Firstly, to marinate the chicken, take the cubed chicken in a bowl and add salt, pepper, refined flour, corn flour and egg white to it. Mix well and keep refrigerated. Marinate for a minimum of half hour to overnight. Reserve the egg yolk which can be added to the fried rice.

Meanwhile, cook the soaked basmati rice as per directions. We need fluffy rice with grains separated for fried rice.*

In a heavy bottom non stick pan, add a little oil and scramble the two eggs and the reserved egg yolk. Season with salt and pepper. Keep aside. Next cook the chicken pieces in a little oil. Once cooked, transfer it along with the egg.

In the same pan, add a little oil, and add the ginger garlic paste. Once the fragrance disappears, add the white part of the scallions. Also add the carrots, green beans and cabbage and sauté until cooked. Add a dash of soy sauce and season with salt and pepper.

Add the cooked egg and chicken to the vegetables and mix to combine. Once the rice is cool enough, gently fold the rice into the mixture until all the rice are coated. Check for seasoning. Mix in the green part of the scallions. Keep warm.

Take out the refrigerated marinated chicken and allow to come to room temperature. Heat oil in a wok for deep frying. Just before frying, mix the baking powder to the chicken.** Fry the chicken in batches till it turns golden. Remove to a paper lined tray to absorb the excess oil.

To make the sauce, heat a little oil in a sauce pan. Add ginger garlic paste and sauté. Next add the dried chillies. To this, add the onions and capsicum and cook till softened.

In a bowl, mix the soy sauce, chilli sauce, shaoxing rice wine and the orange juice. Add the mixture to the sauce pan and heat till the sauce bubbles.

Make a slurry out of corn flour and water. Add this to the sauce pan and let the sauce thicken. If too thick, add a little orange juice. If too thin, add a little corn flour slurry. The
sauce should be velvety and should be able to coat the back of a spoon. Season with salt and pepper.

Add the fried chicken to the sauce and add the honey. The resultant gravy should be a combination of salty/sweet/spicy/orangey.

Serve the fried rice topped with the orange chicken. Garnish with green scallions.

Notes: * I prefer to cook it in a rice cooker (not pressure cooker) in a ratio of 1 cup rice to 2 cups water. Once done, spread the rice onto a plate and allow to cool. Also, you can cook it by adding the rice to boiling water and draining the excess water once the rice is just cooked. ** Adding baking powder to the chicken gives a crunchy exterior once fried. Do not mix the baking powder too early because it will lose it's potency fast.