The Crazy Cuisine Mandarin Orange Chicken at Costco is surprisingly good. The packaging promises “Restaurant Quality at Home” and it actually delivers.
Cooking Instructions
The box of orange chicken contains:
- Two bags of fully cooked breaded chicken
- Two pouches of orange sauce
Since the chicken is already fully cooked all you need to do is heat it up in a manner that makes the outer breading crunchy. The packaging provides three sets of heating instructions:
- Oven (Preferred Method)
- Stovetop
- Air Fryer
Oven Heating Instructions
This is the method that is “preferred” by Crazy Cuisine.
- Preheat oven to 400F
- Thaw unopened sauce packet in warm water and set aside
- Place contents of one bag of chicken on a baking sheet in a single layer
- Bake for 15-18 minutes until brown and crisp
- Place cooked chicken in a bowl and mix with sauce until evenly coated
- Let stand 2-3 minutes and serve
Air Fryer Heating Instructions
This is the method I used with my Ninja Foodi Air Fryer.
- Set Air Fryer temperature to 400F
- Thaw unopened sauce packet in warm water and set aside
- Place contents of one bag of chicken into the air fryer in a single layer
- Bake for 14-17 minutes until brown and crisp
- Place cooked chicken in a bowl and mix with sauce until evenly coated
- Let stand 2-3 minutes and serve
I cooked eh chicken for 16 minutes at 400F and it came out crispy and browned as advertised.
Before the chicken got tossed with the orange sauce I cut a few of the pieces in half to see what I would be eating.
I was pleasantly surprised at the ratio of chicken meat to breading. There was just enough breading to coat the chicken and make it crispy but not so much to make it be a doughy mess.
I was also happy that the chicken was readily identifiable as pieces of breast meat and not a processed mush from leftover chicken scraps.
How to Serve
The packaging suggests that you could serve the sauced chicken in a sandwich or you could stick toothpicks in them and serve as an appetizer.
I tossed the chicken with the orange sauce and served it simply on a bed of rice. While I was extremely pleased with the meal, in hindsight I wish I had added some steamed broccoli florets for some color and to get my veggies in!
I did not use the entire sauce packet and that is one thing that I love about this product. One of the things I dislike about ordering this dish at most restaurants is that it is usually drowning in the sauce to the point that it almost too sweet to eat. This product lets you add as much or as little sauce as you prefer!
The sauce tastes sweet with orange flavors and a touch of ginger which is exactly what I was expecting.
Costco Orange Chicken with Rice
Ingredients
- 1 package Crazy Cuisine Breaded Chicken frozen, fully cooked
- 1 package Crazy Cuisine Orange Sauce frozen
- 2 cups Long Grained Rice
- 4 cups Water
- Veggies as Desired
Instructions
- Bring the water to a boil in a sauce pan, add the rice, cover and reduce heat to a simmer.
- Let rice cook for ~25 minutes until done.
- While rice is cooking prepare the Orange Chicken.
- Place contents of one package of breaded chicken into the air fryer.
- Cook the chicken at 400F for 16 minutes.
- Thaw the orange sauce packet in a bowl of warm water.
- Remove the chicken from the air fryer and toss with as much orange sauce as desired.
- Serve the Orange Chicken over rice with optional steamed veggies.
Calories and Nutrition
A single serving of the orange chicken is one cup and has the following nutritional information:
- Calories: 260
- Fat: 7g (11% DV)
- Cholesterol: 30mg (10% DV)
- Sodium: 500mg (21% DV)
- Carbohydrates: 35g (12% DV)
- Protein: 13g
The information above is for the cooked chicken mixed with the sauce.
I would suggest doubling the calories, etc because the suggested serving size is pretty small. The package says that there are about 13 servings between the two bags of chicken but I think in reality that the package will serve 6 or 7 people.
Price
I bought the 66 ounce box of Crazy Cuisine Mandarin Orange Chicken at Costco for $16.49. There are a couple of ways to break the price down into more meaningful numbers.
The food costs about$4 per pound which seems reasonable given how much chicken breast meat it contains. Combine the high protein content with the ease of preparation and I think it comes out as a good deal.
Another way of looking at this is, assuming you will feed 6 people, the package costs about $2.75 per serving. When you factor in the cost of some rice and veggies like broccoli or snow peas then you will end up spending about $3.25 per serving. This is a whole lot cheaper than you will h=get at any Chinese restaurant and the quality will be just as good if not better.
