Orange chicken is a versatile item from American and Chinese cuisine that combines the taste, and health benefits of meat, and fruits at the same place. It is a highly asked-for dish in China and United States. You can find it at almost every restaurant conveniently.

Best Air Fryer Orange Chicken Recipe (Sweetly Salty)

Eating out may not be possible every time for everyone. If you have guests at your home, or even if your kids have asked to make some yummy meal for them, and you want to serve them delicious homemade orange chicken, here is the easiest recipe for doing so. All the ingredients involved are that we commonly have in our kitchen, or can be bought from any grocery store.

How to cook the best air fryer orange chicken

You can cook dinner for four persons with the recipe we are going to share with you. If you have more persons at home, you can increase the ratio of ingredients accordingly. Do not increase the quantity as much as there are leftovers after dinner.

For the recipe, you mainly the chicken breast meat weighing 1-½ Pounds. The meat should be chopped into pieces that may be 1 or 2 inches big in size.

Ingredients

There are two sets of ingredients that you need to arrange before cooking. One of those sets will be used for cooking the chicken while the other is for make orange chicken sauce to be served with the delicious orange chicken. Let’s have a look at what we need for cooking, firstly.

• ½ teaspoon pepper (cracked)
• ½ teaspoon garlic powder
• ½ teaspoon salt
• 2 teaspoons oil (preferably olive oil)

This is all that we need for cooking the chicken, below are the ingredients listed that are required for making the sauce.

• ¼ cup honey
• ¼ cup brown sugar
• ¼ teaspoon ginger (ground)
• ½ teaspoon garlic powder
• 1 tablespoon rice vinegar
• 1 tablespoon cornstarch
• 1 teaspoon red pepper (crushed)
• 1 cup orange juice
• 3 tablespoons soy sauce
• 1 orange zest

We always suggest making a checklist of ingredients when there are several items involved in the cooking process. That helps to prevent a midway interruption as good cooking is dependent on timing and ingredients ratio.

Process

Once you make sure that everything is required there on your kitchen counter, we can move toward the recipe.

The first thing you need to do is to put your chicken in a wide bowl and add salt, and pepper to it. Also, add the garlic powder, and drizzle the olive oil all over. Twist the ingredients with a spoon so that everything is evenly coated all around the chicken.

Before doing that, you could have your air fryer started to preheat. Set the temperature to 380°F and let it preheat for around five minutes.

It’s time to place the chicken inside the air fryer. Do not forget to spray the cooking oil over the basket before setting up the chicken inside.

Make an even layer of chicken in the basket and let the air fryer cook it for about 10 minutes. The temperature will be the same as 380°F. Open the air fryer periodically and keep shaking the basket so that the lower parts of the chicken may also cook equally. There is no need to shake the basket more than twice.

Let’s turn towards the sauce recipe for which you are going to need a saucepan. Add the juice, and garlic powder to the pan. Further, add the honey, brown sugar, red pepper, vinegar, soy sauce, and ginger to it. Stir them with a kitchen tool for a while so that everything is mixed together. In case you do not have the rice vinegar, you can also use the distilled white vinegar. Though, rice vinegar is something that is traditionally used in this recipe.

Use a stove to boil the mixture in the same pan. Once boiled reduce it to a simmering point. Wait for 3 to 5 minutes while simmering. Keep stirring the mixture throughout. On lapsing the time, take the pan away from heat.

Take another small bowl and put two tablespoons of water in it. Add the cornstarch to the water. Mix them well by stirring. Take this slurry to the saucepan and combine the sauce with the cornstarch liquid. Keep whisking until everything is evenly mixed.

Take the saucepan again to heat, and cook it for acquiring your favorite level of thickness. That is something you need to decide according to your taste.

Once the chicken is cooked in the air fryer, take it out and toss it in the sauce so that it is coated according to your choice. Here is the orange chicken ready for serving.

Serving

If you like to garnish the dinner plates before serving, you can use sesame seeds to garnish your orange chicken. Also, the green onions are added thereto, in the chopped form.

You can make the broccoli side dish for serving with the orange chicken. Similarly, the sweet potatoes side serving may also grace your dinner plate the yummy orange chicken. Another great idea is to make roasted Brussel sprouts for enhancing the flavor of your dinner.

Health Benefits

Amazingly, the air fryer orange chicken contains the goodness of fresh orange as well as it offers you the strength and health benefits of white meat at a single point. Besides the awesome flavor of the wonderful combination of meat and fruit, you receive several vitamins, minerals, and other nutrients with this amazing dish.

The nutrition chart for the recipe we have presented for your interest, says that it contains approximately 590 calories along with 45 grams of carbohydrates. It further offers you 2 grams of fiber and a reasonable amount of protein near 43 grams.

Possible Health Risks

The very possible risk of eating the orange chicken with our specified recipe is that the orange chicken may be slightly acidic for people with a sensitive stomachs. They may feel little burning by the sauce intake.

Final Thoughts

Through the repeated phases of covid-19, you have a chance to try all the restaurant foods at home on your own. Try the simplest recipe presented above to enjoy the yummy air fryer-cooked orange chicken with your family and friends.