Popular Chinese Recipes: Orange Chicken, Sesame Chicken, and Sweet N Sour Chicken

Chinese New Year (Spring Festival) is a popular holiday that is celebrated in China at the turn of their calendar. Each year they have a wide variety of festivities and spend quality time with the family. The holiday shifts from year to year, depending on when the lunar calendar falls during January 20th to February 20th. The Chinese calendar is based upon the Chinese Zodiac, which is consists of 12 different animals: rat, ox, tiger, rabbit, dragon, snake, horse, goat, monkey, rooster, dog, and pig.

Many families come together for New Years Dinner so that they can spend time together. This dinner is considered to be the most important meal of the year and it is referred to as the reunion dinner. Families come together to eat dinner and enjoy time together as a family.  Depending on where they live, they have festivities such as setting off fireworks, ancestral worship, dragon dances and a variety of other celebrations.

Today, I wanted to share with you three popular Chinese dishes that you can make at home.

Copy Cat Panda Express Orange Chicken

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Orange chicken is one of my favorite Chinese dishes. To make this dish you will need the following ingredients:

• 2lbs of bonless chicken chopped into bite size pieces
• 1 egg
• 1½ teaspoons of salt
• white pepper
• oil (for frying chicken)
• 1 tablespoon of cornstarch
• ¼ cup of flour
• 1 tablespoon of minced gingerroot
• 1 teaspoon of minced garlic
• ½ teaspoon of crush red chili pepper
• ¼ cup of chopped green onion
• 1 tablespoon of rice wine
• ¼ cup of water
• ½ teaspoon of sesame oil
• Minute Rice

Recipe for Orange Sauce

• 1½ tablespoons of Kikoman soy sauce
• 1½ tablespoons of water
• 5 tablespoons of sugar
• 5 tablespoons of vinegar
• 1 zest of orange

For directions please visit food.com for The Copy Cat Panda Express Orange Chicken.

The Perfect Sesame Chicken

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This is another one of my favorite Chinese dishes. You will need the following ingredients to make this recipe:

• 1 pound of lean chicken breasts cubed
• 2 tablespoons of all-purpose flour
• 2 tablespoons of cornstarch
• ¼ teaspoon of baking soda
• ¼ teaspoon of baking powder
• 2 tablespoons low-sodium Kikoman soy sauce
• 1 tablespoon dry sherry
• 2 tablespoons of water
• 1 teaspoon of vegetable oil
• 1 dash of sesame oil
• 1 cup chicken broth
• 1 cup white sugar
•  2 tablespoons of white distilled vinegar
• 2 tablespoons of dark soy sauce
• 2 tablespoons of sesame oil
• 1 teaspoon of chile paste
• 1 clove of garlic, minced
• ¼ cup cornstarch
• ½ cup of water
• 1 quart of olive oil for frying
• 2 tablespoons of toasted sesame seeds
• Minute Rice

For directions for this recipe: Perfect Sesame Chicken.

Sweet n Sour Chicken

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Enjoy this sweet n sour chicken recipe. You will need the following ingredients:

• 2 tablespoons of vegetable oil
• 2 to 3 boneless chicken breasts sliced into strips
• salt and pepper
• ½ cup of chopped red pepper
• ½ cup of chopped green pepper
• 4 teaspoons of cornstarch
• 4 teaspoons of water
• 1 cup Dole pineapple chunks, drain and save ½ cup of pineapple juice
• 3 tablespoons of light brown sugar
• 3 tablespoons of rice wine vinegar
• ¼ cup of chicken stock
• Minute Rice

For directions to this recipe: Sweet n Sour Chicken

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What is your favorite Chinese Dish?

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