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Cooking adventures in a small, closet sized, kitchen. - I came to realize that my meals were boring and that I had been eating the same few dishes over and over again for years. It was time for a change! I now spend my free time searching for, creating and trying tasty new recipes in my closet sized kitchen.

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20 Minute Light Orange Chicken

[heart_this] · Jan 28, 2014 · 58 Comments

Orange Chicken

A quick, easy, light and tasty Chinese orange chicken dish that is way better than takeout!

The Chinese or lunar New Year is quickly approaching and I have been thinking about Chinese cuisine a lot. The word for oranges in Chinese is similar to the word for wealth and thus oranges are considered lucky for the New Year, which is great since orange chicken is one of my favourite dishes. Normally takeout orange chicken is battered and fried in a lot of oil but I prefer this lighter and healthier version where the chicken is simply sauteed and then tossed in a super tasty orange sauce! One of the best things about this recipe is that it takes less time to make than it takes to steam the rice, less than 20 minutes!

Orange Chicken
So nice and light, healthy and tasty!

Orange Chicken
Serve over steamed rice, quino or noodles and toss with some steamed vegetables like broccoli, peppers, peas, etc for a complete meal.

Orange Chicken

20 Minute Light Orange Chicken

20 Minute Light Orange Chicken

Prep Time: 10 minutes Cook Time: 10 minutes Total Time: 20 minutes Servings: 4

A quick, easy, light and tasty Chinese orange chicken dish that is way better than takeout!

ingredients
  • 1 tablespoon oil
  • 1 pound boneless and skinless chicken breasts or thighs, cut into 1 inch pieces
  • 1/3 cup orange juice
  • 3 tablespoons honey
  • 3 tablespoons soy sauce
  • 2 tablespoons rice vinegar
  • 1 teaspoon chill sauce such as sambal oelek or sriracha
  • 1 tablespoon orange zest, grated
  • 1 clove garlic, grated
  • 1 teaspoon ginger, grated
  • 1 tablespoon water
  • 1 tablespoon cornstarch
  • 1/4 cup green onion, sliced (optional)
directions
  1. Heat the oil in a pan over medium-high heat, add the chicken and cook until cooked through, about 2-4 minutes per side.
  2. Add the mixture of the orange juice, honey, soy sauce, rice vinegar, chill sauce, garlic, ginger and the mixture of the water and the corn starch, toss to coat and cook until the sauce thickens, about a minute.
  3. Remove from heat and serve garnished with sliced green onions.
Option: Replace some or all of the honey with orange marmalade.
Option: Add some vegetables to the mix such as broccoli, peas, peppers, etc.
Nutrition Facts: Calories 288, Fat 7g (Saturated 1g, Trans 0), Cholesterol 100mg, Sodium 874mg, Carbs 19g (Fiber 0.5g, Sugars 15g), Protein 34g

Nutrition by: Nutritional facts powered by Edamam
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20 Minute Meals, 30 Minute Meals, Chicken, Chinese, Food, Main Course, One-Pan, One-Pot, Recipe

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Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Holly says

    January 20, 2012 at 11:59 pm

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

    Reply
  2. Jennifer says

    January 21, 2012 at 12:09 am

    omg that looks so yummy! 😀

    Reply
  3. Claudia says

    January 21, 2012 at 1:00 am

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

    Reply
  4. Jess @ Sugar High says

    January 21, 2012 at 1:29 am

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

    Reply
  5. Becki's Whole Life says

    January 21, 2012 at 2:14 am

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

    Reply
  6. Joy says

    January 21, 2012 at 3:27 am

    The dish looks great.

    Reply
  7. Drifter says

    January 21, 2012 at 4:58 am

    Any eggplant recipe to share?

    Reply
  8. Shohag B. says

    January 21, 2012 at 8:23 am

    i luv this item ! thanks :X

    Reply
  9. Joanne says

    January 21, 2012 at 11:31 am

    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.

