There’s a moment at every mall food court where you say you’ll get something sensible, and then you’re standing in front of that tray of orange chicken anyway.
No judgment here. I’ve been there.
Panda Express orange chicken is crispy, saucy, a little sweet and a little hot, and you can make it at home with a fresh sauce and no soggy bits at the bottom of the box. My own first go was this crispy orange chicken, back when I was still looking for the best one. After that I went through the copycat videos on YouTube and read what the people who made them said in the comments.
These are the five I keep making. Grab your wok, or your biggest skillet, and let’s get saucy.
Why These Copycat Recipes are Best
Every recipe here starts with fried chicken and a sticky orange sauce, and each one keeps the crunch in a different way. Below each pick you get my note on why it is on the list, the full ingredient list, and the video to cook from.
Honey Orange Chicken
Honey Orange Chicken is crispy bite-size chicken in a honey, soy and orange sauce with garlic, ginger and a little red pepper. I came to it because under the video on YouTube, people who say they cook at Panda Express wrote that it tastes very close to what they make. The difference, they said, is that the restaurant uses plain sugar instead of honey and an orange extract instead of fresh zest.
The chicken gets an egg white and a flour and cornstarch coat, then it is fried and tossed in a sauce cooked in a saucepan. The sauce is thickened with a cornstarch slurry, which is cornstarch stirred into water. The tricky part is stirring the slurry the second it goes in, or it clumps.
Several cooks who made this orange chicken found the sauce too sharp and used less vinegar or a bit more sugar. Frying twice keeps the chicken crunchier: you fry the pieces, take them out, then fry them again. Thighs work best, but breast works too.
Ingredients
- Chicken breast or chicken thighs (thighs give the best results), cut into bite-size pieces
- 1 egg white
- 1/2 cup flour
- 1/3 cup cornstarch
- Salt and pepper to taste (about 1 tbsp each)
- 1/2 cup vinegar
- 1/2 cup soy sauce
- 1 tbsp minced garlic
- 1 tsp crushed red pepper flakes
- 1/3 cup orange juice
- 1 tbsp ginger
- 1 tbsp orange zest or lemon zest
- 4 to 6 tbsp honey
- 2 tbsp cornstarch mixed with water (slurry)
- Sesame seeds (optional)
SaveDouble-Fried Orange Chicken
Double-Fried Orange Chicken is thin-sliced chicken in a light, crunchy batter with a sweet, sour and salty orange sauce made with brown sugar, a little honey, light soy sauce and fresh orange. I keep coming back to it because the comments under the video on YouTube are full of people who make it again and again and call it their go-to.
The chicken sits in a little orange juice first, then gets an egg and cornstarch batter. It is fried twice: fried once, rested, then fried again, which keeps the coat crisp. The sauce comes together in a wok, and the chicken goes in off the heat.
Regular soy sauce in place of light soy made the sauce too salty for some cooks, so use less if that is what you have. Stick with cornstarch, since one cook used flour and lost the crunch. Another found that few pieces stayed crisp on paper towels and thought a rack would have done better. Thighs work in place of breast and come out juicy.
Ingredients
- 300 g chicken breast, sliced into 1/4 inch pieces
- 1/2 tsp salt
- Black pepper to taste
- 2 tbsp orange juice
- 100 g cornstarch
- 2 medium eggs
- Frying oil
- 2 tsp cooking oil
- 1 tsp ginger
- 1 tbsp garlic
- A few shakes of red pepper flakes
- 1/4 cup orange juice
- 3.5 tbsp light soy sauce
- 1/4 cup brown sugar
- 1 tbsp honey
- 1.5 tsp orange zest
- 3 tbsp vinegar
- Cornstarch water (1.5 tbsp water + 1 tbsp and 1 tsp cornstarch)
- Diced scallion and red pepper flakes for garnish
SaveExtra-Crispy Orange Chicken
Extra-Crispy Orange Chicken is the crunchiest of my favorites, with rough, bumpy chicken chunks in a sauce of fresh orange juice and zest, mirin, soy sauce, sesame oil and chicken stock. Several cooks who made it said the texture was the best they had had, even better than takeout. I love it because you do not need a wok, even though it takes more work and makes more mess.
