National Orange Chicken Day
Head over to your favorite Chinese restaurant (or order in) and get yourself the classic Orange chicken, or try making your own chicken and Orange sauce.
Drive foot traffic and delivery orders to Chinese restaurants and food retailers by positioning orange chicken as a must-try celebration dish with shareable, social-worthy appeal.
- Orange Chicken Challenge: Share your homemade vs. restaurant version on social media
- Chinese Restaurant Spotlight: Feature local spots' signature orange chicken recipes and customer reviews
- DIY Orange Chicken Kit: Promote pre-packaged sauce and ingredient bundles for at-home cooking
- Family Feast Night: Encourage group orders and multi-dish combos with friends and family
Orange chicken is a common sight at many North American Chinese restaurants and is a common favorite of patrons. Starting with a foundation of chicken that’s been battered and fried before being tossed in an orange-flavored chili sauce it’s then fried, letting the sauce thicken to a glaze. It was an immensely popular dish in China during the Hunan era and continued to be popular straight into the modern day. There was one period in the past, however, when the orange chicken wasn’t actually made from chicken.
During the 1600’s there was a plague that crossed through northern China and killed off large portions of the chicken population. Out of desperation (and a love of orange chicken), the people there had to find new meats to use in their orange chicken dish. Beef was the most common, but just about any form of meat could be used to make this coveted dish. Of course, the people in southern China had no trouble at all, as their chickens were unaffected.
National Orange Chicken Day was started in 2016 when it was founded on X (formerly Twitter) through an account called @OrangeChixDay, belonging to Giersch and Dave Kerner.
Visit a Chinese Restaurant
The best way to celebrate National Orange Chicken Day is to head out into the world, find your favorite Chinese restaurant, and order up a big dish of orange chicken. They tend to serve large portions, however, so why not bring a few friends with you to help demolish the dish?
Make Orange Chicken at Home
If you’re feeling truly adventurous you can try to make your own dish of orange chicken. There are a few places you can find a recipe, and if you’re fortunate a relative who’s been making it for years will be your best source. Don’t forget to get a heaping side of rice to go with it, and spring rolls have always gone well with it! Indulge yourself, there’s little in the world as wonderful as this dish!
Host Friends or Family
If you have made Orange Chicken before, or you are feeling confident, the best thing to do is invite some friends and family members around and they can try your delicious take on this famous Chinese meal. Why not have your own Chinese feast night? You can cook up some other Chinese favorites, or ask everyone who is attending to bring a Chinese-inspired dish with them. Good food and good company, it does not get better than that, right?
Get Creative with Chinese Food
You can also spend the day brushing up on your Chinese cooking skills. Of course, Orange Chicken is just one of the many amazing and delicious dishes that China has blessed us with. Spend the day trying out different meals and Chinese snacks and desserts. We are sure that the people that you live with are going to thank you for it. If you live alone, you can always freeze some of the dishes, or simply give your neighbors a nice surprise!