Orange chicken is battered, fried thigh meat tossed in a sweet, savory orange glaze. Here the glaze gets its orange and its sugar from ¾ cup of marmalade instead of juice and sugar: simmer the marmalade with a savory base until glossy, fry the chicken, and toss the two in a hot pan. Plan on 50 minutes.
Orange chicken dates only to 1987. NPR credits its invention to chef Andy Kao, then Panda Express' executive chef, who created it at one of the chain's Hawaii locations. He reworked a bone-in chicken dish that customers wanted without the bones, drawing on flavors from Hunan Province. The result is American Chinese food, not a dish from China. Panda's version uses dark meat in a light batter.
NPR also quotes a Panda Express chef saying the sauce depends on oil from orange peels, which juice lacks and marmalade, cooked with its peel, carries.
Where the orange flavor comes from
In a classic sauce, the orange is juice and zest, and the sweetness is granulated sugar. In a marmalade sauce, both arrive together, and the cooked peel brings a slight bitter note that plain sugar never has.
Marmalade in this role is well established. Food Network Kitchen's orange chicken fingers melt marmalade with teriyaki and ginger into a dipping sauce, finished with lemon juice. Allrecipes' 4-ingredient orange chicken is simpler still: 1 cup of marmalade whisked into barbecue sauce and soy and poured over frozen nuggets. The recipe below sits between those and a scratch version: a fresh batter and fry, a savory base built on oyster sauce, and marmalade where the juice and sugar would go.
| Usual ingredient | Swap | What changes | How to adjust |
|---|---|---|---|
| 3 oz (90 ml) orange juice + ½ cup (95 g) sugar | ¾ cup (180 ml) Navel Orange Marmalade | Deeper orange from the peel, a light bitter edge, a thicker sauce | Add ¼ cup (60 ml) water so the sauce coats instead of clumping |
| Orange zest or peel oil | The peel already in the jar | Shreds of peel cling to the chicken | Leave them in; they're part of the point |
| ½ cup (120 ml) oyster sauce | ¼ cup (60 ml) oyster sauce + 2 tbsp soy sauce | A lighter savory base, so the orange leads | Taste; add soy for salt, or vinegar a teaspoon at a time if it's too sweet |
Orange chicken recipe
Adapted from Jet Tila's orange chicken on Food Network, whose batter and frying method this follows, with the sauce reworked around marmalade.
Serves 4 to 6 · 20 min prep · 30 min cooking · 50 min total
Ingredients
For the sauce
- ¾ cup (180 ml) Navel Orange Marmalade, or any orange marmalade you like
- ¼ cup (60 ml) oyster sauce
- 2 tablespoons (30 ml) soy sauce
- 1 tablespoon (15 ml) hoisin sauce
- ¼ cup (60 ml) water
- 3 tablespoons (45 ml) unseasoned rice vinegar
- 1 tablespoon (7 g) cornstarch
- ½ teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes, optional
For the chicken
- 1½ quarts (1.4 L) vegetable oil, for deep frying
- 2 pounds (900 g) boneless, skinless chicken thighs, cut into 1½-inch (4 cm) pieces
- 2½ cups (335 g) tempura flour, divided
- 1 cup (240 ml) cold water
To finish
- 2 tablespoons (30 ml) vegetable oil
- 1½ teaspoons chopped garlic
- 1½ teaspoons minced fresh ginger
- 2–3 scallions, cut into 2-inch (5 cm) lengths
- Steamed rice, for serving
Method
- Stir the cornstarch into the rice vinegar until smooth.
- Put the marmalade, oyster sauce, soy sauce, hoisin, water and pepper flakes in a small saucepan.
- Add the vinegar mixture and set the pan over medium heat.
- Whisk as it comes to a simmer, then keep whisking for about 5 minutes, until the sauce turns glossy and thick. Set the pan aside.
- Bring the frying oil up to 375°F (190°C) in a 4-quart Dutch oven, checking it with a deep-fry thermometer.
- Dry the chicken with paper towels, coat it lightly in 1 cup of the tempura flour, and knock off any loose flour.
- For the batter, whisk the cold water into the rest of the tempura flour (1½ cups). It should pour like pancake batter.
- Working a handful at a time, coat the floured chicken in batter and fry until crisp and golden, 6–8 minutes, and 165°F (74°C) at the center.
- Drain on a rack or paper towels.
- Heat 2 tablespoons of oil in a large skillet or wok over high heat until it just starts to smoke.
- Add the garlic, ginger and fried chicken and stir for about 30 seconds.
- Add the scallions and the sauce and fold for 1–2 minutes, until the chicken is glazed all over.
- Serve at once over rice.
Notes
- Juice and sugar instead: use Jet Tila's original proportions, with ½ cup oyster sauce, ½ cup sugar and 3 oz orange juice in place of the marmalade and the reduced oyster sauce.
- Baking instead of frying: Food Network Kitchen's method coats chicken tenders in egg white and crushed rice cereal, then bakes them on a rack at 425°F (220°C) for 18–20 minutes. Toss those in this sauce instead of frying.
- Temperature: FoodSafety.gov lists 165°F (74°C) as the safe minimum for chicken. Check the largest piece in the first batch with a thermometer.
- Mandarin instead of Navel: our Mandarin Marmalade, mostly Satsuma-type fruit from six small groves around Redlands, is our most aromatic jar and gives a more fragrant glaze. The Navel, which took Silver at the World Marmalade Awards in 2026, tastes of classic orange with honey and warm spice.
- Thickening: both jars contain pectin, so the glaze sets as it cools. Keep the ¼ cup of water in, add a spoonful more if it tightens before the chicken goes in, and loosen any leftover sauce with a little water when you warm it again.
Can you use frozen chicken nuggets?
Yes, and an Allrecipes recipe already does. It bakes a 1-pound bag of frozen, fully cooked nuggets at 400°F for 11–13 minutes and tosses them in warm marmalade, barbecue sauce and soy. The texture isn't the same as fresh-battered thigh meat, but it gets dinner out in under half an hour, and the marmalade sauce above can stand in for theirs.
Marmalade glazes more than chicken; our holiday marmalade recipes post uses it on a baked ham.
Photo by Claudio Schwarz on Unsplash.
