TikTokers Are Making Orange Chicken That Rivals Your Go-To Panda Express Order - Elite Daily

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TikTokers Are Making Orange Chicken That Rivals Your Go-To Panda Express Order - Elite Daily


TikTokers Are Making Orange Chicken That Rivals Your Go-To Panda Express Order - Elite Daily

Posted: 13 May 2021 02:26 PM PDT

Orange chicken is a zesty and delicious comfort food that you could eat whenever. No one makes it quite like Panda Express, but TikTokers are trying with their own copycat recipes. As a home chef yourself, you've got to check out the orange chicken recipes on TikTok that are trending right now. Each recipe is a little different depending on what ingredients are used, but the end result is always something tasty that can be served with fried rice, chow mein, or your favorite veggies.

Orange you glad you live in a time when you can just scroll through the #OrangeChicken tag on TikTok to find tons of easy-to-follow tutorials? It really is the best time to perfect your cooking skills in the kitchen. You could even plan a cute date night at home with your partner where you make orange chicken together. All you need to do is pick one of these eight TikTok orange chicken recipes to follow. There are recipes that are supposed to taste just like Panda Express and some that are keto-friendly. If you can't decide on just one, try them all. After all, you really could eat orange chicken every day of the week if you could.

1. Copycat Panda Express Orange Chicken

TikTok

TikToker Hajar Larbah (@moribyan) knows just how much the orange chicken "hits" at Panda Express, and this copycat recipe is supposed to taste "even better." In this video, @moribyan not only shows you how to make a homemade version of Panda Express' famous orange chicken, but provides some helpful tips along the way. For instance, if you want an extra citrusy taste, add in some orange zest.

2. Really Crispy Orange Chicken

This recipe from TikToker @jasmineandtea is also inspired by Panda Express. However, @jasmineandtea spills the real tea on how to get super crispy orange chicken. You just need to double fry it before coating your chicken in the orange sauce.

3. Grilled Orange Chicken

Not really feeling like fried chicken? Make yourself some grilled orange chicken instead. This recipe from TikToker @acallahan85 shows you just how to make orange chicken without frying it first. It'll save you time and take less ingredients to make.

4. Keto Orange Chicken

If you're looking for a keto-friendly orange chicken recipe, look no further. This tutorial from TikToker @lowcarblove gives you step-by-step instructions on how to make keto orange chicken. It cuts out the starches like corn starch and flour that you would normally use to make the breading, and uses protein powder instead.

5. Orange Marmalade Chicken

TikTok

6. Panko-Crusted Orange Chicken

Switch it up with some panko-crusted orange chicken. TikToker @cookwithmariyah coats the cut up chicken in panko bread crumbs before frying. This will just give your orange chicken a different texture, but same delicious taste.

7. Flavorful Orange Chicken

It's all about the flavors in this recipe from TikToker @chefjwett. Before frying, @chefjwett coats the chicken in ingredients like spicy brown mustard, lemon, and soy sauce. That would make delicious fried chicken on its own, but by adding the orange sauce on top, you get a delicious orange chicken dish with tons of flavors.

8. Food Court-Inspired Orange Chicken

There's just something about orange chicken from a mall food court that takes you back. It's delicious and full of nostalgia, which is exactly what you'll get with this recipe from TikToker @iankewks. This recipe is also super easy to follow, and will give you the best food court-inspired orange chicken you've ever had in no time.

Ina Garten's Delicious Barefoot Contessa Chicken Recipe Is an 'Easy' Weeknight Dinner 'But Special Enough for Company' - Showbiz Cheat Sheet

Posted: 13 May 2021 03:38 PM PDT

Ina Garten has a variety of foolproof chicken recipes that make quick weeknight meals but she says her chicken with shallots recipe really checks all the boxes. It's an easy recipe but it's "special enough for company" so you can put it on your dinner party menu.

Ina Garten poses with one of her cookbooks in 2018
Ina Garten | Noam Galai/Getty Images for NYCWFF

Ina Garten's chicken with shallots recipe is an easy meal

While demonstrating the chicken with shallots recipe on her Barefoot Contessa cooking show, Garten explained that it's "easy but special enough for company."

The recipe only has a handful of ingredients and doesn't require much prep time but is full of flavor. Garten begins by patting the skin-on chicken breasts so they brown better. Then she seasons the chicken with salt and pepper before adding them, skin side down, to a cast-iron skillet with olive oil.

