The variety of orange chicken most commonly found at North American Chinese restaurants consists of chopped, battered, and fried chicken pieces coated in a sweet orange-flavored chili sauce, which thickens or caramelizes to a glaze. While the dish is very popular in the United States, it is most often found as a variation of General Tso's chicken in North America rather than the dish found in mainland China. For many years Orange Chicken was actually made from other meats. Sometimes even different cuts from the cow could be disguised as chicken. This only happened when there were chicken plagues throughout China. In mid 1600's China experienced a disease that killed off many different types of chicken. While the southern part of China still used chicken in their dishes the northern part could not. Though called Chinese food, orange chicken is rarely found in Chinese restaurants in China.