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Recipe: Spicy Orange Chicken

Skip The Take Out & Make Your Own!

I’ve make no secret about my having a *thing* for the Chinese delivery guy. Not really because he’s some smokin’ hot, smexy, delivery guy. But, because after living in the middle of Nowhere, Arizona for way too long, just being able to order anything for delivery here in Vegas is a *thing*. The pizza chick makes me smile too, but that’s another story.

You know what I don’t really like? Handing over all that cash! That’s not smexy or hot. And, it’s a *thing* we are trying to cut down on. I did the typical Google searching and found a few good recipes for orange chicken but not one that was just… right. Ya know? The kind of right that makes you go MMMMM. The orange chicken recipe below is a bit of this one and a smidgen of that one. All the good parts of a few different recipes that did work, I mashed together and came up with this super awesome spicy orange chicken! And, not to toot my own horn here (but I’m totally going to, duh) it’s really the best orange chicken we’ve ever had. Maybe because we added a touch of BAM and kick with the spice? I don’t know. Try it, let me know what you think!

Spicy Orange Chicken

Ingredients:

2 lbs Boneless, Skinless Chicken Breasts (cut about 1 -2 inch pieces)

1 X-Large Egg

1 Tbsp Flavored Rice Vinegar (I’m thinking Sake could work wonders here as well, maybe next time?)

1/4 Cup Water

1 Tsp Sesame Oil

1 Clove Garlic (fine crushed, really whack it good too!)

1 Pinch Crushed Red Peppers (or more to taste, we used more)

1/4 Cup Green Onions (chopped)

2 Pinches of Sea Salt

2 Pinches Of Fresh Ground Pepper (or more/less to taste)

1/2 Cup Cornstarch (plus 1 Tbsp set aside)

1/4 Cup Flour

Canola Oil (to use in frying, peanut oil would also be fine but slightly more costly)

Ingredients For Orange Sauce

(prepare ahead by simply mixing all ingredients together over medium heat and set aside)

1 Fresh Squeezed Orange

2 Tbsp Water

2 Tbsp Ponzu Sauce

6 Tbsp White Vinegar

1/4 Cup Brown Sugar

Directions:

Place clean and cut chicken in large bowl. Stir in egg, salt, pepper and sesame oil. Mix well and make sure chicken is fully coated. Let marinate for about an hour. (you can also throw all this in a zip-loc bag, remove air and mix to save yourself a bowl washing!) In separate bowl mix cornstarch and flour together. Remove chicken pieces from marinade and place in dry mix bowl. Stir and coat completely.

Heat canola oil to fry (we used a wok, you could deep-fry at 375* but that’s way too messy for me)

Add small portions of the chicken pieces and fry 3 to 4 minutes at a time (should be golden and crisp) Remove chicken from oil with slotted spoon and allow excess oil to drain off on paper towel. Now set aside while we make the magic spicy orange chicken sauce!

Clean and remove all left over oil from wok. (save 1 Tbsp of this!) Heat on stove top for 15-20 seconds on high. Add the reserved oil back to wok and let it start to heat. Add garlic and stir-fry until fragrant. (and seriously, it’s heavily fragrant!) Add in crushed red peppers and green onions and stir-fry these for about 2 minutes. Slowly stir in flavored rice vinegar (sake??) Add your prepared orange chicken sauce and allow to boil. Once you have a slow rolling boil, add cooked chicken. Stir and mix well. Stir water and set aside cornstarch until smooth in small bowl (make sure there are no chunks!) Add to orange chicken and heat only until sauce is thickened. You’ll have to be sure to stir, stir, stir during this last step.

Sprinkle on a bit more crushed red peppers and serve Spicy Orange Chicken with some fried rice. Tell me if you aren’t breaking up with your delivery guy now too! I’m still calling up our pizza girl, haven’t found a serious contender for her. Yet.

ENJOY!