Cheesecake Factory Orange Chicken Copycat Recipe
Ingredients
Scale
- 4 chicken breasts (cut into bite sized pieces)
- Oil for frying (about 2-3 cups)
- 1 cup brown sugar
- 3/4 cup orange juice
- 1/4 cup chicken broth
- 2 tbsp low sodium soy sauce
- 2 tbsp rice wine vinegar
- 2 tbsp lemon juice (fresh squeezed)
- 2 garlic cloves (minced)
- 1 tsp ginger (grated)
- 1/2 tsp red pepper flakes
- Zest from 1 orange (avoid the white part)
- Slurry- 2 tbsp cornstarch + 1 tbsp water
- 1/2 cup cornstarch
- 6 tbsp cornstarch
- 4 tbsp flour
- 7–8 tbsp cold soda water
- 1/4 tsp baking powder
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 2–3 cups vegetable oil
- prepared rice for serving (optional)
- Garnish – orange zest and sliced green onions
Instructions
- Preheat oil to 350 degrees in a fry safe skillet. For best results, use a thermometer to maintain accurate oil temperature. Nearby, place a cooling rack atop of baking sheet as a landing space for cooked chicken.
- Prepare sauce by combining all sauce ingredients into a saucepan (withholding cornstarch slurry). Bring to a simmering boil until sugar dissolves. Combine the cornstarch+water slurry and add to the sauce, whisk to incorporate and simmer until thickened. Keep warm while preparing the chicken.
- Dust Chicken: Place 1/2 cup of cornstarch into a medium bowl and toss chicken chunks in the cornstarch to coat.
- Make cold batter by whisking together flour, salt, cornstarch and baking powder in a separate medium bowl. Pour in about ~7 tablespoons of COLD soda water then whisk just a few times until combined, a few lumps are ok – don’t overmix.
- 1st Fry: dunk a handful of chicken pieces into the batter, turning to coat each piece, place one at a time into the oil. Fry for 3 minutes until light golden brown, remove them and drain on a cooling rack. Repeat with remaining chicken.
- 2nd Fry: bring oil back to temperature (this takes about 5 minutes or so) and again working in batches, add the chicken back into the oil to fry 90 seconds or until medium-golden brown and return to cooling rack to drain excess oil.
- Add handfuls of fully coated chicken into prepared warm sauce, tumbling around quickly to coat, repeating with remaining chicken.
- Serve over a bed of warm rice and top with grated orange peel and diced green onions and a few spoonfuls of extra sauce.