Air Fryer Orange Chicken

This amazing, healthy air fryer orange chicken is made by coating crispy chicken bites with a sticky orange glaze. You'll never want to order the takeaway version again!

Jump to:

• 🥘 Ingredients
• 🔪 Instructions
• 🐓 Orange chicken
• 💭 Top tips
• 🥗 Serving suggestions
• 📖 Variations
• 🍲 Leftovers
• 🍴 You might also like these recipes..
• 📋 Frequently asked questions
• Recipe

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Orange chicken has always been one of my favorite takeaway dishes. It's easy, it's simple, and it's delicious. After having discovered the magic of the air fryer (did you check out my healthy air fryer recipes yet?), I decided to try to make my favorite chicken dish - only in a healthy version.

This oil free and sugar free orange chicken tastes great, and it's so easy to make! With this recipe you'll have dinner served in less than 20 minutes.

🥘 Ingredients

You will need chicken breast fillets and cornflour or cornstarch to make the crispy chicken pieces.

To make the orange glaze, you will need orange juice (ideally from oranges), orange zest, soy sauce, rice vinegar, honey and cornflour/cornstarch.

The result of this dish will rely heavily on the sauce. I definitely recommend you use freshly squeezed orange juice, or at least a high quality orange juice for an incredible flavor.

You should also try to find unwaxed oranges, as they have the sweetest and best tasting zest.

🔪 Instructions

Start by preparing the chicken. Dice chicken breast fillets into bite sized pieces. Toss them in cornflour until they are coated in a very thin layer.

Air fry the chicken pieces at 180 °C / 360 °F for about 7-10 minutes, or until the chicken pieces have cooked through completely.

Meanwhile, prepare the orange sauce by combining orange juice, orange zest, soy sauce, rice vinegar and honey in a small sauce pan or pot. Bring it to a simmer on medium heat, and leave it to simmer for 3-4 minutes.

Combine the cornflour with 1-2 tablespoon of the warm orange sauce in a small bowl, and stir until you have creted a lump free mixture. Then, add this to the sauce pan. Stir as the cornflour allows the sauce to thicken up to a sticky glaze. Remove the sauce from the heat.

Pour the orange glaze over the air fried chicken pieces, and stir to coat evenly. Serve the hot air fryer orange chicken immediately with your favorite side dishes.

🐓 Orange chicken

Orange chicken is a popular Chinese dish that's found in the US more often than in China. It's typically made by deep frying battered pieces of chicken, and coating them with an orange glaze before serving over rice.

Chicken breast or chicken thigh fillets are most commonly used. Chicken pieces with bones are not suitable for this dish.

In this recipe, we stay true to the flavors of orange chicken, but instead of battering and deep frying the meat, we simply air fry the pieces to a slightly crispy texture. The result is a much healthier, but still delicious meal.

💭 Top tips

Here are my top tips to make the perfect orange chicken:

• Use high quality oranges and orange juice for the best results.
• Be careful not to overcook your chicken. You might find that your air fryer cooks slightly faster or slower than suggested, so keep your eye on it!

🥗 Serving suggestions

This dish is commonly enjoyed as a main course. Here are some of the best side dishes you can serve with it:

Rice: Rice is a popular side to serve with any Chinese dish. Serve it with plain white rice, lemon and garlic rice or Thai coconut rice.

Vegetables: Serve the chicken with Chinese garlic green beans or spicy roasted carrots.

📖 Variations

Here are some of my favorite alternative variations of the dish:

Change of citrus: You can actually make the glaze with any citrus fruit you want, not just orange. Try making it with clementines, kumquat or blood oranges!

Add vegetables: Mix the chicken with steamed or sauteed vegetables such as broccoli or sugar snap peas before coating it with the orange sauce.

Gluten free: This dish will be gluten free as long as you ensure that each ingredient is gluten free approved. Consult the nutritional labels of each ingredient.

🍲 Leftovers

You can store leftover air fried orange chicken in an airtight container in a refrigerator for up to 3 days. You can also freeze the chicken for up to 6 months, however I find that frozen cooked chicken breast pieces tend to be on the dry side.

Leftover chicken and rice can be stored in convenient meal prep containers for easy future meals. Reheat the dish in a microwave until the food is hot throughout, and serve.

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If you love healthy chicken dishes, you should try any of these recipes:

📋 Frequently asked questions

Recipe