Over the course of 12 years of writing this food blog, every time I post one on roasted chicken with citrus, it brings back fond memories of Sunday Supper as a child. I was a pretty fussy eater back then, but I did love mom’s Orange Juice Chicken with mashed potatoes and gravy. The following recipe has a more intense and complex flavor profile, and it is delicious!
Whole tangerines, peel and all, roast alongside chicken in a sweetened soy sauce that thickens into a glaze and lacquers the bird. The fruit wedges soften in the syrupy sauce while infusing it with their floral bittersweetness. Reminiscent of savory Cantonese soy sauce chicken and tangy American Chinese orange chicken, this dish also combines the warmth of ginger with the bit of heat from ground hot chiles. You can eat the tangerine wedges along with the chicken, which is delicious with its sauce over steamed rice or boiled noodles.
Excerpt from chef/author Genevieve Ko: “Peeling an orange releases a spritz of natural oils that coats fingers with a citrus perfume, teasing at the fruit inside. The floral zest and juicy segments are easy to love, but the pith in between, not so much… Whole tangerines, which season every element of the dish and have thin skins that lose their bitterness more quickly than oranges. After some fruit is juiced for the gingery soy glaze, their spent peels are stuffed into the chicken. More tangerine wedges cook alongside the bird in the same pan, their piths softening in the sauce that lacquers the bird.”
How can you not want to make this dish after reading that?!
TIP: If the breast starts getting much darker than the rest of the bird early on, place a piece of foil over the top to keep it from burning and to allow the skin of the rest of the chicken to continue to glaze.
After reading numerous reviewer’s comments, we doubled the sauce, but only increased the sugar at maybe a third. This gave us a good amount of sauce to cover the meat and the rice accompaniment. And, at our we discretion, we included 6 large shallots which became all nice and jammy mixed in with the tangerine wedges. Finally, we did not feel a need to peel the ginger slices since they were going to be discarded anyway.
Roasted Orange Chicken
Ingredients
- 5 small tangerines or clementines
- ½ packed cup dark brown sugar
- ¼ cup soy sauce
- 1½ tsp. rice vinegar or distilled white vinegar
- 1 tsp. ground cayenne or other hot red ground chile
- 1 (4-lb.) whole chicken
- Salt and black pepper
- 8 slices peeled fresh ginger
- 5-6 large shallots, peeled and halved
Directions
- Heat the oven to 400 degrees.
- Squeeze ¼ cup juice from 2 to 3 tangerines into a small bowl; reserve the spent peels. Cut the remaining tangerines into wedges with their peels intact, and set aside. Add the brown sugar, soy sauce, vinegar and cayenne to the tangerine juice and whisk until the sugar dissolves.
- Generously season the chicken inside and out with salt and pepper. Tuck the wingtips behind the body. Stuff the tangerine peels and 6 ginger slices into the cavity, then tie the legs together using kitchen twine. Place in a large ovenproof skillet, and scatter the tangerine wedges, shallot wedges and remaining 2 slices ginger around the chicken.
- Slowly pour the juice mixture all over the chicken, then slide the skillet into the oven. Roast for 30 minutes.
- Using a large spoon or baster, quickly and carefully coat the chicken with the pan sauce. Continue roasting, basting every 10 minutes, until the chicken is browned and cooked through, 20 to 30 minutes longer. An instant-read thermometer inserted in the thickest part of the breast should register 155 degrees and, in the leg, 170 degrees. The chicken will continue to cook while it rests.
- Transfer the chicken to a cutting board and let rest for about 5 minutes. With a slotted spoon, remove the tangerines and shallots to a serving platter, and cover while the bird rests and is carved.
- If the pan sauce isn’t already syrupy, (ours was not), bring it to a boil over medium-high heat on the stovetop. Be sure to wear oven mitts or use a kitchen towel to hold the skillet (the handle is hot). Cook, stirring occasionally, until the bubbles grow larger and paler brown, and the sauce is the consistency of syrup, about 5 minutes. Discard the ginger.
- Place the the chicken pieces on the platter with the tangerines and shallots. Pour the glaze all over the meat and fruit. You can eat them, if you’d like—we did.
Adapted from a recipe by Genevieve Ko for NYTimes Cooking
Accounting for Taste 