Kitchen notes · a little help before you start
Ground Orange Chicken Recipe
Orange chicken with a spoonable ground-chicken filling makes a familiar sweet-and-tangy flavor easy to enjoy. The glossy sauce coats the browned crumbles, with orange zest coming through each bite.
- Prep
- 5 min
- Cook
- 15 min
- Total
- 20 min
- Original yield
- Serves 4
- Ingredients
- 14 listed
Make it part of your week
Recipe categories & planning details
- Meal type
- Dinner
- Primary protein
- Chicken
- Cuisine
- Chinese American · Chinese · Asian
- Preparation & total time
- Prep: 15 minutes or less · Total: 30 minutes or less
A few quick notes
1. Mix sauce before cooking
Combine the sauce ingredients in advance, keeping the starch mixture separate until its final thickening stage in the pan.
2. Let a chicken crust form
Wait for the ground chicken to develop a good crust before breaking it apart and finishing its cook.
3. Stir as the sauce thickens
Once the sauce boils, add the prepared starch mixture and stir through the short final cook until thickened.
Get to know the ingredients
Orange zest
The orange contributes zest to the mixed sauce, rather than orange pieces or juice in the chicken pan.
Minced ginger
Have the ginger minced for its very brief cook with garlic and crushed pepper after the chicken is cooked.
Dissolved cornstarch
Mix the starch with its listed water portion and set aside before starting the chicken, ready to thicken the boiling sauce.
Let’s make it
Choose your servings, then check things off as you go.
Original recipe: Serves 4. Original quantities shown.
Check ingredients as you prepare them. These checks stay on this page.
How to make it
0 of 7 steps completeMake room for Ground Orange Chicken Recipe
Review ingredients in your pantry before anything is added. Meal plans use your household size; grocery-only additions use the servings selected above.
The last little job
Stop once the sauce coats
Stir in the dissolved cornstarch after the orange sauce boils and finish once it thickens around the chicken crumbles.
A little more help as you go
Garlic waits until chicken is cooked
Add the minced garlic with ginger and crushed pepper only after the ground chicken has finished cooking through.
Use a spatula for crumbles
Break the crusted chicken apart with a spatula, then continue cooking the separated pieces before adding aromatics.
A few questions you might have
Do I pour the sauce in with raw chicken?
Cook the ground chicken first, give the aromatics their brief cook, then add the prepared orange sauce and bring to a boil.
Is sesame oil the frying oil?
Sesame oil is mixed into the sauce. The chicken cooks separately in vegetable oil before the sauce is added.
Does the vinegar go in at the end?
White vinegar is part of the sauce mixture made before cooking, added to the chicken with the other sauce ingredients.
When do the crushed pepper flakes go in?
They join minced ginger and garlic after the chicken is cooked, for the brief aromatic stage before adding sauce.
Do I need to stir chicken as soon as it enters the pan?
Let a good crust form first, then break the meat apart and finish cooking before the ginger and garlic go in.
Storage & reheating safety
For cooked, perishable leftovers, refrigerate within 2 hours (1 hour above 90°F), using shallow containers for prompt cooling. Keep the refrigerator at 40°F or below, use refrigerated leftovers within 3–4 days, and reheat hot leftovers to 165°F, checked with a food thermometer. Follow any shorter package limit.
These are general safety limits, not a tested storage or freezing recommendation for this particular dish. USDA leftovers guidance · Safe cooking temperatures
Recipe source: dinnerthendessert.com. Ingredient names and quantities may be adapted for the pantry.
Preparation notes follow the recipe shown here.
