Orange Chicken

I made this last week with some awesome sautéed veggies and fried rice. It didn't really come out as I would have hoped. I don't know if I made the batter wrong, or just because I was trying to deep fry in a pot and it just didn't work out very well. All of the flavors were there, I just don't think I executed it properly. Of course my husband and dad were all over this, and thought it was amazing. I'm just really hard on myself, when things don't turn out exactly as I wanted. So below is the recipe as I followed it. It's another fabulous recipe by one of my favorite food bloggers, the Pioneer Woman. I'm absolutely positive that it was something I did, and not her recipe that failed me in the end. 

INGREDIENTS:

• 4 boneless chicken thighs cut into bite sized pieces
• 4 egg whites
• 2 tablespoons cornstarch
• 1/2 cup orange juice
• 1 tablespoon soy sauce
• 1 tablespoon packed brown sugar
• 1 tablespoon rice wine vinegar 
• 1/4 teaspoon sesame oil
• salt
• crushed red pepper
• 1 minced clove of garlic
• 2 teaspoons grated ginger
• 1 teaspoon corn starch 
• oil for frying (I used veggie)

Whisk together egg whites and cornstarch until frothy, about 1-2 minutes. Place the chicken in this mixture and allow to sit 5-10 minutes.

Put orange juice, soy sauce, sugar, vinegar, sesame oil, salt and red pepper to taste, garlic and ginger in a small non stick skillet and whisk. Heat until bubbly and starts to thicken, about 5 minutes.

Mix together the 1 teaspoon of cornstarch and 1/4 cup of water. Add about 1-2 tablespoons of the cornstarch slurry into the sauce to thicken.

Heat two inches of veggie oil in the bottom of a heavy bottomed pot, like a dutch oven. Until a deep fry therm. reads 350. (This is where I think I went wrong, because I have neither a dutch oven nor a therm. so I kind of winged it.)

Carefully drop the chicken in and gently flip around cooking about 3-4 minutes, then removing to drain on a paper towel lined plate. Repeat the frying process for the rest of the chicken. Once all of the chicken is fried, drop them each back in for about 1 minute then drain on another paper toweled plate for extra crispiness.

Toss the chicken with the sauce and serve.

I served this with fried rice, sautéed broccoli and peppers and with some green onion on top. Like I said, everyone else loved it. I'm just disappointed it didn't fry up as crispy as I wanted. The sauce was amazing though. Cheers!

Credits: Orange Chicken