Garten explains that she asked the butcher to remove the bone from the breasts "because it's just a little more elegant — it's really the same chicken as on the bone but just think of how much better it looks."

"I love this chicken because it has a sauce that has cream and shallots and lemon," Garten added. "It's just great flavor with the chicken. It's so easy."

She cooks the chicken for 5 minutes without moving it so that it sears well. The oven does the rest of the work! Garten flips the chicken over and places the pan in the oven, cooking it at 425 degrees Fahrenheit for 12 to 15 minutes until it's "perfectly cooked and beautifully browned."

The shallot sauce is the star of Ina Garten's chicken recipe

While the chicken is cooking, Garten combines the sauce ingredients — dry white wine, freshly squeezed lemon juice, and shallots. The sauce cooks over medium-high heat for five minutes until it's reduced to two tablespoons. Then she adds heavy cream, salt, pepper, and butter.

Once the chicken is done, Garten plates it and spoons sauce over the top.

"I think everybody needs an arsenal of really easy dinner party dishes when people are coming over at the last minute," she said, adding that the recipe works for "weekday dinners" too.

You can find the full recipe on the Food Network website.

RELATED: Ina Garten Swears By This 1 Ingredient to Give Her Recipes 'an Edge'

Ina Garten's baked lemon chicken is another easy weeknight dinner

Garten's baked lemon chicken recipe is another quick and easy weeknight dinner that the Barefoot Contessa star said she makes often.

While demonstrating how to make the lemon chicken recipe on her  cooking show, Garten shared her first-hand experience with making simple dishes. "One of the most important things I learned running a specialty food store is how to make really simple things that have high impact — lots of flavor," she explained.

"This lemon chicken breast that I make all the time for dinner is exactly that," she added.

The recipe is perfect when you're short on time because it's quick to prepare and get it in the oven."It's a chicken breast dish that I just throw in the oven and forget about it … and it has so much flavor," Garten explained. "The whole thing takes like five minutes to put together."

I tried recreating 3 popular fast-food chicken recipes in my air fryer, and 1 was better than the original - Yahoo News

Posted: 12 May 2021 07:42 AM PDT

chick fil a air fryer thumb
I tested out some copycat recipes. Irene Jiang / Business Insider; Lucien Formichella for Insider

Ever since I got my air fryer, I've loved experimenting with different recipes, from crispy bacon to perfectly browned brussels sprouts.

But the thing I love making the most in my air fryer is chicken.

I wondered if my beloved countertop appliance could go head-to-head with a fast-food deep fryer, though, because keeping the food moist enough for the batter to stick is a tall order

After scrupulous research, I found three fast-food-inspired recipes that seemed promising - replicas of fried chicken from Popeyes, Chick-fil-A, and KFC - and decided to put them to the test in my air fryer.

Here's how each turned out:

Popeyes is my favorite chicken chain, so I wasn't confident that I could recreate the recipe

popeyes air fryer recipe 1
I started by marinating the chicken. Lucien Formichella for Insider

Popeyes is far and above my favorite of these three chains, which made me feel like it might be the worst replica recipe.

Actually, I kind of hoped it was. I'm not sure what I'd do if I knew I could make Popeyes chicken any time I want.

The first few steps were pretty simple

I started by cutting this recipe from the cooking blog Restless Chipotle in half. As great as Popeyes is, I don't need to eat for six. I also cut the chicken along a diagonal to get that classic tender look.

Next, I combined the buttermilk with the Louisiana hot sauce and put the mixture and chicken into a sealable plastic bag to marinate for 30 minutes.

popeyes air fryer recipe 2
The flour-and-spice mixture was fairly simple. Lucien Formichella for Insider

While the chicken was marinating, I prepared the dry component of the dredge (the batter) by combining all-purpose flour, smoked paprika, salt, and chipotle chile powder.

popeyes fried chicken recipe 3
Dredging the chicken involved dipping it in an egg mixture and the flour mixture. Lucien Formichella for Insider

The dredging process itself went well, though I definitely should've made more.

It was relaxing to drop the chicken into the flour mixture, then the eggs, then back in the flour.

I didn't trust the cooking instructions, and my strips ended up burning

popeyes air fryer fried chicken recipe 4
I popped the strips in my air fryer. Lucien Formichella for Insider

After putting the chicken in the air fryer, I genuinely wondered how the tenders were going to turn out because Popeyes chicken has such a distinct flavor.

