Craving the vibrant, tangy-sweet flavors of your favorite Chinese takeout but prefer the comfort of your own home? Look no further! This incredible recipe for **Takeout-Style Orange Chicken and Broccoli** served over rice brings all the deliciousness of a restaurant meal right to your kitchen, without the fuss or the need to get dressed up.
Savor the Flavor: Homemade Takeout-Style Orange Chicken and Broccoli Recipe
There are those evenings when the irresistible urge for your favorite takeout strikes, yet the thought of leaving the house, battling traffic, or even just putting on ‘outside clothes’ feels like an insurmountable task. If you’ve ever found yourself in this delightful dilemma, yearning for the convenience and taste of takeout without the actual ‘going out’ part, then this **homemade Orange Chicken and Broccoli recipe** is your ultimate culinary solution.
Inspired by the classic Chinese-American dish, this recipe was developed with both flavor and simplicity in mind. We’ve perfected a method to create crispy, tender chicken pieces coated in a luscious, zesty orange sauce, perfectly complemented by vibrant broccoli florets, all served over a bed of fluffy rice. It’s a meal that promises to satisfy those takeout cravings and become a regular favorite in your home cooking repertoire.
Why Choose Homemade Orange Chicken and Broccoli?
Beyond the sheer convenience of staying in your pajamas, making your own **Orange Chicken and Broccoli** offers a myriad of benefits. Firstly, you gain complete control over the ingredients, allowing you to opt for fresher, higher-quality produce and lean chicken breast. This means a healthier meal with fewer preservatives and often less sodium than commercial versions.
Secondly, it’s incredibly cost-effective. A single takeout order for a family can quickly add up, but preparing this dish at home uses readily available ingredients that are generally much more budget-friendly. You’ll often find yourself with generous portions, perfect for leftovers the next day.
Thirdly, and perhaps most importantly for the home chef, is the joy of customization. Want your orange sauce a little spicier? Add an extra dash of hot sauce. Prefer more garlic or ginger? Go ahead! You can adjust the sweetness, the tanginess, and even swap out or add more vegetables to suit your family’s preferences. This level of personalization is something you just can’t get from a restaurant.
This particular recipe came to life through a collaboration with Martha Stewart Living and Success® Rice, and it quickly became a household hit. My husband, John, is an absolute enthusiast for takeout orange chicken, and seeing his delight at enjoying his favorite meal without any fuss on a busy weeknight is truly a “win-win” situation for us both. It means I can kick back in comfy clothes while he still gets his beloved dish.
Crafting the Perfect Crispy Orange Chicken
The secret to exceptional **homemade orange chicken** lies in achieving that delightful crispy exterior on the chicken pieces, which then gets beautifully coated in the sticky, flavorful sauce. We start with boneless, skinless chicken breast, cut into uniform 1-inch pieces to ensure even cooking. The chicken is first lightly beaten with egg, which acts as a binder for the breading. This is crucial for creating that signature texture.
Next, the chicken is tossed in a mixture of cornstarch, all-purpose flour, salt, and black pepper. This dry coating is what gives the chicken its crispiness when fried. Frying the chicken in small batches in hot vegetable oil at 375°F ensures each piece gets golden brown and perfectly cooked through without overcrowding the pan and lowering the oil temperature. Once fried, they’re briefly rested on paper towels to drain any excess oil, leaving them perfectly primed for the sauce.
The Zesty Orange Sauce: A Flavor Powerhouse
What truly defines **orange chicken** is its vibrant, sweet-and-sour sauce. Our recipe utilizes orange marmalade as the base, providing a delightful citrusy sweetness that is both authentic and incredibly easy to work with. White vinegar adds the necessary tang, balancing the sweetness, while a touch of Asian hot sauce introduces a subtle kick. Ground ginger brings a warm, aromatic depth, and soy sauce contributes umami and savory notes, rounding out the flavor profile.
This sauce is prepared by simply combining all ingredients in a bowl and mixing until well blended. It’s then ready to be tossed with the freshly fried chicken and steamed broccoli, creating a cohesive and mouthwatering dish that’s bursting with flavor.
The Perfect Accompaniment: Broccoli and Rice
No **Takeout-Style Orange Chicken** meal is complete without its traditional sidekicks: crisp-tender broccoli and perfectly cooked rice. Broccoli florets add a fantastic nutritional boost, vibrant color, and a pleasant textural contrast to the chicken. Using frozen broccoli makes preparation incredibly simple – just steam it according to package directions, and it’s ready to be incorporated into the dish.
For the base, Success® Brown Rice was initially recommended, offering a wholesome and nutty complement to the rich chicken and sauce. However, feel free to use your preferred variety of rice – Success® also offers white rice, jasmine rice, and basmati rice, each bringing its own unique aroma and texture. The key is to prepare the rice according to its package instructions to ensure it’s fluffy and perfectly cooked to soak up every last drop of that delicious orange sauce.
Elevate Your At-Home Dining Experience
Even when enjoying a relaxed, cozy meal at home, there’s no reason not to make it a little special. During the development of this recipe, we experimented with some charming decorative touches inspired by Martha Stewart Crafts. Creating Chinese-themed envelope place settings added a wonderfully festive and personal touch to our dinner table. These were surprisingly easy to make and transformed a simple weeknight meal into a memorable “date night at home.”
