Sticky orange chicken - ultra crispy

Sticky orange chicken is made from tender chunks of chicken, coated in crispy panko breadcrumbs and oven-baked for extra crunch. Team with a bowl of Chinese fried rice or noodles, smother it in tangy orange sauce, and you have a quick and easy Chinese-inspired meal you'll want to make again and again.

Jump to:

• Sticky orange chicken
• What you will need
• What to do
• Orange chicken FAQ
• Save for later
• Related recipes
• 📋The recipe

Sticky orange chicken

Sticky orange chicken is made from tender chunks of chicken, coated in panko breadcrumbs for extra crunch, and oven-baked for crispness. It is smothered in a tangy orange sauce which provides a delicious citrus flavour that goes so well with chicken.

I've called my recipe sticky orange chicken, but you could substitute the orange for lemon and make it into a sticky lemon chicken instead - it will taste just as good!

What I love about this recipe is that the chicken is oven-baked and not fried - so it turns out really crispy without being greasy.

There are 2 secrets to getting perfectly succulent chicken with a crispy coating and they are:

• marinate the chicken for a few minutes in a mixture of egg and cornflour. This not only forms a batter that allows the breadcrumbs to stick to the chicken, but the cornflour acts to tenderise the chicken.
• use Panko breadcrumbs for the coating. These are Japanese breadcrumbs, which are ultra-light and crispy and turn into crunchy perfection when fried or baked.

This is one of my favourite quick and easy supper recipes - the orange sauce comes together in 5 minutes and the crispy chicken only takes 15 minutes in the oven. And with a preparation time of only 15 minutes, you can have this crispy orange chicken on the table in next to no time. You do have to marinate the chicken for 30 minutes before coating it in breadcrumbs, so do factor this into your timing.

Once the sauce and chicken have been cooked, all you have to do is combine the crispy chicken pieces with the orange sauce and serve it either on a bed of Chinese egg fried rice or noodles. And there you have it, a Chinese takeaway in less time than it would take to order and wait for it to be delivered.

What you will need

Equipment

You will need some baking trays for baking the chicken, and baking parchment to line the baking trays. You can get away without lining the baking trays, but then you will have to spend more time cleaning them afterwards.

To marinade the chicken you will need a mixing bowl large enough to hold the batter and the chicken pieces.

For making the orange sauce you will need a small saucepan.

And of course, you will need a sharp knife and a chopping board for cutting up the chicken.

Ingredients

**You can get the complete list of ingredients and full instructions on how to make this sticky orange chicken on the printable recipe card at the end of this post**

Chicken and marinade

• Chicken - I used chicken breast fillets, but you could substitute these with boneless chicken thighs.
• Cornflour (you may know this as cornstarch) - this will be mixed with the eggs, to form the marinade and batter.
• Eggs - lightly beaten then combined with the cornflour.
• Salt - for seasoning. I like to add a little salt to the eggs and cornflour as I feel it enhances the flavour of the chicken. By all means, leave this out if you don't use salt in your cooking.
• Panko breadcrumbs - these are used to coat the chicken once it has been marinated. For the quantity of chicken in the recipe I used just over a cup of breadcrumbs. I would recommend you start with one cup and add more if necessary. That way you won't have to throw away any unused breadcrumbs.

Orange Sauce

• Oranges - you will need one cup of orange juice. How many oranges you need will depend on how juicy they are.
• Orange zest - grate the outer zest from the orange before you squeeze the juice out. Make sure you don't grate the white part as this is quite bitter. The orange zest is optional.
• Dark soy sauce
• Rice wine vinegar - if you don't have rice wine vinegar you can substitute it with dry sherry.
• Brown sugar - you can use light or dark brown sugar. I used 2 tablespoonfuls, but the actual amount will depend on how sweet the oranges are.
• Garlic - not pictured. Very finely minced. If you don't have fresh garlic you can substitute it with the equivalent amount of your favourite brand of garlic paste or bottled minced garlic.
• Ginger paste - not pictured. This is optional but does add an extra zing to the sauce.
• 2 Teaspoons cornflour - mixed to a paste with 2 tablespoons water and used to thicken the sauce.
• 1 teaspoon groundnut oil - this is optional. I like to use it because it gives the sauce a nice shiny finish. If you don't have groundnut oil you could use any neutral flavour oil, such as sunflower oil, or leave it out altogether.

What to do

Chicken

Cut the chicken into bite-sized chunks, removing any visible fat and sinews.

If you would prefer to fry the chicken pieces rather than bake them in the oven, you can shallow fry them in a frying pan in 2 or 3 tablespoons of sunflower oil. Fry them for 2 to 3 minutes per side, turning occasionally, until golden brown and crispy.

Orange sauce

To thicken the sauce, mix the cornflour and water to a smooth paste and drizzle slowly into the sauce, stirring all the time, until it thickens.

You may not need all the cornflour. The orange sauce should have a nice runny consistency, a bit like a thick gravy. You want to be able to pour it over the crispy chicken.

Do remember to taste the sauce once it has been cooked. You may find you need to add a touch more sugar to sweeten it up a bit if your oranges are on the tart side.

If you'd like to be notified of new recipes, why not subscribe to my newsletter? To say thank you, you will receive a free recipe e-book containing some of my most popular cakes and desserts.

Orange chicken FAQ

Save for later

If you would like to try this sticky orange chicken yourself, why not pin the recipe to one of your Pinterest boards so you can find it easily? Just click on the image below.

Alternatively, you can save the recipe by clicking on the floating heart icon on the right-hand side of the screen.

Related recipes

Visit my Asian-inspired recipes page for other Oriental dishes. Here are a few you might enjoy:

And of course, no Chinese meal is complete without a bowl of fluffy rice. If you are looking for easy ways to cook rice, you'll find step-by-step instructions in these posts:

• How to cook rice in the microwave
• How to cook rice in the oven
• Chinese egg fried rice

📋The recipe

If you made this recipe and enjoyed it, I'd love it if you could give me a star rating in the comments below. And if you'd like to get in touch, you can email me at [email protected]. I'd love to hear from you. And don't forget to subscribe to my mailing list so you can grab yourself a copy of my FREE COOKBOOK!

If you'd like to continue browsing, just click on this link to all my recipes.