CRISPY TAKEOUT ORANGE CHICKEN (No Wok Required)

🔪MY GEAR:

- RECIPE -
MARINADE
▪1lb boneless skinless chicken breasts, large diced
▪30g or 2Tbsp soy sauce
▪30g or 2Tbsp mirin
▪3g or 1tsp corn starch
▪4g or 1tsp baking soda

Cut chicken breasts into a large bite-sized dice.

In a bowl, whisk together soy, mirin, corn starch, and baking soda. Add chicken chunks and stir to coat. Marinate for 20 minutes.

BREADING AND FRYING
▪400g or 3 1/3c ap flour
▪15g or 2 1/4tsp salt
▪6g or 1 1/4tsp baking soda
▪400g or 3 1/4c corn starch
▪Water
▪Additional ap flour (about 3/350g cups)
▪Neutral oil. I’m using a bout 2qt. Oil should be around 2”/5cm deep

Into a 2nd bowl, whisk together 400g ap flour, salt, baking soda and corn starch. In a 3rd bowl, add about ¼ of the dry breading mixture. To that small portion of dry breader, whisk in water, a little at a time, until you’re left with a loose pancake batter texture.

Back in bowl 2 (with dry breading only), add about 1/4c of the wet breading slurry you just made. Mix and crumble the wet into the dry, creating a dry crumbly texture.

Grab a 4th bowl and fill it with about 3 cups of AP flour. Add marinated chicken pieces. Mix to coat well on all sides.

Shake off as much of the ap flour mixture from the chicken as possible, then add chicken into the wet batter in bowl 3. Toss to coat well.

Now move pieces of wet battered chicken into the craggy dry breader mix (bowl 2). Mix to coat well. Transfer chicken pieces to a tray.

Preheat large heavy bottomed pot over medium-high heat with about 2qt of neutral oil (or about 2-3”/5-8cm of oil, leaving plenty of room at the top of your pot so oil doesn’t boil over when you add chicken) for 10 min or until oil reaches a temp of 300F/150C. Gently lower breaded chicken into the oil (use a spider to avoid splashing oil). Fry 4-5 min at 300F/150C.

After 4-5 min or when nuggets are a light blonde golden color, remove from oil and transfer to a wire rack to drain.

Increase heat under oil pot to medium high to increase oil temp to 350F/175C. Carefully lower once-cooked nuggets back into the oil to cook for about another 90 seconds or until they’ve taken on a nice golden brown color. Transfer onto a wire rack and keep warm in a low oven while you make your orange chicken sauce.

ORANGE CHICKEN SAUCE
▪30g or 2Tbsp neutral, high smoke point oil
▪10g or 2 cloves garlic, grated
▪10g or about a 1.5” piece ginger, grated
▪20g or 4Tbsp scallions, thinly sliced (only about bottom half/2/3 of scallions)
▪125g or 1/2c chicken stock
▪75g or 1/4c mirin
▪50g or 3Tbsp soy sauce
▪10g or 2tsp sesame oil
▪50g or 1/4c sugar
▪25g or 1.5Tbsp rice vinegar
▪Juice of 1 large orange
▪1tsp orange zest (about 8-10 healthy zests)
▪5g or 2tsp corn starch
▪Pinch Chile flake
▪Corn starch slurry if needed (2g or 3/4tsp corn starch mixed into 4g water)

To make the sauce, heat a generous squeeze of neutral oil in a large nonstick pan over medium high heat. Add ginger, garlic, and scallions and cook, stirring often, for about a minute until fragrant.

Whisk together chicken stock, mirin, soy sauce, sesame oil, sugar, rice vin, orange zest and juice and corn starch. Add sauce to pan with ginger/garlic/scallion mixture along with a pinch of chile flakes. Bring to a simmer and reduce sauce by about half - about 2 minutes. Check consistency of sauce at this point. If it’s not thick enough to leave a trail when you run a spoon through it, stir in a splash of corn starch slurry. Bring back to a boil and check consistency again.

Add cooked nuggets into pan with sauce. Gently toss to coat, careful not to over work to loosen the breading.

Serve over rice and top with a pinch of sesame seeds and chile flakes.

