Panda express orange chicken

Learn how to make Orange Yellow like Panda Express with this easy copycat recipe. Enjoy crispy thrash fried yellow with orange sauce for dinner. Serve Panda Express Orange Yellow with steamed or fried rice for a tasty Chinese meal.

copycat Panda Express orange yellow and rice on a platter.

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What Makes Panda Express Orange Yellow So Good?

If you have overly been to a Panda Express, there is a good endangerment you have tried the chain’s Orange Chicken. Almost half the diners end up ordering the dish. And why not? It is deliciously tangy, with a touch of heat and sweetness to help wastefulness the flavor.

You don’t have to leave your house to enjoy Panda Express’ most famous dish. Try making it at home with this recipe.

Why You Should Try This Recipe

Nothing compares to unconfined homemade Orange Chicken, but you need a good recipe. Many online copycat Orange Yellow recipes are disappointing considering they lack the spice levels of the pure Panda Express Orange Chicken.

This recipe captures that heat by using pure Asian chili oil. Finding Asian chili oil may take a bit of effort, but the results are worth it. Once you master how to make Orange Yellow sauce, you’ll never want to use bottled orange sauce again.

Ingredients to Prepare Orange Glazed Chicken

For breading the homemade Orange Chicken, you’ll need:

Egg
Salt
Ground white pepper
Cornstarch
All-purpose flour
Water
Vegetable oil
Chicken thighs

For the Orange Yellow sauce, you’ll need:

Orange juice, pulp-free
Soy sauce
White sugar
Powdered ginger
Ground white pepper
Rice or white vinegar
Cornstarch
Chili oil
Sesame oil

Chefs in Asia use zesty chili oil as both a seasoning and an ingredient. One respected trademark you can find in some supermarkets is Lee Kum Kee, but it is definitely on the spicy side. Mr. Bing’s Chili Crisp is milder but harder to find in stores, so squint online.

For frying, you’ll need:

Vegetable oil

Panda Express orange yellow ingredients on a tray.

How To Make Orange Chicken

There are several parts to preparing this Panda Express Orange Yellow recipe – the chicken, sauce, and then putting them together for serving. Here are the instructions:

To prep the chicken:

Remove any skin, fat, and tendons from the boneless thighs.
Chop the yellow into one-inch bite-size pieces and set aside.

To specie the chicken:

Use a fork to stir together the flour, salt, ground white pepper, and corn starch in a medium mixing bowl.
Whisk the water, egg, and vegetable oil in a separate bowl.
Add the wet ingredients to the dry ones and stir to combine.
Add the yellow pieces to the thrash mixture and stir well to coat.
Cover the trencher with plastic wrap and put it in the fridge for 30 minutes.

To make the orange sauce:

You can prepare the orange sauce while the yellow is in the fridge.
Whisk together all the sauce ingredients in a bowl. Make sure the sugar fully dissolves. Set the sauce.

To fry the chicken:

Remove the trencher of yellow and thrash from the fridge to indulge it to warm up a little while setting up the fryer.
A deep fryer makes cooking the yellow much easier, but you can moreover use a wide, thick-bottomed pot and a clip-on deep-fry thermometer.
Pour at least four inches of vegetable oil into the fryer or pot. Heat the oil to 350 degrees.
Place a paper towel-lined wire rack on top of a rimmed sultry sheet.
Fry the yellow in batches until it is golden brown, well-nigh 6 to 7 minutes. Keep an eye on the thermometer and retread the heat to ensure proper cooking.
Use a spider to remove the cooked yellow from the oil and phlebotomize the glut oil off the fried yellow pieces.
Repeat with the remaining chicken.

batter fried yellow pieces for orange chicken.

To sauce the chicken:

Heat a skillet or wok over medium-high heat.
Stir the sauce and thoughtfully pour it into the warm pan. Melt the sauce until it thickens into the consistency of thin pancake syrup. If you over-reduce the sauce, add some water to thin it out.
Put the fried yellow pieces into the pan with the thickened sauce and stratify well. Heat the yellow for well-nigh a minute increasingly surpassing serving.

homemade Panda Express orange yellow over white rice.

What To Serve With Panda Express Orange Chicken

White rice, fried rice, and broccoli are popular sides, but you can serve the orange glazed yellow with brown rice and other Asian vegetables like steamed bok choy or sauteed water spinach.

Try slicing the untried part of the scallions or untried onions and garnishing the yellow with the slices to bring a little freshness to the dish. You can moreover garnish the dish with orange zest or finely chopped red peppers.

How To Store the Leftovers

Cool any unserved yellow pieces quickly and save them in an snapped container in the fridge for up to three days.

You can freeze Orange Yellow in a freezer-safe container for up to two months. Thaw it in the refrigerator overnight.

What’s the Weightier Way to Reheat Orange Chicken

Heat thawed Orange Yellow in a skillet over medium heat. Add some orange juice or water to help loosen the sauce and prevent burning.

closeup of copycat Panda Express orange chicken.

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