Happy New Year’s, everyone!
I hope that your 2014 is off to a terrific start. And hopefully, a delicious and healthy start!
So for all of you new years resolution folks who are out there scanning the world wide webosphere looking for lighter recipes after a holiday season full of sweets, you’ve come to the right place. Because I am dedicating the entire month of January this year to sharing healthy recipes with you. And I am stoked to kick things off with a lightened-up Chinese food classic — Skinny Orange Chicken.
This version packs all of the amazing sweet and savory orange flavor of the restaurant-style version, but with only a fraction of the calories and fat. And it is naturally sweetened with honey. And it can be served over rice or (my favorite) quinoa. And it can be made in just 20 minutes from start to finish.
Interested? You should be. :)
The main key to lightening up this restaurant classic is that we simply saute the chicken instead of fry it. The chicken is sauteed until golden and drenched in an orange chicken sauce anyway, so I guarantee you won’t even miss the frying! Plus, it saves us lots of unnecessary fat and calories in an already delicious dish.
And as I said, this skinny orange chicken recipe can literally be made in about 20 minutes. So here’s what you need to make it happen.
First, begin by cutting your chicken breasts into bite-sized pieces. Mine were roughly 1-inch cubed. Then season them with lots of salt and pepper for extra flavor.
Next, we make the rockstar of this recipe — the orange chicken sauce. This sauce really could not be simpler. Simply whisk all of the ingredients together along with some cornstarch (for thickening), and you’re ready to go.
Chicken + Sauce. Done.
Next, saute the chicken in some olive oil until it is nearly cooked through. Be sure to let it rest in the pan a bit while cooking so that the sides can get nice and browned.
Then pour in the sauce, which should come to a boil within a minute or so. Let it boil for about 1-2 minutes, or until it’s nice and thickened.
Then top the chicken with some extra orange zest, green onions and toasted sesame seeds, and you’re good to go!
If you want to go the traditional route, you can serve this orange chicken recipe over rice. But I’m a big fan of eating stir-fry recipes with quinoa. So I whipped up a quick batch for this recipe, made (as always) with chicken broth for extra flavor.
I mean, really, just look at that gorgeous dish!
So much great flavor, and so little unnecessary fat and calories from frying the chicken. I’m pretty positive that even your friends or family members who usually prefer the fried version will go “poco loco” over this dish. :)
Stay tuned for more healthy recipes to come this month on Gimme Some Oven. And cheers to a great 2014 ahead!
Skinny Orange Chicken
Ingredients
Orange Chicken Ingredients:
- 2 lb. boneless, skinless chicken breasts, cut into bite-sized pieces
- salt and pepper
- 2 Tbsp. olive oil
- orange chicken sauce (ingredients below)
- toppings: thinly-sliced green onions, toasted sesame seeds, orange zest
Orange Chicken Sauce Ingredients:
- 3 cloves garlic, minced
- 1/2 cup orange juice
- 1/2 cup honey
- 1/3 cup soy sauce
- 1/4 cup rice wine vinegar
- 3 Tbsp. cornstarch
- 1/2 tsp. ground ginger
- 1/2 tsp. white pepper
- zest of one orange
- pinch of crushed red pepper flakes
(Optional: Quinoa Ingredients)
- 1 cup dry quinoa
- 2 cups chicken broth
Instructions
To Make The Orange Chicken:
- Season chicken generously with salt and pepper.
- Heat oil in a large saute pan over medium-high heat. Add chicken and saute for about 4-6 minutes, stirring occasionally, until the chicken is browned and nearly cooked through.
- Pour in the orange chicken sauce, and stir to combine. Let the sauce come to a boil, then boil for an additional minute or two until thickened. Remove from heat and serve immediately over quinoa or rice. Garnish with green onions, sesame seeds and additional orange zest.
To Make The Orange Chicken Sauce:
- Whisk all ingredients together until combined. If you would like the sauce to be even sweeter, add an extra 2-4 tablespoons of honey.
To Make The Quinoa:
- You can see my step-by-step photo tutorial for how to cook quinoa here https://axis-sanctum.live/how-to-cook-quinoa-recipe/%3C/a%3E.%3C/div%3E%3C/li%3E%3C/ul%3E%3C/div%3E%3C/div%3E
Did you make this?Let me know how it turned out in the comments below!
Be sure to also check out these related recipes:
How To Cook Quinoa (A Step-By-Step Tutorial)
i can’t have soy sauce. what is the subsitute for soy sauce?
Hi Pamela, you could try a mix of these ingredients: https://chinesefood.about.com/od/sauces/r/soy_sauce_sub.htm or fish sauce, or coconut aminos. We hope this helps!
Made this today for lunch, and had extra for other meals. I love this recipe! My friend made it at her house one night and I had to make it myself. did not have rice wine vinegar so I used apple cider but I didnt notice a taste difference. Also added some red pepper and cayenne for a little kick.
Has anyone tried making a large batch of this in a crock pot???
Thanks Kristy-Lee, we’re so happy you and your friend enjoyed it! That’s also good to know apple cider vinegar works well in this! :)
I made this tonight for my family. It was a hit! I loved it! Even my picky 2-year old ate it. This recipe is great and I’m looking forward to trying more of your recipes!
Thanks for sharing Saaliha, that’s awesome! :)
This was excellent! I’m making it for the second time tonight. The first time I was out of honey so I just used a bit of orange marmalade instead. Super delicious. Thank you!
Thanks Emily, we’re so happy you liked it! Also, great call on the orange marmalade, we bet that was serendipitous! :)
This dish was amazing! Absolutely delicious!!
Thank you Erin, we’re so glad you enjoyed it!
My boyfriend and I love this recipe!
Thanks, we’re happy to hear that! :)
Thanks, we’re so glad to hear that!
This is the first recipe of yours I tried and it will NOT be the last! My only complaint–my boyfriend wouldn’t stop eating it and now I don’t have enough for dinner tomorrow. :-P I thought the level of sweetness was spot-on, though I did add a tiny bit of onion powder to the sauce and little extra OJ. Thanks!!
Thanks Meredith, that’s such a nice compliment! We’re so happy you and your boyfriend loved it! :)
Tasted delicious, the entire family ate it. Not orangey enough, definitely not the orange chicken i thought of and my sauce did not look anything like the photo but yummmmy will cook again, sharing in my mommy groups
Thanks Shannon, we’re glad you and your family enjoyed this! To get more of an orange kick, you can try adding more orange juice and zest, (if you add a significant amount of juice, we’d suggest upping the cornstarch amount as well.) We hope that helps!
This recipe is delicious, but isn’t it pretty high in sodium?
Thanks, we’re glad you like it! We actually aren’t sure of the nutrition content, but if you’re concerned about the sodium, you could always use less sodium soy sauce, and less sodium chicken broth. We hope that helps!
I have to give honor to whom honor is due.
I made this for dinner. My husband ate my plate and the restof mine. I took it to work and was asked to make this for lunch for the staff.
Thank you for posting.
That makes us so happy Becca, thanks for sharing! We’re so glad it was a hit with your husband and your co-workers!