Orange chicken

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Orange chicken (陳皮鶺) is a Chinese American dish of Hunan origin^[1]. The variety of orange chicken most commonly found at American fast food restaurants consists of chopped, battered, and fried chicken nuggets coated in a spicy sweet orange-flavored chili sauce, which thickens or caramelizes to a glaze. While the dish is very popular in the United States, it is most often found as a variation of General Tso's Chicken rather than the authentic dish found in China.

1 Name
2 Recipes and Variations
3 See also
4 Additional references
5 External links

[edit] Name

In most western countries, the names "orange chicken", "orange peel chicken", and "tangerine chicken" are typically used for this particular dish. In Chinese, however, the dish is always known as as chen pi ji (陳皮鶺), or "old skin chicken", a description of dried orange or tangerine peel, which is used in the traditional recipe. For western restaurants, fresh orange peel is often used instead, or even no peel at all.

[edit] Recipes and Variations

Traditional orange chicken is first deep-fried, and then stir-fried in a lightly sweet soy-based sauce flavored with chopped dried orange peels. It is often garnished with vegetables, such as bok choy and baby carrots. While popular in China, the authentic orange chicken is generally unknown in the west, in order to appeal more to western palates. A recipe given by renowned cooking teacher and chef, Eileen Yin-Fei Lo, is far less sweet than most restaurants in the United States would prepare it and derives most of the flavor from the orange peel used. The typical recipe used in western-influenced restaurants may use orange juice or fresh orange peel rather than dried peel, a great deal of sugar, and often garnishes the dish with steamed broccoli and dried chili peppers.

A similar dish is Tangerine Peel Beef.