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Orange Chicken - Paleo Style
Orange chicken didn't come from China, it came from a Panda Express test kitchen in Hawaii in 1987, when chef Andy Kao swapped the flavors in a General Tso's style sauce for orange and ended up creating the chain's best-selling dish within a year. It's a Chinese American original, built for taste buds that want sweet, sticky, and crispy in one bite, which is exactly why it took over mall food courts and never left. The problem is most versions today lean on cornstarch slurry, corn syrup, and orange flavoring instead of actual oranges, leaving you with something thick and overly sweet. This version goes back to what made it good in the first place: real orange zest and juice for the glaze, chicken that's actually crispy instead of steamed in its own sauce, and a balance of sweet, sour, and a little heat so it doesn't taste like candy.
Ingredients
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1/2 Cup Avocado Oil
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1.5 Lbs Chicken Thighs Or Breast
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1/4 Cup Cornstarch
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1 Yellow Onion
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2 Garlic Cloves
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1 tsp Ginger
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1/2 Cup Coconut Aminos
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2 Orange
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1.5 Tbsp Honey
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2 Tbsp Sesame Oil
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2 Serrano Pepper
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— Sesame Seeds
How to make it
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1
Get 1/2 cup avocado oil ripping hot in a stainless or non-stick skillet over medium-high heat, you want it around 375F if you've got a thermometer. If not, you can stick a toothpick into the oil and if you see bubbles around it then the oil is most likely ready.
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2
Pat the chicken dry and season with salt. Toss it in a bowl with the cornstarch until every piece is coated. Work in batches so you're not crowding the pan, shake off the extra starch and lower the chicken into the hot oil. Give it about 3 minutes a side until golden and cooked through. Pull it onto a plate and keep going until all the chicken's fried.
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3
Wipe out or grab a second pan, heat it up with more avocado oil until it's shimmering. Toss in the onion, garlic, ginger, and sliced serrano and let it cook down until the onions go translucent and your kitchen smells like something's finally happening. Pour in the coconut aminos, orange juice, orange zest, and honey. Let that simmer until it reduces by half, this is where the glaze actually becomes a glaze instead of watery sauce.
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4
Add the sesame oil and the fried chicken back into the pan. Toss it all together until every piece is coated in that glaze.
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5
Plate it up, hit it with sesame seeds, and eat it while it's still crispy!
