How to Orange-Glazed Chicken With Mandarin Sauce

Cooking a whole chicken is an important part of the Chinese New Year. It represents the health of a person. To cut a chicken apart before cooking it means your health and the health of the people around you will weaken. Follow these steps to make a roasted chicken that uses an orange glaze and a mandarin and Chinese-spiced sauce.

Difficulty: Moderately Easy

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• 1 whole roasting chicken, including the head and feet
• 3 tbsp. dry red wine (Merlot)
• 3 tbsp. orange juice
• 2 tbsp. light soy sauce
• 1 tsp. minced fresh garlic
• 2 medium-sized mandarin oranges (satsumas and clementines)
• ½ cup orange juice
• 3 tbsp. orange marmalade
• 1 tbsp. lemon juice
• ¼ tsp. fresh grated ginger
• ¼ tsp. Chinese five spice powder
• 1 tbsp. cold water
• 2 tsp. cornstarch
• 2 tbsp. toasted slivered almonds
• 1 tbsp. orange-flavored liqueur (Grand Marnier)
• Wooden spoon or spatula
• Roasting pan
• Above ingredients
• Platter
• Carving knife
• Aluminum foil
• Medium sauce pan
• Ginger grater

Chinese New Year Orange-Glazed Chicken

1. Heat oven to 375 degrees.

2. Fold the wings of the chicken across its back. Make sure the tips of the wings touch each other. Tie the legs together and wrap the feet with aluminum foil to prevent them from burning. Wrap the chicken head in aluminum foil as well.

3. In a shallow roasting pan with a wire rack, place chicken breast side up.

4. Insert a kitchen thermometer so the tip is in thickest part of the thigh muscle but doesn’t touch a bone.

5. Place chicken into oven and roast uncovered for 45 minutes. Take the aluminum foil off the feet and the head.

6. In a small bowl, mix the wine, orange juice, soy sauce and garlic powder. Brush this onto the cooking chicken with a pastry or basting brush.

7. Roast the chicken uncovered approximately 45 minutes longer, brushing once or twice with the basting mixture.

8. Continue cooking the chicken until thermometer reads 180 degrees and the juice is no longer pink when you cut the center of thigh. Discard any remaining basting mixture.

9. Thoroughly wash, peel and separate the mandarins into sections. Remove any seeds out of the sections by gently squeezing the seed toward the thinnest part of the section. Discard the seeds.

10. Peel the ginger and finely grate it into a pulp using a fine grater or a dedicated ginger grater.

11. In a medium saucepan, mix the orange juice, orange marmalade, lemon juice, Chinese five spice and ginger.

12. Bring the mixture to a boil over medium heat.

13. In another small bowl, mix the water and cornstarch. Stir until the cornstarch is fully incorporated and no lumps exist.

14. Add the cornstarch mixture to the saucepan and stir until it's fully mixed. Heat to boiling, stirring constantly.

15. Lower the heat to medium-low and continue to simmer for approximately a minute longer, until the sauce has thickened.

16. Fold the mandarins, almonds and liqueur into the sauce.

17. Serve the whole chicken on a platter with the sauce in a small bowl to the side. Spoon the sauce over the cut piece of chicken and make sure everyone gets at least one section of mandarin orange.

18. Serve and enjoy!

Tips & Warnings

• You can find a whole chicken with the head and feet attached at your local Asian market. If you don’t have an Asian market near you, ask your butcher if they can order in a whole chicken.
• When buying the chicken at the market, make sure that the chicken is fully gutted and cleaned. If it isn’t, ask the butcher to clean the chicken for you.
• Avoid placing the thermometer next to the bone of the chicken because the bone stays slightly cooler than the rest of the flesh and it will throw your reading off. It's important to cook chicken to the proper 180 degree temperature.
• You can buy a dedicated ginger grater at well-stocked kitchen supply stores. If you don’t have a ginger grater, you can also use the fine side of a cheese grater.
• Ginger has a thin skin that should be peeled before using. You can easily scrape the skin off the ginger using a regular spoon. Scrape the skin in a downward motion.
• If the almonds you buy aren’t toasted, you can toast them quickly in a dry cookie pan in a 300-degree oven for five minutes. Make sure to stir the almonds often. Check on them every minute or so! Almonds burn quickly. By the time you smell their aroma, they're burnt.
• If you want to make this at other times during the year, you don't have to buy a whole chicken with head and feet.

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