A short marinade with a little baking soda keeps the chicken tender. The crust comes from three layers: a flour coat, a thin wet batter and a crumbly dry breading. Then the chicken is fried twice in a heavy pot, which means the pieces are fried once, taken out and fried again. The sauce cooks down in a regular large nonstick skillet.
Many cooks found the recipe makes far more breading than they needed and cut it by half or more. Shake off extra flour so the pieces do not stick into one clump. Make extra sauce, too. One cook freezes batches for later. Without mirin, rice vinegar with a little extra sugar works.
Ingredients
- 1 lb boneless skinless chicken breasts, large diced
- 30 g (2 tbsp) soy sauce
- 30 g (2 tbsp) mirin
- 3 g (1 tsp) cornstarch
- 4 g (1 tsp) baking soda
- 400 g (3 1/3 cups) all-purpose flour
- 15 g (2 1/4 tsp) salt
- 6 g (1 1/4 tsp) baking soda
- 400 g (3 1/4 cups) cornstarch
- Water
- About 3 cups additional all-purpose flour
- About 2 qt neutral oil for frying
- 30 g (2 tbsp) neutral high smoke point oil
- 10 g (2 cloves) garlic, grated
- 10 g (about a 1.5 inch piece) ginger, grated
- 20 g (4 tbsp) scallions, thinly sliced
- 125 g (1/2 cup) chicken stock
- 75 g (1/4 cup) mirin
- 50 g (3 tbsp) soy sauce
- 10 g (2 tsp) sesame oil
- 50 g (1/4 cup) sugar
- 25 g (1.5 tbsp) rice vinegar
- Juice of 1 large orange
- 1 tsp orange zest
- 5 g (2 tsp) cornstarch
- Pinch of chile flakes
- Cornstarch slurry if needed (3/4 tsp cornstarch in water)
- Sesame seeds and chile flakes to serve
SaveOyster Sauce Orange Chicken
Oyster Sauce Orange Chicken is a chef-style takeout plate: chicken thigh chunks in a tempura flour batter, deep fried and tossed in a hot skillet with garlic, ginger, onion and scallions. The sauce is why it made my list, with oyster sauce, sugar, orange juice, rice vinegar and a spoon of hoisin. The plate comes with steamed broccoli and egg fried rice.
The meal takes about 45 minutes and serves 4 to 6, so it feeds a group. The tempura flour gives a crisp outside and a tender inside. A few cooks did not care for the sauce but loved the chicken, and one cut the soy sauce in half so it would not be too salty.
The fried rice was a hit on its own, and several cooks now make their rice this way. Oyster sauce is made from shellfish, so this orange chicken is not for anyone with a shellfish allergy, and I have not seen a swap that anyone has tried. Some cooks used shrimp in place of the chicken.