    Reply
  10. NotesFromAbroad says

    January 21, 2012 at 1:11 pm

    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

    Reply
  11. Momographica says

    January 21, 2012 at 1:17 pm

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

    Reply
  12. Anonymous says

    January 21, 2012 at 1:42 pm

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

    Reply
  13. Kathleen Richardson says

    January 21, 2012 at 3:14 pm

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

    Reply
  14. India's no.1 blog says

    January 21, 2012 at 5:55 pm

    Yummy yummy yummy 🙂

    Reply
  15. Amy Tsung says

    January 21, 2012 at 7:41 pm

    Wow, that looks so good!

    Reply
  16. almostveg says

    January 21, 2012 at 8:24 pm

    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.

    Reply
  17. LAURA says

    January 21, 2012 at 9:06 pm

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

    Reply
  18. wheatgerm says

    January 21, 2012 at 10:00 pm

    hmmm that looks tasty

    Reply
  19. cooking lady says

    January 22, 2012 at 4:58 am

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

    Reply
  20. Ferdinand says

    January 22, 2012 at 5:06 am

    Looks delicious and healty

    Reply
  21. Anonymous says

    January 22, 2012 at 7:05 am

    5 minute prep? You're fast!

    Reply
  22. Kevin says

    January 22, 2012 at 2:50 pm

    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.

    Reply
  23. Anonymous says

    January 23, 2012 at 8:09 am

    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.

    Reply
  24. Liz says

    January 23, 2012 at 11:11 am

    Everything seems so delicious!
    I'll follow your adventures 😉

    Reply
  25. Karina says

    January 23, 2012 at 5:38 pm

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

    Reply
  26. Barracuda says

    January 24, 2012 at 5:46 pm

    That looks delitions! Thank you for posting.

    Reply
  27. Justin Cullen says

    January 25, 2012 at 9:34 am

    It looks absolutely delicious!!!

    Reply
  28. Fruit Carving says

    January 25, 2012 at 6:39 pm

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

    Reply
  29. Nicole says

    March 1, 2012 at 3:33 pm

    This was delicious!

    Reply
  30. Anonymous says

    March 6, 2012 at 12:22 am

    Looks delicious , and I agree prefer unbattered as well !

    Reply
  31. Anonymous says

    April 2, 2013 at 2:24 pm

    This was great! Much better than takeout. Thanks for the recipe. I will definitely make it again.

    Reply
  32. Jeanette says

    January 28, 2014 at 3:28 pm

    Love your lightened up version of orange chicken Kevin – yes oranges are good luck for Chinese New Year! The guy at our local Asian grocery store always has special oranges for the New Year.

    Reply
  33. vanillasugarblog says

    January 29, 2014 at 12:16 am

    Kevin I just saw a recipe for meyer lemon fried chicken!
    Doesn't that sound good? Where did I see it? I can't remember, but I saved it for my friday link roundup.

    Reply
  34. kevin says

    January 29, 2014 at 12:22 am

    vanillasugarblog: That does sound good!

    Reply
  35. Atroub says

    January 29, 2014 at 1:03 am

    I'm guessing the zest is for garnish instead of in the sauce? Just premade the sauce (using tangerines since that's what I have on hand) & all I can say is WOW, delicious! Thank you for this recipe, it's a keeper!

    Reply
  36. kevin says

    January 29, 2014 at 2:01 am

    Atroub: I place finely grated zest in the sauce and then some larger pieces of zest go on for garnish.

    Reply
  37. Tieghan says

    January 29, 2014 at 4:42 am

    Orange chicken is always so good. Your version could not look better! I cannot wait to give it a try! 🙂

    Reply
  38. avidalector says

    January 30, 2014 at 12:39 am

    I'm wondering if the "3 Tablespoons of soy sauce" is meant to be "3 TEAspoons"? I made this for dinner tonight and found the sauce to be very dark in color and the orange flavor to be mildly overpowered. Regardless, I found it to be delicious.

    Reply
  39. kevin says

    February 1, 2014 at 5:25 pm

    avidalector: 3 tablespoons of soy sauce is correct. Did you use a dark soy sauce or a regular one. There are dark and light soy sauces in Chinese cuisine and the dark soy sauce would give you a darker sauce.

