Best Orange Sauce for Chinese Orange Chicken
on Jul 19, 2022
This sweet and tangy Chinese orange sauce is ideal for chicken and veggie stir fries. It’s super easy to make and is ready to enjoy in just 30 minutes.
Serve this tasty orange sauce with chicken, duck, fish, or pork! Your family will love it.
What Is Orange Sauce?
This orange sauce is made with fresh orange juice and zest, soy sauce, vinegar, brown sugar, and garlic. Cornstarch is added as a thickener. It has both sweet and tangy flavors that pair especially well with chicken, fish, pork, and stir fries. You can also serve this orange sauce as a dip for spring rolls, chicken fingers, or breaded fish.
Ingredients You’ll Need
- orange
- soy sauce
- rice vinegar
- brown sugar
- garlic
- cornstarch mixed with 1 tbsp water
- cooked chicken
(Note: Full recipe is at the bottom of the post)
How to Make Orange Chicken Sauce
- Place the orange juice, orange zest, soy sauce, vinegar, brown sugar and garlic in a medium saucepan.
- Heat the mixture over medium heat and bring to a low boil. Carefully taste the mixture and add more soy sauce, sugar, or vinegar to suit your taste.
- Mix the cornstarch and water in a cup to make a slurry and pour into the sauce. Stir constantly until the sauce begins to thicken enough to coat the back of a spoon. This step can take anywhere from about 30 seconds to a few minutes.
- Add fully cooked fried chicken or the meat of your choice and toss to fully coat in the sauce.
What Does Orange Sauce Taste Like?
Orange sauce is deliciously sweet and tangy. It pairs well with savory foods like meat, veggies, and rice.
How to Thicken Orange Sauce?
A slurry of cornstarch and water is added to the orange sauce to make it thicker.
Is Orange Sauce The Same As Sweet And Sour Sauce?
Both sauces are sweet but are not the same. The sweet and sour sauce is typically made with pineapple juice. The orange sauce is made with fresh orange juice and orange zest.
Orange Chicken Sauce Recipe
Ingredients
For the Sauce
- 1 large orange, juice and zest
- 2 tablespoons soy sauce
- ¼ cup rice vinegar , or white vinegar
- ½ cup brown sugar, packed
- 2 large garlic cloves, minced, or 1 tsp garlic powder
- 1 tablespoon cornstarch mixed with 1 tbsp water
For the Chicken
- 1 pound cooked chicken
Instructions
- Place the orange juice, orange zest, soy sauce, vinegar, brown sugar and garlic in a medium saucepan.
- Heat the mixture over medium heat and bring to a low boil. Carefully taste the mixture and add more soy sauce, sugar, or vinegar to suit your taste.
- Mix the cornstarch and water in a cup to make a slurry and pour into the sauce. Stir constantly until the sauce begins to thicken enough to coat the back of a spoon. This step can take anywhere from about 30 seconds to a few minutes.
- Add fully cooked fried chicken or the meat of your choice and toss to fully coat in the sauce.
- Garnish with optional green onions, red pepper flakes, or sesame seeds and serve.
- This recipe makes enough sauce to coat 1 pound of chicken.
Nutrition
Nutrition information provided is an estimate only and will vary based on ingredient brands and cooking methods used.
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Easy to make, no strange ingredients. I had everything in my cupboard and did not have to adjust taste at the end. After eating the meal (I used this as a sauce for noodles, vegetables and chicken mixed together as a stir fry) I think the sugar could be cut back to quarter cup. The kids didn’t complain about it though! Thanks for the recipe!
I am curious about possibly replacing the brown sugar with orange marmalade to sweeten and possibly intensify the orange flavor. What do you think?
I thought this was an absolutely delicious sauce recipe the flavor is so unique.Remarkable job ,bravo.
Best Iโve had. Very good!!!!!
This is the easiest and best tasting orange chicken sauce! I added blood orange juice (from my trees)
And added one tsp of ginger paste plus a small pinch of red pepper flakes along with your ingredients . It was incredible.
Thank you for the recipe.
Great recipe! Served with steamed broccoli & steamed white rice. It was every bit as good as any Chinese takeout I’ve ever had. The only changes I made were a few drops of hot sauce to give it a little heat and I mixed the cornstarch with an additional Tbls of soy sauce instead of water. My go to recipe from now forward! Thank You!