Ground Orange Chicken is made in one pan and only takes 20 minutes using a Panda Express copycat sauce. So much healthier than the original!
Ground Orange Chicken was born in my head one evening about a month ago when we were preparing Korean Ground Beef as we have for years. I had a package of ground chicken and I was about to suggest making Korean Ground Chicken when I thought, “ooooorrrrrrrrrrrrr….” and a whole new world of ideas came flooding into my head. In the last month we’ve made them in four different flavors (which are all coming soon).
This Ground Orange Chicken is amazing because it still has the crisp texture because we brown it well before breaking the chicken apart and it still has that amazing Panda Express Orange Chicken Sauce that we all love. The only thing missing is the deep fat frying. Plus it takes literally 20 minutes to make, and that is at a leisurely pace. Maybe we can start a write in campaign to Panda Express and say hey, make this version for when we want the sauce but not the breading!
Set your rice to cook in the rice cooker, start cooking the chicken, and wash and cut up some broccoli to steam in the microwave (glass bowl, a bit of water and a wet paper towel over the top for 3 minutes). By the time the rice is done cooking, so is dinner.
Want more Chinese Food Recipes?
- Honey Orange Firecracker Shrimp
- Cheesecake Factory Mandarin Cashew Chicken
- PF Chang’s Orange Peel Chicken
- California Pizza Kitchen’s Kung Pao Chicken Spaghetti
- General Tso’s Chicken
- Easy Mongolian Beef
- Panda Express Recipes… every single one in fact: Panda Express Recipes Index
- Many more Chinese food options…
Tools Used in the making of the Ground Orange Chicken:
Wok: Great for high heat, quick cooking. This wok is a great addition to your kitchen if you love cooking Chinese food or stir fries in general.
Large Frying Pan: I use this Cuisinart for most of my non cast iron cooking unless I am going with a stainless steel option, then I choose my All Clad.
Soy Sauce: Nothing much to say here except Kikkoman has the best flavor overall and I always recommend reduced sodium.
Sesame Oil: The flavor of sesame oil in this dish is unmistakeable and not really able to be substituted. Some Asian grocery stores will try and sell less expensive options that aren’t actually sesame oil, so just be sure the one you’re buying is authentic sesame oil.
Rice Wine: Adds an authentic flavor to the sauce, in a pinch if you absolutely can’t find it you can substitute white wine, but it will make it taste slightly different.
Recipe
Ground Orange Chicken
- Yield: 4 servings
- Prep Time: 5 minutes
- Cook Time: 15 minutes
- Total Time: 20 minutes
- Course: Main Course
- Cuisine: Chinese (sort of...)
- Author: Sabrina Snyder
Ingredients
- 1 pound ground chicken
- 1 tablespoons ginger root minced
- 2 teaspoons garlic minced
- 1/4 tsp hot red chili pepper crushed
- 1 tablespoon rice wine
- 2 tablespoons water
- 1/2 teaspoon sesame oil
- 4 teaspoons soy sauce
- 5 tablespoons sugar
- 5 tablespoons white vinegar
- zest of 1/2 orange
- 1 tablespoon water
- 1 tablespoon cornstarch
Instructions
Note: click on times in the instructions to start a kitchen timer while cooking.
- To make the sauce combine the rice wine, 2 tablespoons water, sesame oil, soy sauce, sugar, white vinegar, and orange zest.
- To make the cornstarch mixture, dissolve 1 tablespoon cornstarch in the remaining 1 tablespoon of water and set aside.
- To a large pan add 1 tablespoon oil and ground chicken.
Cook until a good crust forms before breaking apart, then finish cooking by breaking it apart with a spatula and cooking for an additional 2-3 minutes.
Once the chicken is cooked add the ginger, garlic and crushed red pepper and cook for about 10 seconds.
- Add the orange sauce and bring to boil.
- Add the cornstarch mixture to the pan and cook for just a few seconds, stirring until it thickens.
Recipe Video
Nutrition Information
Yield: 4 servings, Amount per serving: 248 calories, Calories: 248g, Carbohydrates: 18g, Protein: 20g, Fat: 9g, Saturated Fat: 2g, Cholesterol: 97mg, Sodium: 405mg, Potassium: 604mg, Sugar: 15g, Vitamin C: 0.5g, Calcium: 10g, Iron: 1.1g
All images and text © for Dinner, then Dessert.
This was an awesome recipe! I would double the sauce recipe next time but other than that, would not change a thing. Thanks for a great recipe!
Next time I will halve the sugar as it was a little too sweet for me. I also made the sauce a few hours ahead of time so that the flavors would have a chance to meld. Delishioso!!
