Orange Cauliflower “Chicken”

This orange “chicken” dish is a big hit for a family week night dinner. It’s super tasty, vegan, and far healthier than its fried, meaty counterpart. Serve this orange cauliflower chicken over fresh steamed rice and garnish with fresh orange zest and scallions.

Orange chicken gone vegan

Orange chicken is an American Chinese classic, mostly in thanks to Panda Express. I’ve heard that in China, Orange Chicken really isn’t much of a thing. But here in America, we love it!

Originally, Orange Chicken was based off of another American Chinese dish, General Tso’s chicken. They do have a striking similarity in flavor. Orange Chicken just adds the zesty sweet tang of orange to the recipe. It’s always been a big favorite of mine.

So of course, when I turned vegan I had to come up with a plant based version. Ideally, something that I could get relatively close to the real deal without having to use a fryer or any weird ingredients.

Easily enough, the sauce is entirely vegan! It just became a matter of replacing the chicken.

Cauliflower can surprise you with how well it works as a chicken substitute in this recipe. It has a neutral flavor, and when battered and roasted it develops a nice, light crust on the outside.

If you have an air fryer, be sure to use it! I’m sure it will work even better at getting the outside light and crispy.

The orange sauce of your dreams

The sauce in this recipe is so much like the orange chicken you know and love. It’s sweet, tangy, and just a little bit spicy.

I make the sauce pretty mild here, but you can always add more fresh or dried chilies to up the heat. Sambal or Sriracha would be great additions.

When you head to the Asian market for your ingredients, you’re going to find a pretty big range of peppers. They also tend to be label pretty generically. I used regular “red chilies” for this recipe that feel somewhere on the hotness scale between a fresno and a thai chile.

If your a hot head and love spicy food, I suggest using thai chiles instead.

Whatever chili you decide on, be sure to cut them with some kind of glove on, and a separate synthetic mat. Otherwise, you’ll face chili oil seeping it’s way into your cutting board and burning under your finger nails.

Heed this warning, pleaseeeee! (Especially, if you have a cut!)

Going a little more unrefined

I know it’s hard to be perfectly unrefined, but I have some tips to make this a tad healthier.

For those of you trying to use less refined sugars, you can switch out the white and brown cane sugar for something like coconut sugar, maple syrup, or brown rice syrup. Be sure to adjust the portions to your tastes, since 1/2 a cup of coconut sugar is not nearly as sweet as 1/2 cup of white sugar.

You can use whole wheat pastry flour instead of all purpose in the batter to get a little more whole grains into your body.

The rice vinegar can easily be substituted for with white distilled vinegar if you don’t have any on hand.

I also left out oil everywhere I could. I use sesame oil because it adds a particular flavor to the sauce. It’s only a small amount in relation to the size of the recipe, so I’d still consider this HCLF friendly.

So many variations, so many levels of tasty!

To panko or not to panko

Personally, I love panko!

I wanted to make this recipe with panko, but part of me felt that it took away from the orange “chickiness” of it all. Orange chicken doesn’t normally come with panko, so when I’m trying to make a recreation it doesn’t really work in my favor to add it.

Instead, I decided to leave this note here for you. If you want a thicker, crispier skin on these orange “chicken” bites, go for panko.

Panko is essentially large, flaky bread crumbs for those of you that don’t know. They’re on a lot of deep fried dishes you know and love, and they’re great in this recipe too!

Mix about 3 cups of panko in a large bowl with some salt, pepper, garlic and onion powder to taste. After you dip your cauliflower in the batter, roll it in this panko mixture.

The bake time and everything else remains the same. It’s a simple way to add more texture to the “skin” of the cauliflower, and a little more excitement.

If you find yourself making this recipe multiple times, definitely give it a try!

What are your favorite asian sauces?

You can use these cauliflower bites with a variety of sauces. I’ve used Buffalo, General Tso’s, Kung Pao, Teriyaki, Mongolian, and so much more.

What are some sauces you’d like to see recipes for? Let me know so I can get started on it.

When you give this orange cauliflower chicken recipe a try, tag @alderspirit and use #alderspirit so I can peep your tasty creations. I love that we can bounce ideas off of each other so easily with the internet.

Let me know what you think in the comments below or just say hi.

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