Recipe: Orange Sesame Chicken (Chu Tzu Gee - Peking)

Orange Sesame Chicken (Chu Tzu Gee - Peking)
rec.food.cooking/Michael Portuesi

The recipe comes from "Classic Chinese Cooking" by Anna Kao, published
by Pocket Books, NY. I give it high marks if you are interested in
preparing "restaurant-like" Chinese dishes, though some of the recipes
use too much salt for my tastes. I'll give the recipe, quoted from
the cookbook:

2 whole chicken breasts
flour for dusting
1 ounce rice sticks
peanut or other oil for deep-frying
1 tablespoon toasted sesame seeds

MARINADE:
1 tablespoon rice wine or dry sherry
1/2 teaspoon salt
dash of white pepper

BATTER:
1/2 cup cold water
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/3 cup cornstarch
1/3 cup all-purpose flour
1/3 cup sesame seeds
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon soy sauce

ORANGE SAUCE:
1 1/4 cups fresh orange juice
1 tablespoon cider vinegar
3 tablespoons sugar
1 tablespoon orange liqueur or orange extract
1 tablespoon cornstarch

1. Skin and bone and butterfly-cut the chicken breasts.

2. Mix marinade and add chicken, tossing to coat well. Cover and chill 10 minutes.

3. Toss chicken with flour in a plastic bag; coat well.

4. Combine batter ingredients; mix until smooth and free of lumps.

5. Heat 1-inch of oil in a wok or deep-fryer to 400 degrees. Test with one piece of rice stick: Within 3 seconds the rice stick added to oil should puff. When oil is ready, fry rice sticks 3 seconds. Turn and fry the other side 3 seconds. Drain and cool. Break into 1-inch pieces and sprinkle on serving platter.

6. Heat 1-inch of oil in a wok or skillet to 375 degrees. Dip chicken in batter and fry both sides until golden brown. Drain.

7. Cut fried breasts into 1-inch sections and place on platter atop rice sticks. Keep warm.

8. Mix orange-sauce ingredients and cook over medium heat, stirring until sauce thickens and boils. Pour sauce over chicken and sprinkle with toasted sesame seeds. Serve immediately.

TO PREPARE AHEAD: Follow steps 1-6, frying chicken light brown only. Refrigerate in a plastic bag. Store rice sticks in a plastic bag at room temperature. Before serving, re-fry chicken until golden brown and follow steps 7 and 8.

Here's my modification to the recipe.

Replace Step 1 with:

1. Skin and bone and cut chicken breasts into 1-inch cubes.

Delete Step 7.

This method is more work when you deep fry, but the recipe turns out nicer because each piece of chicken is completely coated with batter. I suspect the original instructions were meant to save labor at the deep-fry stage, but I would rather spend the extra effort -- it's worth it.