Ground Orange Chicken is made in one pan and only takes 20 minutes using a Panda Express copycat sauce. So much healthier than the original!
Ground Orange Chicken was born in my head one evening about a month ago when we were preparing Korean Ground Beef as we have for years. I had a package of ground chicken and I was about to suggest making Korean Ground Chicken when I thought, “ooooorrrrrrrrrrrrr….” and a whole new world of ideas came flooding into my head. In the last month we’ve made them in four different flavors (which are all coming soon).
This Ground Orange Chicken is amazing because it still has the crisp texture because we brown it well before breaking the chicken apart and it still has that amazing Panda Express Orange Chicken Sauce that we all love. The only thing missing is the deep fat frying. Plus it takes literally 20 minutes to make, and that is at a leisurely pace. Maybe we can start a write in campaign to Panda Express and say hey, make this version for when we want the sauce but not the breading!
Set your rice to cook in the rice cooker, start cooking the chicken, and wash and cut up some broccoli to steam in the microwave (glass bowl, a bit of water and a wet paper towel over the top for 3 minutes). By the time the rice is done cooking, so is dinner.
Want more Chinese Food Recipes?
- Honey Orange Firecracker Shrimp
- Cheesecake Factory Mandarin Cashew Chicken
- PF Chang’s Orange Peel Chicken
- California Pizza Kitchen’s Kung Pao Chicken Spaghetti
- General Tso’s Chicken
- Easy Mongolian Beef
- Panda Express Recipes… every single one in fact: Panda Express Recipes Index
- Many more Chinese food options…
Tools Used in the making of the Ground Orange Chicken:
Wok: Great for high heat, quick cooking. This wok is a great addition to your kitchen if you love cooking Chinese food or stir fries in general.
Large Frying Pan: I use this Cuisinart for most of my non cast iron cooking unless I am going with a stainless steel option, then I choose my All Clad.
Soy Sauce: Nothing much to say here except Kikkoman has the best flavor overall and I always recommend reduced sodium.
Sesame Oil: The flavor of sesame oil in this dish is unmistakeable and not really able to be substituted. Some Asian grocery stores will try and sell less expensive options that aren’t actually sesame oil, so just be sure the one you’re buying is authentic sesame oil.
Rice Wine: Adds an authentic flavor to the sauce, in a pinch if you absolutely can’t find it you can substitute white wine, but it will make it taste slightly different.
Ground Orange Chicken
Ingredients
- 1 pound ground chicken
- 1 tablespoons ginger root minced
- 2 teaspoons garlic minced
- 1/4 tsp hot red chili pepper crushed
- 1 tablespoon rice wine
- 2 tablespoons water
- 1/2 teaspoon sesame oil
- 4 teaspoons soy sauce
- 5 tablespoons sugar
- 5 tablespoons white vinegar
- zest of 1/2 orange
- 1 tablespoon water
- 1 tablespoon cornstarch
Instructions
- To make the sauce combine the rice wine, 2 tablespoons water, sesame oil, soy sauce, sugar, white vinegar, and orange zest.
- To make the cornstarch mixture, dissolve 1 tablespoon cornstarch in the remaining 1 tablespoon of water and set aside.
- To a large pan add 1 tablespoon oil and ground chicken.
Cook until a good crust forms before breaking apart, then finish cooking by breaking it apart with a spatula and cooking for an additional 2-3 minutes.
Once the chicken is cooked add the ginger, garlic and crushed red pepper and cook for about 10 seconds.
- Add the orange sauce and bring to boil.
- Add the cornstarch mixture to the pan and cook for just a few seconds, stirring until it thickens.
Thank you for this AWESOME recipe! Definitely a keeper! the flavor profile is good. I hope 2021 brings you and your family peace. Mahalo ?
I’m glad you enjoyed it, Liza.
Great recipe! It was easy. I used less sugar and zest from the entire orange we enjoyed it I’ll make this again when I want a quick meal !
Wow! This is so good and easy! My husband is literally scraping the pan to get every last tasty morsel of this dish. My only regret is that I didn’t double the recipe so we would have leftovers.
That’s fantastic, Kristin! Thanks for the 5 stars.
Easy to make and was a hit. Even my picky eater loved it. Putting this in the rotation.
Thanks for the 5 stars, Nelli.
This was surprisingly delicious and quite simple. I used monk fruit instead of sugar (would reduce to 4 tbl next time) and we had it over cauliflower rice. It was nice to fit this tasty satisfying meal into out low carb lifestyle. Thanks!
I thought this recipe was great! Very simple to prepare and would hold it’s own at my fave NYC Chinese restaurant. Yes, the sugar could certainly be reduced, but it still tasted really good. Maybe next time I’ll use 2-3Tbs sugar. Oh, by mistake I used the zest of an entire orange but thought it was just right when I tasted it. Yum.
I appreciated the direction to let the chicken get crusty before breaking it apart. Little hints like that make a BIG difference, so thank you to the chef.
You’re welcome!
This was really good, although I would agree with others that I would reduce the sugar a lot more next time. What I liked also was that it was quick and easy to make and I already had all the ingredients.