Orange chicken

Orange chicken

Orange chicken
Origin
Place of origin	China (original version) United States (Westernized version)
Region or state	Hunan (original version) North America (Westernized version)
Dish details
Course served	Main
Serving temperature	Hot
Main ingredient(s)	Chicken Orange sauce or Orange peels

Orange chicken (simplified Chinese: 陈皮鸡; traditional Chinese: 陳皮雞; pinyin: chénpí jī; Wade–Giles: ch'en²-p'i³-chi¹) 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 pieces coated in a 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.

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 "陈皮鸡", literally "old peel chicken", referring to dried orange or tangerine peel, which is used in traditional Chinese medicine as well as cooking. For western restaurants, fresh orange peel is often used instead, or even no peel at all.

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 orange peel beef (also called tangerine peel beef).

See also

• General Tso's chicken
• Sweet and sour pork
• Lemon chicken

References

1. ^ Lo, Eileen Yin-Fei (1999). "Poultry and Other Fowl". The Chinese Kitchen. calligraphy by San Yan Wong (1st Edition ed.). New York, New York: William Morrow and Company. p. 314. ISBN 0-688-15826-9. "ORANGE CHICKEN Chun Pei Gai Pan Traditionally this Hunan recipe contained what is called chun pei, or ‘old skin,’ to describe the dried citrus peel used in its preparation." 

External links