat enough cooking oil in a pan to fill it for shallow frying the chicken pieces. Once nice and hot at 175 C, fry the chicken pieces in batches until golden and crisp and cooked through turning occasionally. Check the chickens cooked by removing a piece and slicing it in half to ensure it’s not pink. Set them upon some more kitchen towel to remove any access oil.
  • Mix together all the sauce ingredients. Also have your cornflour water slurry mixture made up and ready. Heat up a wok until nice and hot and add in a touch of oil then add in the garlic, ginger and chilli flakes plus the whites of the onion and MSG. Fry for a few seconds until fragrant then add in the sauce mixture. Once the sauce is bubbling away add in the cornflour mixture and stir quickly to thicken up the sauce further.
  • Re-add the crisp cooked chicken pieces and toss well in the sticky sauce. Remove from the heat and serve up. Garnish with the greens of the onion and some sesame seeds. Enjoy! :)