Chinese Envelope Place Settings: A Touch of Elegance
Materials:
- Chinese character rubber stamp
- Martha Stewart Crafts gold ink pad (or similar gold ink)
- Red envelopes
- Napkins
- Patterned paper (optional, for backing the envelope)
- Martha Stewart Crafts Gold cord (or similar decorative string)
Directions:
- Using gold ink, stamp Chinese characters onto the front of your red envelopes.
- Optionally, fill your envelope with a small treat, a piece of wisdom, or a love note for your dining companion.
- Wrap the envelope around a napkin, securing it with gold thread.
- Tie the thread neatly at the back and place the decorated napkin on each plate.
These small details can significantly enhance the dining experience, proving that “takeout at home” doesn’t have to mean sacrificing style. The joy of creating these little elements added another layer of fun to our meal preparation.
Perfect for Meal Prep and Delicious Leftovers
One of the many advantages of this **Orange Chicken and Broccoli recipe** is how wonderfully it holds up as leftovers. We often make a slightly larger batch specifically so my husband, John, can take it for lunch the next day. To continue the “takeout at home” theme, we even repurposed actual takeout containers, sprucing them up a bit to make them cute and functional for refrigeration and transport.
These portioned meals looked adorable in the fridge and made grabbing lunch on the go incredibly easy. It’s another brilliant “win-win” – a delightful dinner one night and a convenient, delicious lunch the next, proving that homemade doesn’t just mean fresh, but also incredibly practical for busy lifestyles.
Tips for Success with Your Homemade Orange Chicken
- Even Chicken Pieces: Cutting your chicken into uniform 1-inch pieces ensures that all the chicken cooks at the same rate, preventing some pieces from being overcooked while others are undercooked.
- Don’t Overcrowd the Pan: When frying the chicken, work in small batches. Overcrowding the pan will lower the oil temperature, leading to greasy, less crispy chicken.
- Drain Excess Oil: Always place fried chicken on a paper towel-lined plate or a wire rack set over paper towels to drain any excess oil. This helps maintain crispiness.
- Adjust Sauce to Taste: Taste the orange sauce before tossing the chicken and broccoli. Feel free to adjust the amount of hot sauce for spice, vinegar for tang, or marmalade for sweetness to perfectly suit your palate.
- Fresh vs. Frozen Broccoli: While frozen broccoli is convenient, fresh broccoli can also be used. Just steam or blanch it until tender-crisp before adding to the dish.
- Rice Variety: Experiment with different types of rice. Jasmine rice offers a fragrant, slightly sticky texture, while brown rice provides more fiber and a nuttier flavor.
Explore More Great Dinner Recipes
If you loved making this **Takeout-Style Orange Chicken and Broccoli**, you’ll surely enjoy exploring other fantastic dinner ideas. Here are some of our top recommendations for satisfying meals:
- Copycat Cracker Barrel Chicken and Broccoli
- Copycat KFC Famous Bowl
- Homemade Olive Garden Alfredo Sauce
- Crispy Air Fryer Popcorn Chicken
- Cracker Barrel Chicken and Dumplings Recipe
- Hearty Tex Mex Velveeta Shells and Cheese
For more culinary inspiration, don’t forget to check out our extensive collection of copycat recipes, delightful dessert recipes, and convenient CrockPot Recipes. Follow Tammilee Tips on Facebook, Instagram, and Pinterest for daily recipe updates and culinary adventures!
Take-Out Style Orange Chicken and Broccoli Recipe
How to make delicious Take-Out Style Orange Chicken and Broccoli Recipe served over rice at home.
15
minutes
25
minutes
40
minutes
4
465
kcal
Tammilee Tips
Ingredients
-
2
bags
Success® Brown Rice
-
1
cup
Orange Marmalade
-
1
Tablespoon
white vinegar -
1
teaspoon
Asian hot sauce
-
1
teaspoon
ground ginger
-
2
Tablespoon
soy sauce
-
10
oz
broccoli florets
(frozen) -
1
pound
Chicken Breast
(boneless, skinless, cut into 1 inch pieces) -
1
egg
(lightly beaten) -
½
cup
Cornstarch
-
¼
cup
All Purpose Flour
-
1
teaspoon
Salt
-
¼
teaspoon
Black Pepper
- vegetable oil for frying
Instructions
- Prepare Brown Rice according to the package directions.
- In a medium bowl, combine orange marmalade, white vinegar, hot sauce, ginger, and soy sauce. Mix together and set aside.
- Prepare broccoli according to package instructions and set aside.
- In a small bowl, combine chicken pieces and egg, coating thoroughly.
- In a new small bowl, combine cornstarch, flour, salt, and pepper and mix together.
- Coat pieces of chicken evenly in the cornstarch mixture.
- Heat 1 inch of vegetable oil in a 4-quart saucepan to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C).
- Fry chicken in small batches until golden brown on all sides and cooked through.
- Remove chicken from the oil and place on a paper towel-lined plate to drain excess oil.
- In a large bowl, toss the fried chicken and cooked broccoli with the marmalade mixture until thoroughly coated.
- Serve immediately over hot, prepared rice.
Kitchen Tools
- Saucepan
- Large Mixing Bowls
- Whisk or Spoon
- Meat Thermometer (optional, for oil temperature)
Nutrition
Calories from Fat 36
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This recipe was originally shared on September 15, 2016, and updated on March 26, 2020, to ensure it remains a timeless favorite.