Crispy Orange Chicken -- The Night I Fed Forty and Found My Purpose Again

Sister Agnes handed the Tuesday kitchen back to me this week. She didn't announce it formally—Agnes does things quietly, without ceremony—but she called Sunday evening and said, "Loretta, I think the kitchen is ready for you to come back to," and I sat with the phrasing for a moment, because she said the kitchen is ready, not that she was ready to hand it back. She was giving me a place that had waited for me. The kitchen was ready. Only the timing had been uncertain.

Monday I went in at noon to plan the menu. I stood alone in the kitchen first, the way you stand in a place you love after being away, taking inventory. The big pots were in the same places. The cutting boards were still where Agnes had moved them—wrong location, I moved them back before I did anything else, I simply could not. The salt was still too far from the stove. I fixed both and felt immediately better, because a kitchen runs on order and order is a form of control and there are very few things I can control in this life but the placement of the salt in my kitchen is one of them.

Tuesday dinner: fried chicken, collard greens, rice and gravy, cornbread, sweet potato pie. My menu, my portions, my standards. I had a team of four—Agnes stayed to help, bless her, and three younger church women. I directed. I tasted. I adjusted. I told Latasha her oil was too cold and Monique her greens needed more time, and I said both things with love and they received them with love, because this is the church kitchen and love is the medium everything is conducted in.

When the guests came—forty people, a Tuesday record—I stood at the serving station and handed each plate personally. Every single one. One man went through the line three times. On his third pass he said, "Ma'am, the chicken," and shook his head like there were no words, and I said, "Baby, eat as much as you want," and he did. I fed forty people on a Tuesday evening in September in the fellowship hall of New Hope AME Church, and the grief was still there—it will always be there—but underneath it, or alongside it, or woven through it: the purpose. The thing I was made to do. I am still here to do it. Bernice, you raised me right.

The chicken is always the centerpiece on Tuesdays — it has to be, because people come through that line with hope in their eyes and you cannot disappoint them. The recipe I’m sharing here isn’t the exact church version (that one lives in my hands more than on any paper), but this Crispy Orange Chicken carries the same spirit I brought back to that kitchen: a bold, lacquered crust, a sauce with enough brightness to wake something up in you, and the kind of finish that makes a man shake his head and say “Ma’am, the chicken” with no other words to follow. Make it when you need to remind yourself — and everyone at your table — that you are still here, and you still know exactly what you’re doing.

Crispy Orange Chicken

Prep Time: 20 minutes | Cook Time: 25 minutes | Total Time: 45 minutes | Servings: 4

Ingredients

• 2 lbs boneless, skinless chicken thighs, cut into 1 1/2-inch pieces
• 1 cup cornstarch
• 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon black pepper
• 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
• 2 large eggs, beaten
• Vegetable oil, for frying (about 2 cups)
• For the Orange Sauce:
• 3/4 cup fresh orange juice (from about 2 large oranges)
• 1 tablespoon orange zest
• 3 tablespoons soy sauce
• 3 tablespoons sugar
• 2 tablespoons rice vinegar
• 1 tablespoon cornstarch mixed with 2 tablespoons cold water
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 teaspoon fresh ginger, grated
• 1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes (optional)
• Sliced scallions and sesame seeds, for garnish

Instructions

1. Prep the chicken. Pat the chicken pieces dry with paper towels. In a shallow bowl, whisk together the cornstarch, flour, salt, pepper, and garlic powder. In a separate bowl, beat the eggs. Dip each chicken piece in the egg, then dredge thoroughly in the flour-cornstarch mixture, pressing to coat. Set on a wire rack and let rest for 5 minutes so the coating adheres.
2. Heat the oil. Pour about 2 inches of vegetable oil into a heavy-bottomed skillet or Dutch oven and heat over medium-high heat to 350°F. The oil must be hot enough before you add the chicken — a cold fry is a soggy fry.
3. Fry the chicken. Working in batches, fry the chicken pieces for 4 to 5 minutes per side, turning once, until deeply golden and cooked through. Do not crowd the pan. Transfer to a wire rack set over a baking sheet and keep warm in a 200°F oven while you finish the remaining batches.
4. Make the orange sauce. In a small saucepan over medium heat, combine the orange juice, orange zest, soy sauce, sugar, rice vinegar, garlic, ginger, and red pepper flakes if using. Bring to a simmer, stirring to dissolve the sugar, about 3 minutes. Stir in the cornstarch slurry and continue to cook, stirring constantly, until the sauce thickens and turns glossy, about 2 minutes more. Remove from heat.
5. Toss and serve. Transfer the fried chicken to a large bowl and pour the warm orange sauce over the top. Toss gently to coat every piece evenly. Arrange on a serving platter, scatter with sliced scallions and sesame seeds, and bring it to the table immediately while the crust is still crisp.

Nutrition (per serving)

Calories: 520 | Protein: 38g | Fat: 18g | Carbs: 48g | Fiber: 1g | Sodium: 890mg