Cooking with Colm O'Gorman: Orange and Chilli Chicken
Colm O'Gorman: This Orange and Chilli chicken does that with bells on. Vibrant and bright with bags of flavour, it always makes me smile. It is best served with simple and savoury sides. It is quite sweet, so they are needed to balance out the meal. We always have it with plain boiled rice and stir-fried greens.
It got bright at about 6:30am here this morning, and better yet, it is still bright enough at 6:30pm for me to get out for a run with the dogs at the end of the day. There are no street lights where I live, so once it is dark, a run after work is pretty much impossible. It is one of the things that has made this winter tougher than most, but conversely, it has only added to the joy and anticipation I feel as the days get longer.
Spring has most definitely sprung. The daffodils are on their way up, the trees are budding, and the birds are in full song at dawn and dusk. The gorse is already in bloom along our lane and, as I run past on warmer days, the beautiful coconut fragrance from its blooms only adds to the feeling that we are finally pushing past the cold darker days of winter. I know, I know, we may well have wet and cold days to come, but the shorter days are behind us and things feel much brighter to me at least.
I am already getting excited about what spring and summer will bring. The first Wexford strawberries will be with us by May. I cannot wait to get cooking and baking with them. Pavlovas, scones, salads with feta and walnuts with a little balsamic vinegar and olive oil, and of course strawberries baked in a little balsamic and some sugar as a side dish to fluffy pancakes and crispy bacon for brunch at the weekends. Yum.
Until then though, I will satisfy my cravings by using other fruit to bring a hint of sunshine to our dinner table. This Orange and Chilli chicken does that with bells on. Vibrant and bright with bags of flavour, it always makes me smile. It is best served with simple and savoury sides. It is quite sweet, so they are needed to balance out the meal. We always have it with plain boiled rice and stir-fried greens. Pak choy is always good, or as we had on this occasion, some tender stem broccoli stir-fried with garlic and soy sauce.
To prepare this just wash and trim the ends from the broccoli, before heating a few teaspoons of toasted sesame oil in wok over a high heat. Add a clove or two of garlic, peeled and thinly sliced and the broccoli. Stir-fry for four to five minutes over a high heat, tossing and stirring all the time to avoid the garlic and broccoli burning. Season with a good dash of soy sauce and serve it up straight away. Simple and delicious. Cook this just before you serve up your Orange Chilli Chicken and rice.
If you want to make a healthier version of this meal, do not deep fry the chicken. You will not need the rice wine to marinate the chicken, or the cornflour. Save all the garlic and ginger to add to the pan with the shallots when you get to that stage of the recipe. Instead of deep frying, simply pan fry the chicken in a little sesame oil in the same pan you will use to make the sauce. Once it is browned and cooked through, set it to one side and make the sauce before adding the chicken back at the end to warm it through.
- 4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
- 2 cloves garlic
- 1 tbsp fresh grated ginger
- 2 tbsp rice wine
- 1 tbsp cornflour plus more to dust the chicken before deep frying
- 2 tbsp sesame oil
- 2 shallots
- 1 tsp fish sauce
- 1 red chilli finely chopped
- 500ml orange juice, freshly squeezed if possible
- 250ml chicken stock
- Zest of 1 orange
- 1 tbsp honey
- Sunflower oil to deep fry the chicken
Dice the chicken breasts into 2.5cm chunks. Grate the ginger and garlic, adding half of it to a bowl big enough to marinate the chicken. Add the rice wine and one tablespoon of cornflour and stir well to combine. Add the chicken and stir it to coat the meat well. Let it marinade on your countertop as you prepare the orange and chilli sauce.
Try and use freshly squeezed orange juice for this recipe as it really does give the best flavour. I find I need four to five medium-sized oranges to get 500ml of juice, and I always keep all the pulp in the juice.
Finely chop the shallots and the red chilli. Heat the sesame oil in a pan. Add the shallots, the remaining ginger and garlic and the red chilli to the pan and cook for a few minutes until softened. Now add the orange juice, chicken stock, honey, fish sauce and orange zest. Bring it to a soft boil.
Reduce the sauce down over a medium heat to about half its volume. It will get nice and thick and you will not need to use any cornflour to thicken it up. This will ensure your sauce is full of flavour.
Heat some sunflower in a wok or pan, you want about five to eight centimetres of depth to deep fry the chicken. Heat the oil to 180 Celsius. Roll the chicken pieces in some cornflour to coat them before adding them carefully to the hot oil. Cook them in batches until they are golden brown and crisp, about three to five minutes. Remove them and let them drain on a rack or some kitchen paper.
Blitz the sauce with a stick blender or in a food processor and warm it through in the pan before adding the chicken. Stir it well to coat the chicken pieces in your sauce and serve straight away while the chicken is still nice and crispy.
