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Baked orange chicken is sweet, tangy, and coated in the best sticky orange sauce. It has all the flavor of your favorite takeout, but it’s made right at home and baked until the chicken is perfectly tender.
Skip the Takeout, Make This Instead
- Better Than Takeout: The orange sauce is bright, sweet, tangy, and clings to every bite of chicken.
- Pan Fried First: A quick pan fry gives the chicken that golden, crispy coating before it bakes in the sticky orange sauce.
- Family Dinner Win: Serve it over rice with broccoli or steamed veggies, and dinner is done!
Baked Orange Chicken Ingredients
- Chicken: Use boneless skinless chicken thighs if you prefer.
- Oil: Canola or vegetable oil will work!
- Eggs: Whisk the eggs well before dipping the coated chicken.
- Orange Juice and Zest: The combination is a must for maximum orange flavor!
- Sriracha Sauce: This is optional, and it doesn’t make the chicken spicy.
- Cornstarch: Helps to thicken the sauce as it bakes!
How to Make Baked Orange Chicken
This baked orange chicken recipe is the perfect way to get that sweet, sticky, restaurant style flavor right at home. The fresh orange sauce really shines, and every bite tastes like your favorite takeout made even better.
- Prep: Preheat the oven to 325°F and grease a 13 x 9 x 2-inch baking dish. Cut chicken breasts into bite sized pieces and season with saltand pepper.
- Coat in Cornstarch: Add cornstarch to a large Ziploc bag, along with the cut chicken pieces, then toss and shake to coat the chicken well.
- Dip in Egg: In a small bowl, whisk together 3 eggs. Dip each coated chicken piece into the beaten eggs to coat the chicken, then shake off any excess egg. Set aside on a plate while you coat the remaining chicken.
- Pan Fry: Heat canola oil in a large skillet over medium high heat. Cook the chicken until browned. Place the chicken in the prepared baking dish.
- Sauce Ingredients: In a medium bowl, whisk brown sugar, orange juice, low sodium soy sauce, sriracha, white vinegar, apple cider vinegar, garlic salt, grated orange peel, and cornstarch.
- Bake: Pour the sauce over the chicken and bake for 1 hour, stirring the chicken every 15 minutes to coat it in the sauce. Serve baked orange chicken over rice and enjoy!
Must Have Tools For This Recipe
- 9×13 – inch Baking Dish: Gives the chicken room to bake evenly in the sticky orange sauce.
- Mircoplane Zester: Makes it easy to get fresh, bright orange zest.
- Ziplock Bag Storage Holder: Holds the bag open so coating the chicken is cleaner and easier.
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Baked Orange Chicken
This baked orange chicken is crispy, tender, and coated in a sticky sweet orange sauce that tastes even better than takeout.
Ingredients
Chicken
- 3-4 boneless skinless chicken breasts about 2 pounds
- salt and pepper to taste
- 1¼ cups cornstarch
- 3 eggs beaten
- ¼ cup canola oil
Orange Sauce
- ⅔ cup brown sugar
- ⅔ cup orange juice
- ¼ cup low-sodium soy sauce
- 2 teaspoons sriracha optional
- 3 tablespoons white vinegar
- 3 tablespoons apple cider vinegar
- 1 teaspoon garlic salt
- 1 tablespoon grated orange peel
- 1 tablespoon cornstarch
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 325 degrees Fahrenheit and grease a 13 x 9 x 2-inch baking dish. Cut 3-4 boneless skinless chicken breasts into bite-sized pieces and season with salt and pepper.
- Add 1¼ cups cornstarch to a large Ziploc bag, along with the cut chicken pieces. Close the bag and shake to coat the chicken well.
- In a small bowl, whisk together 3 eggs. Dip each coated chicken piece into the beaten eggs to coat the chicken, then shake off any excess egg. Set aside on a plate while you coat the remaining chicken.
- Heat ¼ cup canola oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Cook the chicken until browned. Place the chicken in the prepared baking dish.
- In a medium bowl, whisk ⅔ cup brown sugar, ⅔ cup orange juice, ¼ cup low-sodium soy sauce, 2 teaspoons sriracha, 3 tablespoons white vinegar, 3 tablespoons apple cider vinegar, 1 teaspoon garlic salt, 1 tablespoon grated orange peel, and 1 tablespoon cornstarch.
- Pour the sauce over the chicken and bake for 1 hour, stirring the chicken every 15 minutes to coat the chicken in the sauce. Serve over rice and enjoy!
Notes
Leftover Instructions
- Fridge: Store in an airtight container for up to 5 days.
- Freezer: Store the baked and cooled orange chicken in a freezer-safe airtight container. Freeze up to 3 months! Thaw in the fridge overnight before rewarming.
- Reheat: Reheat portions in the microwave for 1-2 minutes until warm.
Nutrition
Calories: 401kcalCarbohydrates: 53gProtein: 16gFat: 13gSaturated Fat: 2gPolyunsaturated Fat: 3gMonounsaturated Fat: 7gTrans Fat: 0.1gCholesterol: 118mgSodium: 912mgPotassium: 375mgFiber: 0.5gSugar: 26gVitamin A: 197IUVitamin C: 17mgCalcium: 45mgIron: 1mg
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
Tried this recipe?Mention @alyssa_therecipecritic or tag #therecipecritic!
