Not Amboy Market Orange Chicken Sticks
When TBone and I started dating, his family had an itty bitty shed cabin we’d escape to on long weekends up at Lake Merwin in SW Washington. The area is a bounty of views of Washington enriched with decades of growth from the ash that maintains the beauty. And within that wilderness is a little country store called the Amboy Market, where we would stop for snacks. Amboy. A small town of 1800 is a pit stop en route to the lakes and the gate to the Gifford Pinchot National Forest.
The market, as mentioned in the recipe below, harbors a secret. Their deli is phenomenal. Not just for their glistening hunks of chicken orange sauce, but General Tso’s, garlic honey, and buffalo. Grab a stack of napkins and two cans of Arizona, and you’re set.
And just like any recipe I post here, I have to disclaim that I am not a professional in any sense of the word; I make something once and write down verbatim what I did. In fact, these are very similar to my hot honey chicken tenders.
Not Amboy Market Orange Chicken Sticks
Deep in SW Washington, before entering the lake-speckled, green shadow of Mt St Helens, lies the Amboy Market. An unassuming little country store that harbors a secret. They make the most incredible hunks of crispy orange chicken displayed on what can only be described as a small dowel, not even a skewer. My boyfriend and I can typically split one before we get to the lake. There are at least two servings to each stick.
I can't explain it any plainer than that. This is my interpretation after eating many chicken sticks en route to Lake Merwin. Included is a photo of said sticks on display.
Ingredients
- This recipe is for 2-3 people, depending on what type of chicken you use (breasts or thighs). I used two large chicken breasts for this. It gave me 6 sticks. Chop the chicken into equal pieces for your skewers. I used three wood skewers and halved them. I then EYEBALLED my seasoning; you want the pieces covered but not overly saturated, just dry. This is not a recipe where I measure. I apologize, but you will have to trust your own process on this.
- salt and pepper
- garlic powder
- onion powder
- tumeric
- chinese 5 spice
- Massage the spices into the chicken and set aside.
- You are going to set up three bowls for dredging. Everyone has their own method of breading. If you prefer to omit this and use a wet batter with the rice flour and milk/egg, you can; just make sure you put the skewers in the air fryer ASAP so the chips don't get soggy. Otherwise, here is my method:
- Crushed potato chips or panko
- Rice or potato flour with the same seasoning from before.
- milk and egg
- egg, flour, egg, chips. Let sit for 3-5 mins --- Air fry.
- AIRFRYER 400* for 15-20 mins depending on how thick your chicken pieces are. I assume the same can be done in the oven with the same instructions.
- In the meantime, make the sauce.
- The sauce can be from a bottle or scratch, whatever does the job. But heres how I make my orange sauce.
- 1/4 c sweet chili sauce
- 1/4 c ketchup
- 1/2 c orange juice
- 1 tbs rice wine vinegar
- 1 tbs ponzu
- 1/4 c brown sugar
- Bring all to a simmer until thickened; you can add a little cornstarch or rice flour slurry to make it thicker.
Instructions
- While the sauce cooks away, flip the chicken, or if you're like me, you just stick the skewers into the little holes in the trivet, and they cook evenly.
- When there are about 4 or so minutes left, pause cooking and take the sauce off the heat; carefully drench your chicken sticks with the sauce and place back to cook the remaining time.
- You can switch to broil if you want. My machine seems to blow around hotter, drier air, and I'm unsure if everyone's does that, but it worked really well.
- When done, let them rest for a few minutes to cool down and let the sauce firm up.
- Enjoy!
