One of my favorite chain restaurants is P.F. Chang’s and there a couple dishes that we love to order every single time we dine there. Mongolian beef, chicken lettuce wraps, potstickers, Chang’s spicy shrimp, orange peel chicken are a few of our favorite items. I would like to try new dishes, but sometimes you come in wanting that certain dish. Why change a good thing right? I was inspired to make one of our favorite dishes and had high hopes that it would be like having PF Chang’s at home.
The key to making this dish is the prep work and let me warn you that it does get a little messy. The secret to the chicken is double dipping and make sure to set up your work “dipping” station so you can easily maneuver the chicken pieces into the flour and egg mixture. You will bread the chicken with the flour, dip it into the egg mixture and then bread it again with flour – do the “flour” dip twice. Then you fry them up until they are nice and crispy and add the orange garlic-ky sauce to coat it all together. Serve it over on a bed of steamed white or brown rice and a side of stir-fry vegetables.
Spicy and citrusy – definitely a wonderful and flavorful dish!
P.F. Chang’s Orange Peel Chicken
Adapted from Food.com
Printable Recipe
Ingredients:
1 pound chicken breasts, about 2 to 3 chicken breasts, cut into 1 inch pieces
1 tablespoon olive oil
2 tablespoon minced garlic
4 green onions, sliced
1 cup tomato sauce
½ cup water
¼ cup granulated sugar
2 tablespoons brown sugar
2 tablespoon chili garlic sauce
1 tablespoon soy sauce
½ cup vegetable oil
2 eggs, beaten
1 cup half & half (or can use milk or heavy cream)
2 ½ cups flour
peel from ¼ orange, julienne (into 1/8" thick strips)
Preparation:
In a small saucepan, add a tablespoon of olive and let it warm over medium heat. Add minced garlic and green onions and let cook for 1 minute. Add tomato sauce, water, sugar, chili garlic sauce and soy sauce and bring to a boil. Simmer 5 to 6 minutes or until sauce thickens. Remove from heat and set aside.
Heat a large skillet or wok over medium high heat, add ½ cup of vegetable oil. It will need to warm to 375 degrees.
Set up the chicken dipping area. Combine beaten egg with milk in a medium bowl. Pour the flour into a bowl. Coat the chicken pieces by dropping them into the flour a few at a time, then into the egg/milk mixture and back into the flour. Arrange coated chicken on a plate until all chicken is coated. Cook the chicken in small batches in the wok until lightly golden brown on all sides. Place cooked chicken on paper towel lined plate. Repeat with remaining chicken.
Discard oil from wok, and bring back to the stove over medium heat. Add the orange peel and cook for a minute to let the oils release. Then add the sauce and chicken and cook for a couple of minutes, stirring occasionally.
Serve over a bed of white or brown rice.
Yield: 6 servings of Orange Chicken (1 ½ cups)
Review: A wonderful and tasty PF Chang’s-inspired dinner. It’s not the exact recipe from PF Chang’s because their version is slightly crisper and the sauce is dark. I think my husband and I have had countless dinners within the past ten years because we were maybe too lazy to make dinner at home or really liked eating dinner at PF Chang’s. I think this time, I liked prepping our fake-out PF Chang's at home…it was cheaper for our wallets.