Ingredients
- 1/2 cup (118 ml) oyster sauce
- 1/2 cup (95 g) sugar
- 3 oz (90 ml) orange juice
- 3 oz (90 ml) unseasoned rice wine vinegar
- 1 tbsp (7 g) cornstarch, mixed into the rice wine vinegar as a slurry
- 2 tbsp (30 ml) soy sauce
- 1 tbsp (15 ml) hoisin sauce
- 1 1/2 tsp sweet paprika
- 1 drop red food coloring (optional)
- 3 cups broccoli florets
- Kosher salt to taste
- 1 1/2 quarts (1.8 L) vegetable oil for deep frying
- 2 lb (900 g) chicken thighs, cut into 1 1/2 inch cubes
- 2 1/2 cups (335 g) tempura flour
- 2 tbsp vegetable oil
- 1 1/2 tsp garlic, chopped
- 1 1/2 tsp fresh ginger, minced
- 2 to 3 scallions, cut into 2 inch bias slices
- 1/2 yellow onion, large dice
- 3 tbsp vegetable oil (fried rice)
- 3 eggs, lightly beaten (fried rice)
- 4 cups day-old long grain or jasmine rice (fried rice)
- 1 tbsp soy sauce (fried rice)
- 1 1/2 tsp sugar (fried rice)
- 1/2 tsp powdered chicken bouillon (fried rice)
- 2 to 3 green onions, chopped (fried rice)
- 1/2 tsp white pepper, optional (fried rice)
SaveEasy Orange Chicken
Easy Orange Chicken is the simplest of my favorites, with bite-size chicken rubbed with egg white, tossed in a dry flour and cornstarch coat and fried once. I reach for it when I want orange chicken without a lot of steps, and a regular pot on a regular stove does the job. The dry coat is a big part of why I like it, since people who had trouble with a wet batter said this one worked for them.
The sauce is fresh orange, soy sauce, rice wine, vinegar, garlic, ginger and chili, sweetened with honey and finished with a little sesame oil. Many cooks found it too sour or too salty as written and used less vinegar and soy and more orange juice and honey. Oranges vary in sweetness, so taste the sauce before the chicken goes in. The list below is copied as the recipe gives it, and some of its cup and metric amounts do not match: the vinegar is listed as 1/4 cup and 100 ml, which are not the same amount, and 1 lb is a bit more than 400 g. Pick one system, start with less vinegar, and add more to taste. Without Shaoxing rice wine, mirin works, or white wine, or just leave it out.
Ingredients
- 1 lb (400 g) chicken thigh or breast
- 1 orange
- 2 cloves garlic
- 1 stub ginger
- Chili pepper
- 1 egg white
- 2/3 tsp salt
- Pepper to taste
- 1/2 cup (50 g) cornstarch
- 1/2 cup (55 g) flour
- 1/2 cup (100 ml) Shaoxing rice wine (or white wine, or leave it out)
- 1/2 cup (100 ml) soy sauce
- 1/4 cup (100 ml) vinegar
- 2 tbsp cornstarch
- 2 tbsp sesame oil
- 4 tbsp honey
SaveFrequently Asked Questions
A few things come up once the first batch is gone: leftovers, the air fryer and where the dish came from.
How long does it keep, and how do I reheat it?
Orange chicken keeps in the fridge up to 4 days. Spread it in a shallow container so it cools fast, and get it into the fridge within 2 hours of cooking. Leave the lid off until the steam stops, since trapped steam softens the coat, and keep sauce and chicken apart if you can. Reheat in a hot oven or air fryer, not the microwave, which makes it soggy. Heat leftovers to 165°F, then toss the crisp chicken with warm sauce.
Can you freeze it?
You can freeze orange chicken, but put the fried chicken and the sauce in separate containers. To serve, reheat the chicken straight from frozen in a hot oven until crisp and hot through, then toss with sauce you warmed on the stove. For the best texture, use both within a couple of months.
Can you make it in an air fryer?
For air fryer orange chicken, you coat the pieces in cornstarch and flour, spray them lightly with oil and cook them until crisp, turning them once. Then the pieces get tossed in a sauce made on the stove. Air-fried chicken comes out less crisp than deep-fried. None of the recipes on this list is made in an air fryer, so I can’t promise how they turn out that way.
What does Panda Express use, and where did it come from?
Panda Express says its chef Andy Kao came up with orange chicken at one of its restaurants in Hawaii in 1987. People who say they cook there wrote in the comments under one of these videos on YouTube that the restaurant uses sugar, not honey, and orange extract rather than fresh zest. That is their word, not an ingredient list the chain has published.
Once you find a coat you like, keep it and adjust the sauce to your taste: less vinegar if it is too sharp, less soy if it is too salty. The goal is chicken that stays crunchy even after it meets the sauce.
