I live for easy and delicious platefuls. Some may take longer than most – understandibly – but most of the time, what I love is the reward of delicious food. Be it lunch or supper, I just want my tongue to rejoice! I love me anything chicken and we have done some amazing chicken recipes in the past. The most popular recipe last year was my ginger garlic chicken thigh bake. I mean take a look at this glorious recipe!!! It seems like we are on a amazing-chicken-recipe streak and as I was chowing this down, I hoped that you guys would love it as much as I did and hope to see this recipe in the top 10 at the end of this year when we do our count down.
My sticky spicy orange chicken is unforgettable!
I made a dope vid to accompany the blog post. Do watch below, and subscribe!
PREP TIME: 24hr COOK TIME: 20min SERVES: 3
Ingredients
For the marination:
400g of chicken breast
1 sprig of rosemary
2 sprigs of thyme
1 tablespoon of balsamic vinegar
1 tablespoon of soy sauce
1 tablespoon of smoked paprika
To cook:
4 cloves of garlic
1 tablespoon of minced ginger
¼ cup of dania stems
1 tablespoon of orange zest
½ cup of ketchup
Juice of half an orange
1 ½ tablespoon of brown sugar
½ teaspoon of chili
1 tablespoon of soy sauce
1 tablespoon of corn starch + ½ cup of water
¼ cup of corn starch
Dania to garnish
Salt and Pepper to cook
Method
As I always preach, marination is a darling of a process. It is a process through with not only do we get to tenderize our meat, but we also get to infuse flavor into the flesh itself. This recipe was no different.
Slice your chicken and place it in a container. I sliced my chicken into strips but I later on wished I sliced into cubes instead. Either is ok, but those were just my internal musings at the time.
Add your marination ingredients, mix, cover and let this sit for 1- 48 hours. Mine marinated overnight. Remember the longer you marinate, the more intense the flavors get.
The following day, about an hour before cooking, let the marinated chicken sit on your counter and allow it to come to room temp. Reason being, when you cook cold meats, they tend to toughen and dry up. Once at room temp, add ¼ cup of corn starch and mix. You can get corn starch on any well stocked supermarket, a pack goes for 120 bob.
The corn starch gives the chicken some crunch and crispiness. Proceed to sear until golden crispy.
Set aside.
To the same pan you removed your chicken from, add in the garlic, ginger, dania stems and the orange zest. Orange zest means the grated rind of an orange. That means if you have 10 bob in your pocket, you already have your orange zest.
Cook until softened and fragrant.
Next in, add in the ketchup, a splash of orange juice, chili, brown sugar, soy sauce and the cornstarch + water mixture. See we have corn starch twice in the recipe: At the beginning before searing and a bit more during cooking. We have already spoken about it’s purpose during searing. Its purpose during this stage is to thicken the sauce and add a sheen to it. You can watch the compilation process of the sauce from 6.37- 6.52.
Simmer on low heat for about 5 minutes, stirring from time to time. It should look gloriously thick and rich. (see 6.56)
Once thick, add in the crispy chicken+ some fresh dania. Mix, and once coated, serve. Do not let it stay too long on the heat, we just need it coated.
I served my sticky spicy orange chicken with some plantain and broccoli. And boy oh boy, this was one unforgettable plate!
The flavors of the chicken were mind-blowing! The sweetness of the brown sugar contrasted with the heat of the chili. The warm zesty notes of the orange were prominent and went so so well with the herby notes or the rosemary that we had in the marinate. The chicken was tender and juicy and the flavors we put together for this recipe simply made it shine!!
Want to talk about easy yet mind-blowing chicken recipes? You have to start right here!
If you prefer to watch, you can find the complimentary video to this recipe here on my YouTube channel. And if you would love to watch just for the sake of it, I would love to have you and I invite you as well.
I cannot wait to see you enjoy this beaut!
Happy Wednesday!
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Hey there! My name is Kaluhi and I love food! Through my blog, I am happy to share with you my self-taught recipes, steeped in nostalgia and the happiest of memories. I hope each recipe you try out is as addictive as the previous one and is shared on a table full of love and hearty laughs!
Mind blowingly good. I absolutely loved the sweet and savory vibe of these spice orange chicken strips. It had just the right amount of heat without being too overwhelming.
Yes!! Just enough heat to give you some excitment! Happy you loved it!
These spicy orange chicken strips are amazing! Your recipe has the perfect balance of heat and sweetness that makes this dish so satisfying.
I am so happy you loved the balance of the contrasting notes
These were surprisingly easy to make and so delicious. Better than takeout and the ingredients were simple enough that I already had most things at home. Will definitely be making them over and over again. Perfect balance of sweet and savory with a little kick!
The sweet savoury balance just wins everyone over and happy you enjoyed it and also happy that it was super simple to make!
This orange chicken has the perfect level of spice. I love how flavorful the dish is, and pairing it with plantains is a total game changer. My family loved the dish and are already asking me to make it again 🙂
I just know you will enjoy it the next time you try it out once again!
I made these for a few friends I was entertaining and they were a hit! This dish was super easy to make for a crowd. My friends and I really enjoyed that they had just the right amount of spice. I can’t wait to make these again!
This really is the perfect party dish and I am so stocked to know your friends loved it so much!
If I could bottle the sticky orange sauce, I would. It complements the chicken perfectly and is low-key addictive!
It is literally the best addiction ever!! lol!