If you want crispy vegan orange chicken for all your favorite Asian dishes, then this is recipe you’ve been looking for!
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Money is tighter than ever and you really want takeout but you just don’t want to spend the money. NO WORRIES, we have you covered! This vegan orange chicken recipe is going to make you wonder why you’ve even spent money on takeout when you can make it this good at home!
Our goal is to have you finish this recipe and the people you serve say DANG, where did you get this from, this is the BEST orange chicken I’ve ever had. Not even realizing that it’s vegan!
When you tell them that you made it from scratch AND it’s vegan, you are going to feel so confident in your tofu skills from here on out!
Jump to:
Why You’ll Love This Recipe
- Restaurant Quality – This meal tastes like it’s straight out of the kitchen of your favorite restaurant. You won’t believe how much flavor you get from this dish!
- One Skillet – You won’t have to do a lot of extra clean up when making this dish!
- Budget Friendly – tofu is so great for a budget! You can serve a family of four on one block which is under $3 in almost all locations
🥘Recipe Ingredients
Gather your ingredients!
- Tofu – we are using extra firm tofu for this recipe. It soaks in marinades well and also has the ability to mock chicken well
- Oranges – Fresh oranges will make this recipe have the best possible flavor. We are using Naval oranges, both the zest and juice.
- Tofu Marinade – soy sauce, white vinegar, salt, white pepper, garlic powder, and sesame oil go into the marinade to start
- Orange Sauce – the sauce itself also has vegetable stock, rice wine vinegar, maple syrup, soy sauce, garlic and ginger.
See my recipe card below for a complete list of the ingredients with measurements.
Substitutions and Variations:
- Tofu – you can also use firm or super firm tofu. Alternatively, you can do this with chickpeas or cauliflower
- Oranges – other types of oranges will also work like blood oranges or cara cara oranges. Alternatively, you could do a sauce with like peaches or apricots as well.
- Soy Sauce– can be subbed with tamari, coconut aminos or a soy free soy sauce
- Other Additions – You could add something like carrots, green beans, baby corn, Brussels sprouts, bok choy, or peas. Just be mindful of cooking time
Recipe FAQs:
Replace the tofu with chickpeas or cauliflower will be your first step! Sesame oil can be omitted entirely. Soy sauce, depending on allergies, can be swapped with a no soy, soy sauce, tamati or coconut aminos.
We really think this dish is best served fresh. We have not tested freezing it.
Yes, this dish is good for 2-3 days after it’s made. Store in a tightly sealed container in the fridge when not using.
Yes! You can omit the sesame oil from the marinade. For the shallow frying, you can air fry instead and using some vegetable otherwise.
Other Amazing Tofu Recipes to Consider:
🥳 Get the Full Recipe
Vegan Orange Chicken
Ingredients
For the Orange Sauce
- 2 oranges, both juiced and 1 zested (need ½ cup or 120g juice)
- ½ cup vegetable stock (120g)
- 2 tablespoon rice wine vinegar
- 2 tablespoon maple syrup
- 3 tablespoon soy sauce
- 2 garlic cloves, minced (more to taste)
- ½ in ginger root, grated
- 2 tablespoon cornstarch
- 2 tablespoon water
For the Tofu
- 1 14oz block extra firm tofu, pressed, roughly broken into pieces,
- 2 tablespoon soy sauce
- 1 tablespoon sesame oil
- 2 teaspoon white vinegar
- ½ teaspoon garlic powder
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- ¼ teaspoon white pepper
- 3 tablespoon cornstarch onto the tofu
- ¼ cup neutral oil for frying
Instructions
For the sauce
- Zest one of the oranges. Set zest aside.
- In a bowl, add the orange juice, half the orange zest, vegetable stock, rice wine vinegar, maple syrup, soy sauce, minced garlic, and grated ginger. Whisk together and set aside.
- In a separate smaller bowl, combine cornstarch and water. Set aside.
For the Tofu
- In a large bowl, add the tofu pieces. Add in soy sauce, sesame oil, vinegar, garlic powder, salt, and white pepper. Gently stir together. Sprinkle over cornstarch and cover with a lid or plate and toss to coat.
- In a large skillet over medium heat, add neutral oil. Once heated, add tofu pieces, careful not to overcrowd. Cook each side 2-3 minutes or until golden brown. Remove to original bowl. Clean skillet of any excess oil.
- Add the orange sauce over medium heat. Once warmed, add in the cornstarch and water mixture (slurry) and stir together. Continue to cook until it thickens and coats the back of a spoon well. Add all your tofu back into the sauce and carefully stir to coat all the pieces.
- Remove from heat and serve over rice or noodles and with vegetables like snow peas, broccoli, or carrots. Top with remaining orange zest if desired.
Video
Nutrition
Did you make and love this recipe?
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I tried this tonight and likes it a lot, although it was a little on the sour side. I think adding a bit of sugar or omitting the orange zest would have made it a little better.
Thanks for your feedback
Easy and delicious
So glad you enjoyed it!
It needed more orange juice. Otherwise, very tasty!
Thanks for the feedback
This was so easy and delicious! I’m not vegan or even vegetarian, and have never been a tofu fan – just trying to incorporate some plant based meals into my diet. I trust your recipes and love that you make it so delightfully easy to do!
So glad that you took a chance on this recipe and loved it!
Latisha do you guys use a certain type of cookware?
We’re been using stainless steel, cast iron, and ceramic lately
This is the third or fourth recipe I have made from Make it Dairy Free…all were delicious! The orange in this made it so natural tasting and it was absolutely fantastic – and indeed I made it in under 30 mins…just had to wait for the rice.
So happy to hear that you enjoyed it Cat!
I was doubting this recipe could be nice – I’ve never been keen on cooking with fruit. I had the tofu and the oranges and cooked it anyway.
It’s sooo delicious!!
yay!
Why zest the whole orange if only using half of it?
So sorry for any confusion. The post has been updated for clarification.