Recipe: Orange Chicken

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By Amos Roberge


My father-in-law is back in Taiwan again for two weeks right after a brief trip to China. In spite of him not being at property that significantly these past couple of days, I did manage to have inside a handful of lessons. For all those of you who didn't study the previous messages associated to this topic, my father-in-law can be a chef with about 50 years of encounter. I can not aid but be awestruck as I watch him function in our kitchen at lightening speed in spite of his sophisticated age.

Yesterday I created a chicken dish that is certainly somewhat similar to orange chicken (contact it that for lack of a greater name). He didn't supervise me the entire time, but rather gave me a list of ingredients with approximate measurements.

For starters, I reduce up about 3 cups of chicken breast meat and set it aside. Next, I created the following sauce which can be surprisingly easy, but delicious:

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

Note: Initially I was against making use of a lot sugar and vinegar, but my father-in-law insisted on utilizing large amounts of close to equal portions of each. Who's to argue with 50 years of knowledge?

About 2 hours prior to creating this dish, I poured a bit of the sauce mixture in with all the breast nuggets so meat would soak up flavor. To perform otherwise wouldn't let the sauce to deeply penetrate the meat. Yesterday, following frying my first batch of chicken, I tasted a piece and it was scrumptious without having the sauce! Following 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 around 1 cup). Later, I beat a couple of egg whites until frothy and set aside. Right after removing chicken from refrigerator, I poured off sauce mixture and dipped chicken pieces in egg white (my father-in-law claims that this assists to tenderize chicken pieces - Essential.

Subsequent, I mixed in at least 1/2 cup cornstarch (utilizing massive quantity - Very important - and mixed with hands until mixture became quite gooey. After placing 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 just before adding green onions. I sauted for one more 1 - 2 minutes before removing from fire and adding a lot more oil to fry chicken.

After oil was hot (about 360 degrees), I placed chicken pieces in oil, looking to separate them as best as possible. Right after 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 a minute or so ahead of adding about 1 1/2 tablespoons cornstarch mixed with equal level of water. Soon after stirring, I added vegetables and brought mixture to boil. Afterwards, I decreased heat and simmered till 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 delicious. The flavor was tangy and sweet, nothing like something I've had just before. This would also be wonderful with pork!

I made this dish without having my father-in-law's supervision due to the fact he had a bunch of errands to run. He said I did a pretty good job, but must have added somewhat oil to the egg white/cornstarch mixture just before frying the chicken. This would have produced the nuggets crispier. Oh effectively, I guess expertise may be the ideal teacher.

P.S. I also learned a vegetable and sauce trick which I will post within the near future. Tomorrow I will most likely make a crispy beef dish with my father-in-law. This time, however, he promised to stroll me through the measures as opposed to tell me what I must do and after that disappear . I feel I've excellent cooking instincts, however they can only carry me so far--especially in terms of producing Chinese food (lol)!

Servings: four




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