Outstanding Fried Rice. Even my granddaughter liked it
OMG this was delicious!!! My husband couldn’t stop thanking me for making this dish! So THANK YOU THANK YOU!!!! I also made the Kung Pao chicken – AMAZING as well!!!!
I’m so happy you liked it! Thanks for trying it out!!
My family is leery when I try new recipes. But my son and daughter are both fans of Panda Express orange chicken, so I figured I’d try this. I used the ingredients as listed but unfortunately did not have an orange for orange peel! Will definitely make sure I have one next time, and I think I will do as another reviewer said and make extra sauce. (And maybe a tiny bit more sriracha.) I followed one reviewer’s suggestion to coat the chicken in cornstarch using 1 tablespoon at a time in a ziptop bag, and it worked like a charm. I baked for one hour as directed, stirring only once halfway through, and the chicken was not at all overdone. It was saucy and tender and delicious. We did kind of wish for crispier. I’m wondering if next time, I put the sauce in the pan first and then the chicken on top, if it would stay crispy? I served it with fried rice, and there was not one bit left over. Thanks for a great recipe! Can’t wait to try the firecracker and sweet & sour.
Times the sauce by 1.5 since we love sauce over here, and used rice wine vinegar instead of apple cider. Other than that, followed the recipe exactly and it turned out perfectly. Can’t wait to make this again!!
That is great to hear!! I am so glad that you love it so much! XOXO
“Dinner tastes like PF Changs back in the day” per the hubby! Thank you for sharing!
That is too perfect!! I love it! Thanks so much for sharing!! XOXO
didn’t turn out well. ! I don’t taste anything but SOUR! I had to tweak it a lot, to get a good taste. I put ginger, a little bit of honey & sesame oil, made a huge difference.
It was soooooo good, I tweaked the sauce until it got to the rate I wanted and it was great. I want to thank you because my Mom just had surgery on her shoulder and she loves orange chicken, I made it for her and it really lifted her spirits. I’m making it again for her this Friday. Thanks so much?
Delicious! Just for fun, I made 3 different blogger’s orange chicken recipes and yours was voted the all around favorite by my taste testers! I plan to try the Ziploc method to speed things up as the cornstarch/egg process is both messy and time consuming for me. I also would like to steam some veggies and make extra sauce. Thanks for a great recipe for enjoying homemade Chinese restaurant food.
We made this tonight for dinner and it was great!! A little time consuming even with my husband working with me. We are going to try a really large batch and freeze it, then just make the sauce as we need it.
Success! I’ve already shared the link with our daughter!
OPINION/SUGGESTION: How to get chicken crispy by using this recipe. I wanted the chicken to be extra crispy so I kept it on the pan longer, cooked for 30 minutes at the recommended temperature, took out one of the pieces to taste (tasted and felt ready), transferred the chicken pieces to another pan (to leave the sauce behind since I made extra), and broiled in high for 5 minutes and then broiled it in low for another 10. I served the extra sauce on the side and the chicken was nice and crispy and had dipping sauce to add more sauce to taste:) AMAZING! I also cooked the chicken in coconut oil since it is the oil I use. Great recipe! Be sure to monitor your chicken. I think it plays a huge part on how log you brown the chicken for when cooking it in the pan too, and how big the chicken chunks are:) Actual cooking time was less than an hour in the oven because I cooked it longer in the pan too. (I love crispy!)
“I kept in in the pan longer” : As in I browned the chicken longer in the pan with the coconut oil, then cooked it in the oven.
Used 1.16 pounds of chicken breast cut into 1″ cubes and made a full batch of the sauce. Put 1 Tbsp corn starch into a zipper top bag and shook around. Added the chicken and then another 1 Tbsp of corn starch to the bag. Zipped and shook. Added another 1 Tbsp and repeated the shaking. Everything was nicely coated, it only took about 5 minutes for everything (I tried the “dip in the corn starch and egg” method and it took over a half hour to just coat the chicken – NEVER again), and didn’t waste an extra cup of corn starch. I hate food waste! Only needed 1 beaten egg to coat everything too. I used a stainless steel frying pan and the chicken didn’t brown as much as I like, but it did get a bit too dry on the inside. Next time I will make the cubes a bit bigger; probably 1.5″ cubes. After cooking the chicken, I added the sauce straight to the skillet and popped the whole thing in the oven. There was enough sauce to spoon over the rice after it thickened in the oven too; perfect for our little plain rice hater. This combination of methods made much fewer dishes! Everyone liked how it turned out, but I thought it was missing something and I’m not sure what it is.
So proud of myself for making this for dinner tonight (new graduate, trying to learn how to cook lol!) It smelled delicious and had awesome flavor…but the sauce didn’t thicken very much 🙁 Any advice on how to thicken the sauce??
HI! I had the same problem and just added some cornstarch to thicken. I did add it at the end so the cornstarch kinda created some lumps I had to break down so maybe start with adding a teaspoon when you add the dry ingredients in the bowl first:) Good luck!
I’ve made two of these “better than take out” recipes so far, this one and the fried rice and both are on point. Delicious, straightforward, just great.
Can you substitute chicken thighs? That’s what I have on hand, and is like to try this tonight.
Tried this last night and it was amazing!! I used coconut oil instead of canola and it really added a delicious flavor (especially with the yummy orange sauce!). We eat a lot of chicken and sometimes it gets boring…thanks for helping me make things interesting!