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’ve made this several times, following the recipe exactly as written the first time. But I had to add some more liquid to the pan, as I found 3 Tbsp. of cornstarch made the sauce WAY too gloppy and thick. I’ve cut it back to 1-1/2 Tbsp. to make the sauce satisfactory to me.
I also add sliced carrots, celery and broccoli florets to the mix to make a complete meal when served over basmati rice.
Thanks for sharing with us, Linda — we’re sorry you’ve had some difficulty getting the sauce the right consistency, but we’re glad you’ve figured out something that works for you! We love the veggies you’ve added and bet they’re delicious! :)
Amazing, delicious I’ve made it twice 1st using honey, this time I used agave both awesome. With cauliflower fried rice absolutely delicious. BUT how many calories per serving? Please help me figure out how often I can have this Asian delight.
Thanks, Cheryl — we’re so happy you enjoy it! As for the calories per serving, unfortunately we aren’t sure. We currently are not publishing nutrition facts on the site, as the nutrition calculators available are not 100% accurate, and we never want to publish anything that might be misleading. However, a lot of our readers love the My Fitness Pal nutrition calculator, so feel free to try that for an estimate. We hope that helps!
This was very good. Had with white rice and fresh berries. Next time think I’ll add carrot slices. I found it helpful to make the sauce first so that it is ready to pour into the chicken as it is done. I don’t know what I did differently, but there is no way the prep work (which I consider cleaning the chicken breasts, then cutting them up and slicing the onions and making the sauce) took as little as 10 minutes. A delicious and satisfying result.
Thanks for sharing with us, John – we’re happy you enjoyed it!
Hi Hayley,
I wanted to make this for a New Years Eve party and wondered if you had any suggestions on making this ahead of time so I’m not cooking while guests are arriving?
Thanks!
Hi Laura, we’re sorry for just now getting to your comment! Do you have a slow cooker? You could make this ahead of time and keep it in your slow cooker on the “warming” setting. Or, you could keep it in the oven after cooking (at a low temp —200 degrees), with foil on top. We hope this helps for next time!
This was awesome! I made it paleo by subbing arrowroot flour for the cornstarch and coconut aminos for the soy sauce. I also halved the amount of honey and it was still delicious! Served over cauliflower rice. Thanks for the great recipe!
We’re happy you enjoyed it and that you were able to make it Paleo, Whitney! :)
How is this healthier than a restaurant version?
Because we naturally sweetened this with honey instead of sugar and/or high fructose corn syrup, and the chicken is sautéed rather than heavily breaded and fried like the way most restaurants prepare it. We hope you can give this a try! :)
Made this tonight and it was delicious!
Thanks for sharing Tiffany — we’re so glad you enjoyed it!
i bet this tastes lovely. Thanks for sharing this, gonna give this a go later. Simon
Thanks Simon — we hope you enjoy!
We make this whenever we are craving Chinese food! Very delicious.
Yay! We’re so glad you’re a fan, Shawn!
pretty good for a healthy meal