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Orange Chicken

Orange Chicken

Continuing in my week long exploration of Chinese food I wanted something on the lighter side and this orange chicken seemed appropriate given all of the different varieties of oranges that have been available in grocery stores recently. This orange chicken has a fairly light lightly flavoured sauce that allows the star of the show, you guessed it, the oranges, to come through. Normally this dish would be made with chicken that has been battered and fried in oil until crispy but to keep it healthier I went with simple sauteed chicken which I tend to prefer anyways. Once again this chicken dish is all about the meat and it is commonly served with other vegetable dishes but you could easily toss in a few vegetables and stir fry them along the way. I have to say that the orange chicken was a really nice way to brighten up a cold and gloomy winter day!

Orange Chicken

Orange Chicken

Tender chicken in a light and tasty orange sauce that will remind you of warmer days.


Servings: makes 4 servings

Prep Time: 5 minutes
Cook Time: 20 minutes
Total Time: 25 minutes

Printable Recipe
Ingredients
  • 1/4 cup freshly-squeezed orange juice
  • 1/4 cup chicken broth
  • 1 tablespoon soy sauce
  • 1 tablespoon Chinese rice wine or dry sherry
  • 1 tablespoon rice vinegar
  • 1 tablespoon honey
  • 1/2 teaspoon sesame oil
  • 1/4 teaspoon white pepper
  • 2 teaspoons corn starch
  • 1 tablespoon oil
  • 1 pound chicken breast, cut into bite size pieces
  • 1 tablespoon oil
  • 5 dried red chilies, seeded and soaked in warm water
  • 2 cloves garlic, chopped
  • 1 inch ginger, grated
  • 2 green onions, slices with whites and greens separated
  • 1 tablespoon orange zest
Directions
  1. Mix the orange juice, broth, soy sauce, rice wine, sesame oil, rice vinegar, honey, white pepper and corn starch and set aside.
  2. Heat the oil in a pan over medium heat-high.
  3. Add the chicken and saute until cooked, about 4-6 minutes and set aside.
  4. Heat the oil in the pan, add the dried chilies, garlic, ginger and whites of the green onions and saute until fragrant, about a minute.
  5. Add the orange mixture, the chicken and the orange zest and cook until it thickens, a few minutes.
  6. Serve over steamed rice garnished with the greens of the green onions.

Similar Recipes:
Honey Lemon Chicken
Kung Pao Chicken
Spicy Orange Shrimp

30 comments:

Holly said...

Any chance of seeing a Mongolian Beef recipe this next week?

Jennifer said...

omg that looks so yummy! :D

Claudia said...

Saving this - much prefer this version than the battered ones - cannot even taste the orange in the chicken sometimes!

Jess @ Sugar High said...

Love that you kept it simple and healthy by not frying. Looks delicious!

Becki's Whole Life said...

I love the orange flavor with the spicy peppers. This looks wonderful and a great option for Chinese New Year!

Joy said...

The dish looks great.

Drifter said...

Any eggplant recipe to share?

Shohag B. said...

i luv this item ! thanks :X

Joanne said...

I love that this has fresh orange juice in it and is NOT deep fried! This is the perfect way to get your Chinese food fix without feeling like you've been run over by a truck.

NotesFromAbroad said...

I miss good Chinese food , I will definitely try this recipe as soon as I start cooking again.
It is too hot to cook at this time :)
poor me lol
besitos, C

Momographica said...

This looks fantastic! I tried duck with orange before but never chicken. Thank you for the yummy recipe!

Anonymous said...

do you ever use tahini? when your recipe calls for both honey and sesame oil, perhaps this is a spot for it.
carole s.

Kathleen Richardson said...

Love chicken. Love orange. Good blog entry, Kevin, and seeing it makes me want to start cooking right now!

India's no.1 blog said...

Yummy yummy yummy :)

Amy Tsung said...

Wow, that looks so good!

almostveg said...

looks great - am curious to know why you soaked the chilies. In India we soak them before grinding to a paste, but haven't seen it used in this kind of application.

LAURA said...

Ciao, che bello e particolare il tuo blog, mi piace!!!
Se ti fa piacere passa a trovarmi.
A presto.

wheatgerm said...

hmmm that looks tasty

cooking lady said...

Wow this looks really good. And the photo is just fantastic

Ferdinand said...

Looks delicious and healty

Anonymous said...

5 minute prep? You're fast!

Kevin said...

Anonymous: I tend to walk into the kitchen, turn the stove on, place the oil in the pan and then I start cut the chicken, place it in the pan and while it cooks I move onto the garlic, onions, etc.

almostveg: I just wanted to soften them up a bit.

Anonymous: Using tahini in a dish likes this is an interesting idea. I had not thought about using tahini like that.

Anonymous said...

Hi, Kevin! tahini is common here in greece, whereas sesame oil's an expensive import. so i've often used the oil the settles on top of the seed pulp in a jar of tahini rather than spend for 'sesame oil'.
carole s.

Liz said...

Everything seems so delicious!
I'll follow your adventures ;)

Karina said...

This looks amazing and so much better than the Orange Chicken I usually order. :)
Thanks for posting this, love your recipes!

Barracuda said...

That looks delitions! Thank you for posting.

Justin Cullen said...

It looks absolutely delicious!!!

Fruit Carving said...

Very lovely presentation, looks delicious! I will try this recipe.

Nicole said...

This was delicious!

Anonymous said...

Looks delicious , and I agree prefer unbattered as well !

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