Orange Chicken - Chen Pi Ji

If you are a regular reader you might know that my FIL comes to our home for lunch every day after MIL passed away.
Mom was not a adventures type when it came for making food, she always made traditional food from Belgium, sometimes I think she started trying newer things after I came here as she hears from me about this or that spices etc..... but still 99 % of food she made was belgian/eurpean food. ( I must say she could make really super delicious paela one of the best I have ever had)

My FIL ofcourse complains ( when mom was there) when ever she made rice, pasta etc.... even though he will polish his plate of rice or pasta he would still say is it rice/pasta today as he loves his potatoes . So in their place it will be mostly potatoes, meat and vegg in their place, there is always potato mash , fried potato, boiled potato most of the lunch time.

My father in law loves travelling and he has gone to most of the places in Europe, but he would have loved to still travel, but as he is 86 he is not allowed and now we have this joke, each time I  make a chinese dish I tell him Dad we are travelling to china today, or when i make pasta I will be like Dad we are travelling to Italy today.

Now to the recipe this is the recipe from Easy Chinese Recipe from Bee Yinn Low, I am sure most of you will know her from her delicious and beautiful blog Rasamalaysia.
I love this book, and I have made couple of dishes from the book and each time it turns our super yumm.
So even before I tasted the finsiehd dish I knew it will a a really yummy chicken and indeed i was not wrong it is so good.
Some of the dishes I ahve made from the book are Chicken With Garlic Sauce  , Kung Pao Chicken.

Bee had written if you want the dish to have more sauce then double the portion of the orange juice and as I like a bit of sauce i have trippled it.
I am giving the original recipe and I have  written in a another color in brackets what changes I have done.
So if you want the dish to be dry then do the exact as in the recipe and if you like it to be saucy then do my way which is written in another color.



Orange Chicken:

250 gm skinless ,boneless chicken meat cut into slices
2 tablespoon of corn starch
Oil for deep frying
1 tablespoon of oil
2 cloves garlic minced
5 dried red finger length chillies
2 green onions ( scallions) white parts ( I used the green part also)

Sauce

3 table spoon of fresh orange juice ( I used 9 tablespoon)
2 tablespoons of soysauce
1 tsp of chinese rice wine or sherry
1/4 tsp of seasame oil
2 1/2 tablespoons of sugar ( I only used 1 1/2 tablespoons)
1 tsp of corn starch ( I used a bit more than one tablespoon as i used more orange juice )
1 tablespoon of water ( I used 3 tablepoons of water)

1. Mix all the ingridients for the sauce in a small bowl. Toss the chicken witht eh cornstarch in a seperate bowl. Set aside.
2. Heat oil on a wok for deep frying and when the oil is hot , Gentley drop the chicken pieces into the oil and loosen them up immediately with the spatual to prevent the chicken from clumping together.
3. Deep fry the chicken to a light golden brown. Dish out with a striner or slotted spoon, draining the excess oil by laying the chicken on a dish lined with paper towels. Discard the oil.
4. Heat 1 tablespoon of oil in a wol over a high heat. Add the garlic stir quickly with teh spatual before adding the dry chillies, stir fry untill you smell the spicy aroma of the chillies.
5. Returnt eh fried chicken back into the wok and add the sauce. Stir continiously, untill the chicken is well coated witht eh sauce. Stir in the green onions and serve immediately with steamed rice.
Tip from me if you think you sauce us too watery then use a bit more corn flour mixed with bit of water to thiecken up the sauce. If you think there is less sauce and you want more saucy then add a bit more water . Just make sure if you add more water or orange juice then add a little bit more soysauce too.