    Reply
  40. What a Dish! says

    February 11, 2014 at 7:03 pm

    Made this for dinner tonight and really enjoyed. I also enjoyed how easy this was! During the day I pre-cut the chicken, and then made the sauce and stuck it in the fridge. When dinner time came, it was SO easy to cook the chicken and throw the sauce in. It also thickened perfectly with the cornstarch. I added about a TBS more OJ.

    Reply
  41. kevin says

    February 12, 2014 at 1:51 pm

    What a Dish!: I am glad that you enjoyed it! Preparing everything ahead of time is a great idea to make things even quicker at meal time!

    Reply
  42. Lacey says

    February 27, 2014 at 1:55 am

    Wow oh wow, this orange chicken was Awesome, it ROCKS!!!! Thanks, Kevin.

    Reply
  43. Phuong Pham says

    April 14, 2014 at 12:03 am

    I made this for dinner tonight and it was super delicious. The fact that it is healthy makes it the best orange chicken ever. It will be our staple from now on. Thanks so much!

    Reply
  44. Gillyflower says

    May 31, 2014 at 4:08 am

    I thought it was awful. It was far too sweet and I didn't use the amount stated. I finally had to put in some bitter marmalade to rectify it. If it's better than a takeout, it doesn't say much for your restaurent.

    Reply
  45. Anonymous says

    May 31, 2014 at 4:21 am

    Delicious.

    Reply
  46. kevin says

    May 31, 2014 at 3:42 pm

    Gillyflower: This should not have been super sweet. The sweetness from the honey should have balanced nicely with the saltiness from the soy sauce and the tartness from the rice vinegar so that it becomes more of an undertone rather than dominant. Did you use fresh orange juice or sweetened bottled orange juice? Did you use regular soy sauce or low sodium? Did you use plain rice vinegar or the sweetened rice vinegar that is used for sushi rice?

    Reply
  47. tammy says

    June 2, 2014 at 10:39 pm

    why does this chicken have to be cut up in small pieces. Can't I make it with chicken breasts and thighs? Thank you.

    Reply
  48. kevin says

    June 2, 2014 at 11:11 pm

    tammy: Generally stir-frys use small pieces of meat but you could certainly do a full chicken breast or thigh!

    Reply
  49. Keri Butler says

    June 19, 2014 at 5:55 pm

    I made this last night with boneless/skinless chicken thighs & thought it was really good! I thought it was the perfect balance of sweet & spicy, though I did add a touch more sriracha & some red pepper flakes. Will def be making again, thanks!

    Reply
  50. kevin says

    June 25, 2014 at 10:15 am

    Keri Butler: I'm glad you enjoyed it! I like to add extra sriracha as well! 🙂

    Reply
  51. Kelly Harrison says

    February 17, 2015 at 7:56 pm

    Love this recipe!! It is so simple and delicious! Thank you

    Reply
  52. Sally says

    February 21, 2015 at 12:49 pm

    This was EXCELLENT! So much healthier than the breaded and fried version and so simple for a weeknight. I will be trying this same method with other oriental sauce creations. Thanks!

    Reply
  53. Shelly says

    February 9, 2016 at 12:47 am

    Made this for dinner tonight. I added orange bell pepper and sugar snap peas, and served over brown rice. Everyone enjoyed it. Thanks for sharing the recipe!

    Reply
  54. Anonymous says

    September 14, 2016 at 12:53 am

    Made this a couple times now. Totally awesome!! So easy and wonderful flavor!!

    Reply
  55. Sarah K says

    April 15, 2017 at 9:52 pm

    This obviously is a wonderful dish! My husband very much dislikes chicken and insisted your orange chicken recipe to be a regular weeknight meal. Next time I make it I think I'll add some cashews for some crunch and orange segments for added juice.

    Reply
  56. kevin says

    April 16, 2017 at 3:33 pm

    Sarah K: I'm glad you like it! The addition of cashews and orange segments would be amazing!

    Reply
  57. Odette says

    November 5, 2020 at 5:54 pm

    Is the zest added to the orange juice mixture or is it used as a garnish. Sorry, I haven’t seen the application in the recipe.

    Reply

Trackbacks

  1. 20 Orange Chicken Recipes - Classical & Delicious Recipes - DIYs Craft says:
    November 26, 2019 at 7:48 am

    […] Image Credit: closetcooking […]

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