Orange Chicken

One of the other things we have done is pretty much given up eating out. This is really because we are on a VERY tight budget. Our menu is extensive some weeks and when Monday rolls around...although it may vary because I have been doing my menu planning on Tuesday/Wednesday, you will see that we try out a LOT of different foods/cuisines. We LOVE chinese...but it doesn't always love us. So I made this delicious dinner this evening and K(my husband) said it was much better than the restaurant! Definately a keeper!

Orange Chicken-adapted from Thoughts of a Wanderer
*sorry no picture as of yet...it was quite beautiful, almost too nice to eat!


Chicken;
2 chicken breasts cut into bite sized pieces
3 tablespoons cornstarch
salt & pepper to taste
olive oil

Sauce:
1 1/2 cup water
1/2  orange, juiced
1 lemon juiced
1/3 cup rice vinegar
2 1/2 tablespoons soy sauce
1 tablespoon grated orange zest
1 cup packed brown sugar
1/2 teaspoon minced fresh ginger root
1/2 teaspoon minced garlic
2 tablespoons chopped green onion(omitted)
1/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes
3 tbsp cornstarch

- Throw chicken pieces, cornstarch, salt and pepper into a large ziplock bag and shake, shake, shake until coated.
- Heat a few tablespoons of oil in a deep skillet over medium heat and cook chicken until done.
- Remove chicken from skillet and wipe out (or use saucepan if your skillet isn’t deep enough). Add ingredients for sauce except for the cornstarch and bring to a slight boil. Add cornstarch to thicken if you like a thicker sauce (I always do this…it makes it feel more decadent and restaurant-like to me). Add chicken pieces into sauce and heat through, about 5 minutes.
- Serve over your choice of rice. We had it over Brown Jasmine rice and sliced cucumbers for a side.

what I did different: 
- added 3 tsbp cornstarch right to the sauce before I added it to the pan. If you have used cornstarch before, it thickens best in cold liquids this kept it from becoming lumpy.
-did not pack the sugar, as we are also watching our caloric intake.
-in a pinch, you can sub white wine vinegar for rice vinegar(something I learned when I forgot the rice vinegar!)
-zest of whole orange


Kid Help: have them shake the bag of chicken to coat the chicken, help squeeze the lemon/orange for the juice, help measure rice/water, and choose a veggie as a side


Next time: I will either bake the chicken pieces or cook them right in the sauce. We didn't feel that frying the chicken really added to the flavor.