Mandarin Chicken

I love Mandarin Chicken at Panda Express…the only problem is that I have a HARD time with fatty pieces of chicken…or of anything for that matter. Sometimes at Panda the mandarin chicken has fatty pieces. But they are disguised!! So I’ll be happily eating my chicken and then eek I am chewing on a piece of fat. Haha Anyone who knows me knows that I can’t handle that. One. Little. Bit. Instead I die. I am so picky about my meat eating that if we are having KFC Mark picks all of the chicken off of the bone to me and puts only the completely white pieces on my plate. In general if meat has bones in it,  I won’t eat it. It is something I get teased about a lot but it is just part of who I am.
I have mentioned this before I think probably 3 times now that we can’t go out to eat Chinese food because of Jayden’s allergies and Chinese being full of Soy. So yay no fatty panda Mandarin Chicken. I don’t have to worry about it! But if you only knew how much I ADORE Panda Express. Chinese food is my best friend. And I miss it. Yesterday we were craving Chinese and I told Mark to choose one recipe from Panda and I’d try to re-create it.
Enter tonight's dinner. I made enough for us to have this twice. We ate both dinners worth in ONE night. It was amazing, delicious, wonderful, fabulous, and I am making it again tomorrow!

I had to make a home made “soy sauce’ for this and this is how I made it. It actually worked great!

Soy Sauce:
1 1/2 Cups Water
1/8 tsp garlic powder
4 Tbsp Beef Broth
4 Tbsp Balsamic Vinegar
2 tsp Corn Syrup
1 tsp Brown Sugar
1/4 tsp Ginger
Shake of Pepper

Mix all together and simmer for about 10 minutes in a saucepan. You can use this in any recipe that calls for Soy Sauce!

Now for the Ingredients for the Mandarin:

2 Chicken Breasts Cut into Strips and Seared (We used our George Foreman Grill but you could brown them in the pan before mixing the sauce)
In a saucepan mix the following ingredients together:
1/4 Cup Soy Sauce (Or your substitute)
1 Tablespoon Orange Juice
2 Cloves Minced Garlic
1/8 Tsp Ground Ginger
1/4 Cup Water
2 tsp Corn Starch
2/3 Cup Sugar
Add the chicken breasts and simmer for about 10 minutes.
Serve with rice, fried rice, chow mien noodles. Whatever floats your boat!

Tips from Kj:

DOUBLE this recipe because you will eat it all the first night. It is that good.

I add mushrooms to everything I think. And I am thinking about adding mushrooms when I make it tomorrow. And probably broccoli. That is one thing I love about Chinese food. Pretty much anything goes!

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