Traditionally, Orange Chicken is prepared completely on the stove top, sautéd with a wok. However in this recipe, I wanted to switch things up allow the orange flavors to truly sink into the chicken. Therefore, this recipe will be partially stovetop and part crockpot.
Take chicken thighs and safely clean these prior to seasoning. After cleaning your chicken, cut it into nugget size pieces and place these in a clean bowl. Season with salt and pepper to taste and stir to ensure the salt and pepper spread evenly on your chicken pieces.
To your bowl, add 1 egg white and stir again. Once the egg white evenly distributes on the chicken nuggets, add corn starch and all purpose flour and stir again until chicken is completely coated.
Now you're ready to fry your nuggets. Take a pan or wok and fill the bottom of it with canola oil , around 1/4 an inch.(I recommend canola oil or peanut oil since these have a high smoke point. However please do not use peanut oil if you are allergic to peanuts). Allow your oil and pan to come up to the correct heat temperature. TIP: An easy way to determine oil temperature without a thermometer is to flick some flour into the hot oil. If the flour sizzles upon hitting the oil, your chicken is ready to fry!
Add your chicken nuggets to the hot pan or wok and fry these until both sides cook evenly and are brown. Once chicken has fully cooked, remove these from the pan and place in a dish lined with a paper towel to capture the additional grease. Set chicken aside.
Crockpot Prep
To your crockpot add orange marmalade, honey, chicken broth, soy sauce, rice vinegar (or regular vinegar is fine as a substitute), sesame oil, grated fresh ginger, garlic powder, onion powder, red pepper flakes, orange zest, and salt/pepper to taste. Stir ingredients together.
Turn on your crockpot and add the fried chicken nuggets to the orange sauce mixture. Sir, cover and allow ingredients to cook for 1 hour. The crockpot will do a great job with allowing the orange sauce to melt into your nuggets.
After 1 hour, turn off your crockpot and enjoy your orange chicken over a bed of jasmine rice. Garnish with sesame seeds and serve!
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