The air fryer beeped after 10 minutes, and they looked pretty good, though not quite like the golden tenders I'm used to.

If I was going by my own recipe, this is when I'd take them out. But I stuck to the instructions and flipped the strips, adding a dash more oil to the fresh side.

popeyes air fryer fried chicken recipe 5
I was tempted to pull the strips out early, and I wish I did. Lucien Formichella for Insider

The fryer beeped again, and I opened it to find some very burnt chicken strips that didn't look much like Popeyes. I decided this couldn't be how it ends, so I made more dredge and resolved to cut down the cooking time.

I also decided to dip the strips in the egg first, then the flour, before dropping them in the basket for 15 minutes.

My second batch ended up better than the first, but nothing beats the chain's product

popeyes air fryer fried chicken recipe
The strips got a little burnt. Lucien Formichella for Insider

First I tasted the original (burnt) batch. The finished product wasn't bad, though it was too salty and had too much flour.

That said, the smokey chipotle and paprika were fantastic. There's a good recipe in here somewhere, but I need to do some experimentation to find it.

I expected these to be much drier than they ended up being. This marinade really did wonders.

At the 10-minute mark, I checked my second batch of tenders, and they were perfectly done.

popeyes chicken test
I tested my batches against real Popeyes chicken. Lucien Formichella for Insider

Upon a thorough taste test, I determined the single-dredge, 10-minute tenders were the best of the bunch.

They weren't burnt to a crisp or dry, and they still contained that delicious chipotle-and-smoked paprika flavor. There was too much salt, but that's a fixable problem.

Still, there's no comparison to the deep-fried original. I'd still pick the chain's version any day of the week.

Popeyes tenders just have a better layer of batter without sacrificing any of the juice or crispiness.

The Chick-fil-A recipe seemed more manageable

chick fil a air fryer recipe 1
The Chick-fil-A recipe called for a pickle-juice brine. Lucien Formichella for Insider

Right away, this Chick-fil-A dupe recipe I found on the cooking blog My Forking Life already felt much more manageable and intriguing than the Popeyes-inspired one. All I needed to do to start was cut the chicken and place it in a bag with pickle juice.

The brine smelled excellent, and it seemed like something I'd be willing to make again.

I had much higher hopes for the cooking process, too. The recipe called for 12 minutes at 360 degrees Fahrenheit, followed by two minutes at 400.

The instructions were easy to follow, and I was expecting good results

chick fil a air fryer recipe 2
I assembled the flour mixture for the dredge. Lucien Formichella for Insider

While the chicken was brining for 30 minutes, I whipped up the dredge mixtures.

The dry component was a straightforward combination of all-purpose flour, corn starch, powdered sugar, salt, paprika, black pepper, garlic powder, onion powder.

chick fil a air fryer recipe 3
I made sure to coat each piece nicely. Lucien Formichella for Insider

From there, I dipped the chicken pieces between the flour mixture and the egg mixture until they were well coated.

I was hesitant because the instructions only said to spray the pieces with oil after they're flipped, but I was comforted by the fact that my chicken looked like the pieces in the pictures from the recipe page.

I cranked up the heat on my air fryer and waited.

There were a few sticking issues, but the chicken seemed to crisp up nicely

chick fil a air fryer recipe 4
I was more comfortable with these cooking instructions. Lucien Formichella for Insider

When it was time to flip the chunks after six minutes, a few stuck to the pan.

The next time I make this recipe - and I plan to follow it again - I'll be sure to put more oil on the basket.

chick fil a air fryer recipe 5
Some of the pieces stuck, so I wish I'd gone against the recipe and added oil. Lucien Formichella for Insider

They still looked fantastic and pretty close to Chick-fil-A.

I thought these nuggets were even better than the real deal

chick fil a chicken
My chicken turned out better than the real Chick-fil-A nuggets. Lucien Formichella for Insider

These were delicious and very juicy. The sweetness and tanginess of the pickle juice just threw it over the top.

They clearly aren't deep-fried, but the flour mixture was much better than the Popeyes-inspired recipe.

I loved that there was less salt and that the other seasonings actually worked in concert with the pickle juice, which gave the dish life.

I was pretty delighted with this recipe. It would've been perfect with a bit more oil, and I actually think the finished product was better than the real thing.

The only downside is that you have to eat these nuggets quickly because they started to lose the juiciness that made them so tasty.

