Orange Chicken

This recipe for orange chicken took me by surprise. And boy! It had me going back for seconds. The orange chicken had a wonderfully tangy taste that utterly tickled my taste buds. So what inspired me to post this dish? Here’s the story.

A Brillant Orange Chicken

We had some drumsticks, but I was kind of bored with the usual stew chicken and I certainly didn’t want to go through all the trouble of baking the chicken. I wanted a quick and easy chicken recipe that could be done in about thirty minutes….You know something like Rachael Ray’s “30 minute meals”

So it was off to the recipe books. And you know what usually happens with those foreign recipes. I saw a wonderful orange chicken recipe but some of the ingredients were either not available here in Trinidad and Tobago or if available they would have been expensive.

Instead of giving up and settling for the usual stew chicken my wife and I decided to do some modifications with the orange chicken recipe and make it still. And today this is what resulted from our innovation in the kitchen: orange chicken trinistyle.

When you really understand the recipe it’s very simple. All you are doing is cooking the chicken first, then making the orange chicken sauce, and then combining the two – so it’s very simple. Making it trinistyle was no problem either. We used our locally available seasonings to marinate the chicken before cooking which gave it some extra flavour.

Anyhow, I’m talking too much. Let’s get started shall we? Here’s Orange Chicken.

An Orange Chicken Recipe

7 chicken drum sticks, seasoned and marinated
6 tbsp. oil, divided
1 onion, sliced
3 cloves garlic, crushed
1/4 cup orange juice
1/2 tbsp. grated orange rind
2 tsp. arrowroot flour
1 tsp. brown sugar
1 cup water
1 tsp. five spice powder
Water for when you’re sauteing the chicken

Ingredients for orange chicken. Left to right:
Five spice powder, grated orange rind, orange juice, and water.

Some more ingredients.
Chopped onion, sugar, arrowroot flour, and crushed garlic.

The seasoned and marinated chicken.
Add the five spice powder to the chicken.

Saute the chicken in 3 tbsp. oil.

let it brown a bit.

Add a little water occasionally and allow the chicken to cook for about 20 minutes or until tender. Set aside.

Heat 3 tablespoon of oil in a deep pot.

Saute the onion…

and the garlic for one minute.

Add 3/4 cup of water,…

the orange juice and sugar…

Note: If you want your orange chicken to have more of an orange flavor you can substitute the water in the recipe for orange juice and decrease the orange rind by half.

Mix the remaining 1/4 cup of water with the arrowroot powder and add to the mixture.

When the mixture comes to a boil add the cooked chicken and orange rind.
Leave to simmer until the sauce thickens.

The orange chicken looks good now.
Remove and serve with your favourite dish.

I had my Orange Chicken with Herbed Rice some lettuce and a slice of Zaboca (Avocado). Delicious!

Ah gone!  Don’t forget to leave your comment on on orange chcken.