Delicious! Total hit with the family. I used white wine vs rice wine and added much more garlic and ginger. Topped with sliced green onions and paired with fried rice and broccoli. This one will definitely be made again.
Made this last night. Amazing!
This was delicious! We ate it over white rice, roasted onion, zucchini and red pepper. Was so quick and easy to make!
This is ridiculously good.
I thought it would be a healthy-tasting imitation that would make me wish I was eating Panda Express. Instead, it was the exact same flavor without the guilt or the drive to the restaurant 🙂 AND it’s super-fast to boot?? So glad I made this! Thank you!
I love this recipe! Thank you so much for sharing!!
Thank you for a really solid recipe! I made this with double the sauce (as others suggested) with twice the cornstarch slurry to account for the extra liquid. I also used 5 T of Lakanto sweetener instead of the 10 T sugar the larger amount of sauce would have needed. I felt that the Lakanto substituted well and the flavor was good. I will definitely be making this again!
I so wanted to love this recipe but i really disliked it!! Cooking the ground chicken by itself first made it taste like boiled chicken. Adding all the flavor after the chicken was cooked never allowed the flavors to mesh with the chicken. I would marinate the chicken first at the very least. I almost threw it out but then decided to save it as well as I could by dumping all the cooked chicken and sauce in some egg and then tossing it in some flour and putting back in the pan with some oil and doing a quick fry. This added so much flavor and really helped this dish but I would only do that as a fix. Don’t think I’ll be making this again.
I love Panda Express so was very excited to try this recipe! I used ground turkey. The sauce ingredients need to be quadrupled at least. This dish was ok. It’s a nice way to season ground turkey. I’ll try the other recipe that it actually says it’a a Panda Express orange chicken copycat.
If you search the site, I do have a copycat version of Panda Express Orange Chicken if you’d like to try that next time. Enjoy!
So easy and delicious! I omitted the red pepper flaked for fear they might be too spicy for the littles. We made sautéed green beans and cilantro lime rice as sides.
So delicious! I omitted the red pepper flaked for fear they might be too spicy for the littles. 10 out of 10 recommend!
Made this according to directions doubling the recipe and it was perfect. Easy to make and tasted just like take out, but better in my estimation. Thank you for the recipe
Made this tonight for my family- it was delicious. I made a few adaptations as others did to lower the sugar, soy and corn content and increase the orange flavor. I doubled the recipe and made it in my wok.Used the frozen grated ginger cubes from Trader Joes and jar minced garlic. Plenty of flavor- I do prefer using fresh ingredients but was crunched for time. I wasn’t sure about the white vinegar so I used white wine vinegar. Used Coconut aminos instead of soy sauce, honey in place of sugar, potato starch in place of corn starch, the sake ( rice wine) was a great addition( in the recipe) to the sauce. I tasted it before and after I added it. I also quadrupled the sauce. Someone had mentioned that it needed more sauce, so I also added more potato starch, since I had more volume of liquid. At the end I stirred in some chopped green onions and garnished with fresh orange slices that tasted great with it too. So really not big changes at all. I used the Perdue Ground Chicken- which was all that was avail. as opposed to Whole Foods fresh ground- that was the appearance problem- they grind it in strands/ropes. Not very attractive. It looked just like the garlic vegetable fried rice I made. Really weird looking. It’s a keeper! Highly recommend. I don’t eat at Panda Express, but love fresh Asian cooking, as long as it is not in a heavy sauce. Thanks for the recipe.
You’re welcome!
Very good~ added a few left over green onions at end just before serving
I have no rice wine, white wine or even red wine….can i just forego it and add in an extra Tbsp of rice vinegar? Obviously it will change the flavor profile, but would it effect the consistency of the sauce?
That’ll work 🙂
Would this work with ground turkey?
Sure 🙂
I am very excited to try this recipe! I have ground turkey that I need to use – I’m wondering if that would change the flavor profile or the dish too much?
Thank you!
It will change the flavor a bit but will still be delicious!
Wow! Just made this, so delicious ! Didn’t have some ingredients, used olive oil instead of sesame oil, flour instead of cornstarch, red cooking wine instead of rice wine and it was perfect! Definitely a keeper. Thanks!
Delicious!!! It was easy too!! I did use 2 oranges for zest, more crushed red chili, cut sugar in 1/2 , added unsalted peanuts, water chestnuts and at end added cubed oranges to just warm them… So good. Love this recipe because you can add pretty much anything you have in kitchen and it will be terrific. Thank you!!
How in tarnation did you use that much orange…