Easy Recipes for Orange Chicken

Orange chicken is not a traditional Chinese dish; it isn’t even a direct translation of a Chinese dish. However, it is delicious and uses Chinese flavors like sweet citrus and savory, sweet, and spice. You can make easy recipes for orange chicken at home to skip the takeout bill.

Skip ordering takeout and make any of these easy recipes for orange chicken at home! They are full of flavor and easy to make. That’s right, orange chicken is not a traditional Chinese dish or even a translation of an original.

In fact, orange chicken was invented by Panda Express executive chef Andy Kao. The dish is similar to a dish in Hunan province. However, the only similarities are that chicken breast and citrus fruit are involved.

The goal was to create a dish that would appeal to American tastes, and it definitely succeeded. However, Panda Express isn’t the only place to enjoy orange chicken flavors. You can make orange chicken at home, which isn’t very difficult.

The chicken pieces are essentially fried and then covered in an orange zest sauce that can be served with brown rice, white rice, or even jasmine rice. The orange chicken sauce is made up of orange juice, soy sauce, ginger, cornstarch, and seasonings.

The combination makes for a sweet orange sauce that will make for an easy meal the whole family will love. However, we haven’t even gotten to the best part yet. You can make orange chicken in a frying pan, crock pot, Instant Pot, or even an air fryer!

A recipe that can be cooked in pretty much any cooking method is definitely one you want to save. They make for easy dinners that don’t require a lot of work.

​Easy Recipes for Orange Chicken

The most common way to make orange chicken is in a frying pan. There are quite a few steps to even the most basic fried orange chicken recipe. Still, it is very simple to make homemade orange chicken the original way.

You can even decide if you want the pieces of chicken breaded or not. Breading would require dipping the pieces of chicken into an egg mixture, then a corn starch and flour mixture, and then frying.

That is why there are multiple steps, but anyone can dip chicken pieces in egg, then flour and fry them. There are other ways to get that crispy bite, such as in this easy orange chicken recipe.

This is not a quick meal when fried like this. However, we can make this popular takeout dish a lot easier with the help of some modern kitchen appliances.

Instant Pot Orange Chicken Recipes

Making your own orange chicken at home can take some time. It is an easy recipe, but the multiple steps do take a bit to complete. Luckily, the orange flavor is closer than you may think with the help of an Instant Pot.

Instant Pots are one of our favorite things because they cut the total cook time down in many different recipes. We can make easy dinner recipes all day long in an Instant Pot. Want the traditional crispy orange chicken recipe? No problem.

Instant Pots cook things by combining pressure, heat, and steam. That is how things come out quickly and moist every time. In fact, many people enjoy using the Instant Pot to make orange chicken because it utilizes orange marmalade perfectly.

This orange chicken recipe with marmalade will make you a believer. Another benefit of using an Instant Pot is that you can toss some Chinese food together without using a whole lot of ingredients.

Chinese orange chicken doesn’t need to be difficult, not with easy chicken recipes like these.

Crock Pot Orange Chicken Recipes

​Easy recipes for orange chicken can be fast, like in the Instant Pot. However, we can slow things down for the planners out there. Coming home to deliciously golden brown chicken covered in a tangy orange sauce would be amazing.

We can do that with a crock pot orange chicken recipe. Slow cookers basically give us a way to oven-cook things over a long period of time without having to worry about the house burning down while we’re away.

We can time things right and start a recipe just before running errands and then coming home to a meal ready to serve. Some orange chicken crock pot recipes don’t require much time, though.

This is why a little bit of planning might be required. We can toss the sauce ingredients together and then get the crock pot started. However, you will want to use a crock pot with an auto-warming setting that stops the cooking process on time and then switches to a warming feature.

Get the easy orange chicken slow cooker recipe started while you prepare fresh cauliflower rice or run an errand or two.

Air Fryer Orange Chicken Recipes

The last method to make orange chicken might just be the best method. Chinese restaurants may not be using an air fryer, but we can absolutely utilize it at home to get similar results quicker.

The easiest recipe for deep frying without the mess will always be in an air fryer, like in this air fryer orange chicken recipe. Air fryers use a mixture of hot air and steam to cook crispy chicken. This is why it is the best of both worlds.

You can get chicken nuggets as crispy as you’d like and then cover them in a tangy sauce to enjoy. This quick orange chicken recipe takes only 12 minutes to cook! Imagine deciding to make orange chicken and then having it ready to go in under half an hour.

Talk about an easy dinner. You may even start to feel like a Chinese chef at a Panda Express with how quickly you toss together a healthy orange chicken recipe.

More Instant Pot Recipes

Instant Pot Goulash Recipe with Beef | Instant Pots aren’t just good at making orange chicken; you can also make an amazing goulash that is filled with flavor.

Instant Pot Chicken Pot Pie Casserole | Take the heat out of a fresh chicken pot pie and get straight to enjoying the food with an Instant Pot chicken pot pie casserole recipe.

How to Make a Whole Chicken in the Instant Pot | Did you know that you can cook an entire chicken in your Instant Pot? This recipe proves it can be done and done well.

Easy Instant Pot Bread Recipes | Bread! You can make bread in an Instant Pot! There is nothing like freshly made bread, especially when you make it at home.

Delicious and Easy Instant Pot Meatloaf Recipes | Instant Pot meatloaf makes a recipe that is already super easy and makes it even easier to make with better results.