What started out as a mere addition to the Panda Express menu went on to become a food phenomenon, as restaurants and grocery chains around the world now offer their own version of the dish, with some rivaling the popularity of the original. So I decided to sample three of the most popular orange-chicken takes on the market from Trader Joe's, Panda Express, and P. Chang's to see which was best.
Read on to find out how the store-bought, fast-food, and upscale orange-chicken options all stacked up. You can find Trader Joe's Mandarin orange chicken in the store's freezer section. Savanna Swain-Wilson for Insider. After trying it for the first time last year , I also became a dedicated member of that fan club.
But the most obvious difference between Trader Joe's orange chicken and its taste-test competitors is it's the only one that requires any actual cooking.
In some ways that is a drawback but in others it's a plus, as you can add as little or as much sauce to the chicken as you want and choose to fry or oven-bake the dish. Trader Joe's orange chicken seemed to have the thickest breading. Once the Trader Joe's orange chicken was prepared, I couldn't even tell I'd cooked it from frozen.
From bite-sized crisps to chewy mouthfuls, the fried-chicken pieces came in varying sizes, so no two scoops were identical. The breading on this chicken's exterior was much thicker than most restaurant versions, which I found gave every bite a satisfying crunch.
Plus the meat was still surprisingly soft even after being cooked under the dry heat of the oven. The sauce that comes with the dish is much thinner than some others, so much so that it's more like a glaze. To combine the components, I used a shallow mixing bowl, which left each piece nicely coated. Good orange chicken is mostly defined by its sauce, which is why Panda Express' balanced mix of sweet, tangy, and savory remains unmatched. And although it wasn't identical, Trader Joe's orange-chicken glaze came close to mimicking the iconic combo.
Flavor-wise, the grocery chain's sauce is much much less spicy than Panda Express', but it still had a nice, even blend of tangy orange flavor and a sweetness that didn't taste syrupy or artificial. It leaned slightly more to the acidic side, which nicely cut down the sugar and created a wonderfully balanced dish.
The Panda Express chicken came in a red box. According to NPR, Panda Express is believed to have invented this popular dish in the s when a chef at one of the chain's Hawaii locations experimented with creating a spin on General Tso's chicken. I've eaten this restaurant's orange chicken for as long as I can remember.
Affordable, tasty, and consistent, it's pretty difficult to beat as far as fast-food dishes go. At a glance, the order looks pretty unassuming — it's essentially bite-sized morsels of fried dark-meat chicken coated in a sticky, tangy orange sauce with no vegetables anywhere in sight. And served in the signature red takeout box, it is a simple, no-frills option that's pretty much designed for convenient eating.
But don't let presentation fool you — this orange chicken hit all the right notes of a perfect takeout meal. Thick enough to cling well to every piece but not so syrupy that you have to scoop it up with a fork, this sauce balanced honeyed sweetness and tang just right.
Love the color, I bet super tasty. Happy Thanksgiving. This looks delicious! Glad to know how easy it is to make from home! Every recipe from this book sounds so flavorful and delish.
I love this one too…might have to run to the freezer and take out some chicken! Skip to primary navigation Skip to header navigation Skip to privacy navigation Skip to recipe navigation Skip to travel navigation Skip to main content Skip to primary sidebar about Travel and Foodie Adventures contact.
Join my Free Recipe Club. Looking for more free recipes? Print Recipe. Pin Recipe. Description Better than take-out, this Orange Chicken Recipe is easy to make at home. Mix until combined. Add the chicken and stir until the chicken is completely coated. Place a cooling rack on a baking sheet and set aside.
Pour about 2 inches of vegetable oil into a heavy skillet. Heat over medium-high heat. Cook for about minutes, then turn the chicken to cook on the second side. Fry until the chicken is cooked through. Once cooked, transfer the chicken to the baking sheet and place in the oven to keep it warm while you cook the rest of the chicken. Working in batches, cook the remaining chicken. While the chicken is cooking, make the sauce.
Thickening that sauce with a little cornstarch makes it better. All recipes ask for orange in some form — juice, zest, dried peel, or a combination thereof. Oh, and Tso was statesman in the Qing Dynasty who had nothing to do with this chicken. Some guy just named it after him. Also: Sesame chicken is pretty similar too, with the addition of … wait for it … sesame seeds.
Sweet and sour chicken? Some call for no breading and deep-frying and instead, pan-frying. The sauce could use a lot of sugar, apple cider vinegar, and ketchup along with the standard soy sauce, like our Sweet and Sour Sauce recipe , which you can also use on pork, tofu, and as a dipping sauce for egg rolls and wontons.
Other sweet-and-sour chicken recipes ask for pineapple, bell peppers, and stick with rice vinegar for the tangy bite. Panda Express Orange Chicken Copycat. Likely the most orangey of our orange-chicken recipes, this recipe has the juice from six oranges and the zest from two, complemented nicely by the tartness of Dijon mustard and whole-grain mustard.
A half cup of orange juice and honey sweeten up these thighs, but then thyme, shallot, and garlic cut through any attempt at being cloying. The cumin in the carrot puree helps too. Kimberly of The Daring Gourmet marinates her chicken chunks in the soy sauce, egg, and rice wine or dry sherry before giving it the cornstarch treatment.
0コメント