Panda Express Orange Chicken Recipe [Copycat] - Masala Herb (2024)

Panda Express Orange Chicken Recipe is my little sticky sweet and sour secret!

This addictive "healthier" fakeout copycat meal is another must try for any serious food lover out there.

Spicy, sweet and sour sauce over crispy fried juicy chicken.

I show you today how to make this popular and famousAsian-American dish at home with my how to clip further below!

📕 What isPanda Express Orange Chicken?

Orange Chicken is maybe the most popular Asian-American fast food dish, created by the Panda Express food chain.

Boneless Chicken pieces are deep-fried crispy and tossed in a spicy sweet and sour orange-based sticky sauce.

This is what panda express orange chicken is all about!

the Orange chicken is then enjoyed with plain rice, fried rice or even chow mein noodles.

While Panda Express orange chicken might be seen as junk food to some, I find it to be truly addictive and the homemade version is a great healthier option!

🍗 Ingredient Tips

This panda express orange chicken is a copycat homemade DIY version so the ingredients might vary from the real panda express chicken.

You can choose to adjust your orange chicken flavors by using variations of ingredients such as regular sugar or palm sugar instead of brown sugar.

Yet, I don't suggest to tinker too much with the ingredient amounts (mentioned in the recipe card further below) as these are perfectly balanced that way.

Tip: Add a sprinkle of Chinese five spice to the orange chicken sauce for a little flavor kick of a different kind!

One Orange will serve you with the required orange skin and pulpy orange juice.

Use an organic/untreated orange which was not sprayed with pesticides as you will be cooking the scraped orange skin.

You don't need to get packet orange juice except if you plan on skipping theorange skin but to achieve the orange chicken flavor you will need the orange skin to make a real copycat panda express orange chicken.

For the Ginger and Garlic, you can use convenientGinger and Garlic paste because it mixes really good with the other sauce ingredients.

Or chop your ginger and garlic super fine!

Adjust the Chili Flakes amount to make it more or less spicy hot!

Water and Cornflour are mixed together to create a cornmeal slur.

This slur is used to thicken the sauce and will give your orange chicken the gorgeous sticky shine.

You may skip the cornflour water if you don't like it but you will have to reduce/cook down the sauce all the more because the sauce needs to be sticky and thick on the crispy fried chicken.

The Rice Wine Vinegar gives the sauce a subtly acidic touch and the Red Chinese cooking Wine (Shaohsing) lends the orange chicken a more Chinese touch to the chicken.

You can use both or skip these two ingredients, however, I never skip them because they both add another incredible flavor dimension to the Panda express orange chicken sauce!

Brown Sugar sweetens and turns your orange chicken sticky!

You may use regular granulated sugar or even palm sugar.

Each would change the flavor of the orange chicken sauce, so this is something to experiment with.

The Soy Sauce is another essential in this sauce besides the Sesame Oil.

If you don't have asian sesame oil, use any other regular oil.

Sesame oil gives it the sought-after Asian touch.

For the Spring Onions keep the green stalks and the bulbs separate because the green stalks are mild in flavor and make great garnishing material.

By the way, if you enjoy a good orange chicken, then you are going to love this Honey Chili Chicken Recipe from kitchensanctuary.com.

The prepping is similar and the chicken is deep fried as well.

Just the sauce in which the chicken is tossed in is a lemongrass honey chili soy-based sauce.

🔪 How to make Panda Express Orange Chicken Copycat Recipe?

The Panda express orange chicken is separated into two preparation and cooking parts.

One is the crispy chicken and the second the orange sauce.

As with any Asian deep/stir-fry meal, make sure to keep all your fresh and pantry ingredients ready on the side because Asian cooking requires you to focus on the cooking process.

It usually involves high heat cooking for a short time, so having your ingredients on hand is a huge advantage!

Step 1

Coat chicken with scrambled egg and flour.

Deep-fry chicken pieces golden and keep aside.

Step 2

Mix together sauce ingredients.

Heat pan with oil and stir cook green onion bulb slices, ginger + garlic, chili flakes, orange zest.

Add sauce, water, and slurry to thicken and combine

Step 3

Toss cooked chicken in the sauce and serve hot.

The perfect temperature for oil to slide your meat in is 325-350 Fahrenheit/160-175 Celsius.

1. Food Thermometer
2. Cast Iron Wok
3. Bamboo Deep Fryer Scoop

👁️ Related Recipes

• Panda Express Black Pepper Chicken
• Collection of copycat recipes

📜 Serving instructions

Serve while the orange chicken is still hot over plain white rice or fried rice or chow mein noodles.

Dear Reader, can you remember when you had your first orange chicken?

📖 Recipe