Tim Chin is a professional cook and writer who has contributed to Serious Eats and America’s Test Kitchen. A graduate of The International Culinary Center, Tim has cooked at restaurants in New York and Boston, working at Rouge Tomate, Northern Spy, and BiSq.

Tim Chin

Orange chicken is a fan favorite takeout menu item, just like <a href="https://www.chefsteps.com/activities/general-tsos-chicken">General Tso’s</a>, and it totally makes sense: Sweet, savory, lightly spiced, and packed with orange flavor, it’s got a little bit of everything nice (and it goes amazing with rice!).This recipe pays tribute to the original version of this dish (Hunanese Chenpi Ji) by using three sources for that distinctive orange flavor: fresh orange juice, fresh orange zest, and dried mandarin peel (chénpí), an ingredient that isn’t typically used for Chinese American orange chicken. The triple orange shot produces a deeply complex flavor that’s a far cry from sauces made using store-bought orange juice (or orange soda).Of course, the dish is only as good as the chicken itself, and we’ve cranked the crisp and crunch factor up to 11 here, using potato starch and wheat dextrin in the dredge so the crispy coating can be tossed in the beautiful sauce without sogging out.

Orange Chicken