I'm not the biggest KFC fan, so I wasn't holding out much hope for this recipe

kfc air fryer recipe 1
I had to soak the chicken in buttermilk for 24 hours. Lucien Formichella for Insider

I saved this recipe from the blog Dine Dream Discover for last because KFC is my least favorite of the three major chicken chains. I just don't like how it makes me feel like a dried-out sponge the next day.

Things got off to a rough start when I realized I needed to soak the drumsticks in buttermilk for up to 24 hours. The recipe definitely lost points in the ease department.

Still, I had hopes that this would be better than traditional KFC.

Once the drumsticks were soaked, it was time to prepare the dredge

kfc air fryer recipe 2
This recipe called for the most spices. Lucien Formichella for Insider

I ended up soaking the chicken in too much buttermilk because I forgot to half the recipe, but I didn't think a little extra would hurt, especially if I shook some off before dredging.

The number of spices felt unnecessary, but I dug into my pantry to look for flour, salt, thyme, basil, oregano, celery salt, black pepper, dried mustard, paprika, garlic salt, ground ginger, and white pepper.

This dish could become expensive if you, like me, have to buy a couple of extra spices. So to save a little money, I decided to utilize Italian seasoning in place of basil and oregano.

Once again, the actual dredging process was pretty easy. But I prepped each 24-hour soaked drumstick a little differently because the recipe wasn't specific about what I should do.

kfc air fryer recipe dipping drumsticks
I dunked each piece a little differently to compare. Lucien Formichella for Insider

I wiped the first one down, which helped to get rid of some of the excess buttermilk that I accidentally added to the recipe.

I left the second precisely as it came out of the bowl, figuring more of the flour mixture would stick to it.

And for the third piece, I patted it down to what felt like a reasonable amount of buttermilk - somewhere between the first two.

I was curious how the 3 versions would compare after frying

kfc recipe in the air fryer
I was skeptical of these cooking instructions. Lucien Formichella for Insider

Instead of using oil to prevent sticking, this recipe called for parchment paper. I've never used parchment paper in the air fryer, which my cutting skills can attest to, and I was extremely wary.

I decided to spray the third drumstick with oil to see if it turned out better after learning from the Chick-fil-A-inspired recipe.

The instructions also said to cook the chicken for 13 minutes on each side at 390 degrees Fahrenheit, which seemed too long, so I took the experimental oiled drumstick out after only 13 minutes to test my theory.

kfc air fryer recipe cooked
I decided to pull one of the drumsticks out after 10 minutes. Lucien Formichella for Insider

As expected, the chicken was fully cooked after 13 minutes. The ones without oil also had a lot of flour showing, which didn't seem good.

I spritzed them with oil and pondered my next move. Do I follow through with the recipe? Or do I save the recipe?

I decided to follow through, wondering if the added time would help the skin stick better.

I wasn't a fan of these drumsticks

kfc chicken
I didn't really like my drumsticks or the real ones from KFC. Lucien Formichella for Insider

I knew the piece I took out early would get cold, so I ate that one first while the others finished cooking. The main issue was that the skin kept falling off the chicken.

The seasoning was OK, but I didn't get much of the ginger flavor I was hoping for. I didn't really get the buttermilk flavor either, though the chicken itself was reasonably smooth.

As of right now, this didn't feel like it was worth the effort.

kfc air fryer recipe taste test
The skin fell right off the meat. Lucien Formichella for Insider

The skin, which fell off, was quite good, but I didn't really get all the flavor I wanted. It was dominated by the paprika.

After trying the others, I concluded the over-battered one turned out best. The buttermilk-soaked drumstick remained pretty juicy, and the skin was less burnt than the others. But I still wouldn't have cooked it quite as long.

The breading also had too much flour. Even though I added oil, it never quite got moist.

I hate to say it, but the real KFC is more enjoyable. The chain puts a lot of pepper in its chicken, which I personally would've liked to do here.

Overall, the Chick-fil-A copycat recipe was the best, and I probably wouldn't make the others again

chick fil a final product air fryer
I'll definitely be making this recipe again. Lucien Formichella for Insider

Of the three, the Chick-fil-A replica recipe was clearly the best. Not only was it the most straightforward, but it was actually even better than the original product.

Popeyes is too good to try and imitate at home, and, for me, trying to copy KFC just isn't worth it.

Read the original article on Insider



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