This isn’t your typical Orange Chicken Recipe. While dinkin’ around online for inspiration for a recipe idea I came across this Copy Cat recipe for Bang Bang Shrimp, which had a surprising ingredient in the sauce that I least expected to find….Mayonnaise! (yea, shocking right? Or is it just me, that thinks it’s weird in an ‘Asian’ recipe?) So I decided to try it. Now unlike most recipes I post here, I usually try the dish out before hand or at least know what I’m doing to begin with. But, this time I decided to take pictures as I came up with a recipe of my own on the spot…and Orange Chicken is what I came up with, or that’s what I’m calling it.

This recipe may be very different from what you’re used to seeing for Orange Chicken. For one, I oven-fried (baked) the chicken pieces rather than deep frying them. The coating I used, isn’t typically ‘Asian’ either. Secondly, the base of the sauce is Mayonnaise and Thai Sweet Chili Sauce (see my homemade sweet chili sauce recipe here, or you can use store-bought).

Now, since I came up with this recipe pretty much as I went along, I was a little more scatter-brained than usual and I missed taking a couple pictures of some steps. I do hope you’ll excuse me for this. However, I loved how the final dish turned out and rather than wait till the next time I make it again (which I most definitely will!), I thought I’d post it anyway. Without much further ado …my version of….

Orange Chicken Recipe

Ingredients:

For the chicken-

2 large chicken breasts, cut into 1 inch pieces.

3 eggs

2 tsp garlic salt

1/2 tsp hot sauce

1 cup of flour

1/2 tsp pepper

For the sauce-

1/2 cup of Mayonnaise

4-5 tbsp sweet chili sauce

Zest of half an orange

1/2 cup orange juice (I freshly squeezed it)

green onions/ chives for garnish

Method:

– Pre-heat the oven to 400F. Cut 2 large chicken breasts into approx. 1 inch pieces or bite sized pieces.

– In a bowl, whisk together 3 eggs, a teaspoon of garlic salt and a touch of hot sauce (siracha/tobasco…whatever you have).

– Add the chicken pieces to the egg and mix them around so that all they’re all coated in egg.

– In another shallow bowl/dish, mix together a cup of flour, the remaining garlic salt and some black pepper together.

– In small batches of 3-4 pieces, coat the egg drenched chicken pieces in the seasoned flour and place them on a foil lined baking sheet. You could also deep fry the pieces if you want, but I choose to bake them (although it doesn’t look the same as when you fry the chicken, when coated in the sauce it taste’s just as good!)

– Bake the chicken at 400F for about 15 minutes and them stick them under the broiler for another 5 minutes to brown them slightly.

– While the chicken is cooking, you can mix together all the ingredients for the sauce. Half a cup of mayonnaise, 4-5 tbsp of Thai sweet chili sauce (I used my home-made recipe), the zest of half an orange and half a cup of orange juice.

– Whisk it all together (I know it looks gross at first) until there are no more lumps.

– Pour the sauce into a sauce pan and bring it to a gentle boil on medium-high heat.

– Once the chicken is slightly browned and cooked through, add it to the simmering sauce. Mix it well so that all the pieces are coated in the sweet sauce. The flour on the chicken will make the sauce thicken and it’ll also start looking glossier and clearer.

– Turn off the heat once the sauce reaches the desired thickness.

– Garnish with some fresh chopped green onion/scallions or garlic chives.