CHAPTERS:
0:00 Intro
0:10 Prepping the chicken
1:10 Mixing the breading/dredge
2:27 Breading the chicken
4:03 I really love cereal (ad)
5:01 Frying chicken nuggets
6:47 Making orange chicken sauce
8:37 Finishing the dish and plate up
9:30 Let’s eat this thing

**DISCLAIMER: links may be affiliate links. If you buy these products using these links I'll receive a small commission.

[bryankopkin]

Thought that said “no work required” and I was like “So hes ordering takeout??”

[larrybrown]

This channel gives me so many recipes, but also techniques to use in the kitchen. I'm a better cook having watched your content, especially my baking. Thanks, Bri

[alveus]

I love that Bri takes a bite of chicken nug straight out of the fryer and then screams it’s too hot. I do that move all the time.

[Bread._]

I really appreciate how you explain little details like why it's important to shake off excess flour here. The last time I tried battering chicken like this but not really bothering to shake them that well, I was indeed frustrated when all my chicken turned into a giant inseparable glob. I've heard countless time to shake off the flour but never heard why so I didn't piece it together, thanks Bri!

[karenmitchell]

I’m so glad you add the “why”. Baking soda raises the pH of the chicken? Making it more difficult for the proteins to bond while cooking. Helping to keep it tender. I didn’t know that, but I needed to know that. That was a key piece of very helpful info.

[christiandaniel]

Love that he explains the chemical reasons for ingredients, I’m actually learning why, thus learning better

[oregonpatriot]

As with almost all sauces I make, when I make Orange chicken, I quadruple the sauce, vac packing and freezing the other three servings.
_You wouldn't believe what a time saver that is for the next times!_

[troublesome]

I made this today and it was quite literally better than any takeout version I've had. Absolutely incredible texture and flavor. Loved it! Thanks so much!
Couple notes:
-i didn't have mirin so I substituted with more rice vinegar, then added more sugar to compensate.
-the quantity of flour/corn starch was WAY overkill though IMO. Shouldn't need essentially a whole 454g container of corn starch and a bag of flour for 2 chicken breasts. I think you can easily cut that in half

[madhus]

this is one of the best recipe videos i've ever seen! it's worth the whole 10 minutes because not only do you give us the recipe, you teach us kitchen and cooking techniques. and i also appreciate the humour!

[dinerwaitress]

This chicken tastes exceptional. It's worth all the work and mess. I live somewhere without takeout and this rings all the bells.

[Blitzkrieg]

Isn't it just wonderful that humans have awesome tools that we never think much about and take for granted? Our hands❤️👐

[LFTRnow]

Googled Mirin and found out that if you can't get any (or don't have the time) you can make do with substitution. Rice vinegar and some sugar (1/2 tsp per tbsp used) to counter the tartness, or some sweet white wine ("dry sherry or a sweet marsala") are both suggested options (this was from Bon Appetit, but the site gives limited free views). They add Kikkoman will be labled as "aji-mirin" (which translates to "tastes like mirin").

[Thaddeus_Howe]

I know this might sound odd, but I’ve made general tso’s chicken a few times in the past, and instead of thickening the sauce with just corn starch, I also used a bit of gelatin (in the form of some super-reduced homemade chicken stock). It made the sauce even more unctuous and rich, and made me not regret using breasts instead of thighs.

[briandaniels]

Hey Bri! My pregnant wife has been hankering for some extra cragely fried chicken lately and this recipe really delivered on that! It was my first time really deep frying anything and it was definitely some of the best orange chicken I've ever had. Thanks for the recipe!

[iankristofer]

This recipe is the best orange chicken recipe I’ve ever tried, the chicken was really crispy. Delicious.

[TheBeefTrain]

My favorite YouTube chef making one of my favorite dishes. What a day to be alive.

[chrisbarber]

Made this dish tonight for my daughter's birthday since she loves orange chicken and it was awesome! Thanks for the great recipes Brian! Seriously so good, I was sad when I ate my last bite!

[darkconceptgaming]

I love this as watching you melt arm hair and grab freshly fried food to burn your mouth with makes me feel as though I could be a professional chef… some habits never die. 😂

[brianhall]

Hey Brian. Thanks for all the content. Can you talk in an upcoming deep fry video about what you do with the oil? Filtering it, saving it, how many uses, etc? Thanks!

[FunkyToe]

Without a doubt my favourite creator I've found in awhile! I'll be that guy and say I'm plant based so I don't eat many of the foods you prepare, but your energy and personality make your videos so damn entertaining that I'll watch them even if I don't intend on making them as shown.

Keep it up, some really great stuff you're putting out!