Air-Fryer Orange Chicken

5 from 4 votes

Air-Fryer Orange Chicken

Healthier air-fryer orange chicken. Crispy chicken coated with luscious thick zingy orangy sauce. Yum! No frying mess or smell in the kitchen, and it's even faster. With my ziploc-shake-coat method, it's even easier to coat the chicken pieces.

Prep Time15

Cook Time25

Total Time40

Servings: people

Author: Bea & Marco

Ingredients

Chicken

1 ½ lb boneless, skinless chicken thighs (675 g), cut into bite-size pieces

Marinade

2 tablespoon less salt soy sauce
½ teaspoon salt
2 teaspoon toasted sesame oil

Coat Mixture

1 cup all-purpose flour (130 g)
1 cup corn starch (130 g)
½ teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon white pepper powder
2 large eggs

Sauce

1 thumb-size ginger , minced
4 garlic cloves , minced
1 ½ cup orange juice (375 ml)
zest of 1 orange
2 tablespoon sugar
1 tablespoon less salt soy sauce
1 tablespoon vinegar
1 tablespoon sriracha

Slurry

1 tablespoon corn starch
1 tablespoon water

Instructions

Marinade

Mix chicken and all of the marinade ingredients in a bowl for minimum of 20 minutes.

Coat Chicken

In a big ziploc bag (4.5-6 liter works great), add all of the coat mixture ingredients, except for eggs, and shake well to mix. Whisk the eggs with some salt in a bowl, set aside.
Put the chicken into the ziploc bag, seal it, and shake well so that each piece is fully coated with the flours mixture. Now put the chicken in the egg mixture, mix everything well with a wooden spoon.
Place the chicken back into the ziploc bag, letting the excess egg mixture off, as you do so. Try not to put them so much on top of each other. Seal the bag, and shake well so the chicken is coated again with the flours mixture.

Air-fry Chicken

Line the air-fryer basket with parchment paper. Lay chicken pieces in a single layer and spray some oil to cover all of the chicken coatings. Air-fry for 8 minutes at 400ºF (200ºC). Flip the chicken, spray again with some oil and continue cooking for another 8 minutes.
You might do this in batches. Place the chicken on a rack meanwhile.

Sauce

Heat a wok with some oil. Add in ginger and garlic, and fry until they're golden brown. Add in the rest of the sauce ingredients. Bring to a boil and cook until the sugar is dissolved.
Make the slurry by mixing the ingredients in a bowl. Add into the wok while stirring, and the sauce will thicken. Continue cooking for a minute.
Finally, add in the chicken and coat each piece well with the sauce. Serve with some rice, sprinkles of sesame seeds, and chopped spring onion. Enjoy!

Notes

Use a big ziploc bag (4.5-6 liter size works great) so that it's easier to shake and coat the chicken pieces well.
Place cooked air-fried chicken on a rack while you continue with the rest of the recipe, to maintain their crispiness.

Nutrition