Who needs Chinese takeaway when you have this utterly delicious and easy authentic Chinese meal to toss up in less than 20 minutes?

I have made this dish so many times and am always amazed by how good it is!

Ingredients

Sauce

• 1 ½ cups water
• ½ cup orange juice
• 1/3 cup rice vinegar
• 2 ½ Tbsp soy sauce
• 1 Tbsp grated orange rind
• 1 cup brown sugar
• ½ tsp fresh ginger root, minced
• ½ tsp garlic, minced
• 2 Tbsp chopped green onion (spring onion)
• ¼ tsp ground red pepper
•  3 Tbsp corn-flour
• 2 Tsp water

Chicken

• 4 boneless and skinless chicken breasts cut into 1 cm pieces
• 1 cup flour
• ½ tsp salt
• ¼ tsp white pepper
• 3 Tbsp olive oil

Method

1. Pour the water, orange juice, rice vinegar, and soy sauce into a saucepan and set over medium heat. Stir in the orange zest, brown sugar, ginger, garlic, chopped onion, and red pepper and bring to the boil.

2. Remove from the heat and allow to cool for 15 minutes.

3. Using half of this sauce, marinade the chicken in the fridge for about 2 hours. Mix together the flour, salt and pepper and coat the marinated chicken with this flour mixture.

4. Heat the olive oil in a wok or deep frying pan/skillet over medium heat and brown the chicken. Drain onto paper towel and keep warm.

5. Wipe out the Wok and add the remaining sauce. Bring to the boil and then turn to low heat. Mix together the corn-flour and water and stir into the sauce.  Add the chicken pieces and simmer for about 5 minutes, stirring occasionally.

6. Serve with Basmati rice or Chinese noodles.

Chinese New Year

The Chinese New Year or the Spring Festival is an important time for feasting with family and friends that dates back thousands of years.

Almost every dish has a symbolic meaning or name that sounds like the Chinese characters for fortune, happiness, longevity and prosperity.

The word “tangerine” in Chinese sounds like “luck” and the word “orange” like “wealth” and tangerines and oranges are regarded as symbols of abundance and good fortune. Their wholesome sweetness and golden colour add to the idea of happiness and prosperity as well.

 During the two-week, oranges and tangerines are frequently displayed as decoration and presented as gifts to friends, relatives, and business associates.  Buying the fruit with the leaves intact represents longevity.

It is therefore no wonder that so many Chinese recipes include oranges or tangerines.