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 just made this recipe for the first time for my meal prep and it’s SO GOOD. Oh my gosh. I squeezed my own orange juice and it is the best orange chicken recipe I’ve ever had. Thanks so much for posting this up. It’s a new staple.
Thanks for sharing, Ashley, we’re so happy you enjoyed it! :)
Just made it. So good! Thank you!
We’re so glad you enjoyed it, Brandon!
Do you have the nutritional information?
Hi there! We’re sorry, but we are unsure of the nutrition facts/amount of calories in this recipe. 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 turned out pretty darn good! I think next time, for my own personal taste, I may use slightly less OJ. But this is a pretty awesome recipe.
Awesome, so glad you liked it!
Hi, I’m new to the site I have not made this recipe yet but am going to for my wife she loves orange chicken but she is a type 2 diabetic and we have to follow certain dietary guidelines. I was wondering do you have the dietary conversions for this recipe the primary ones we are concerned about e carbs and fat counts.
Thank you
Hi Patrick, welcome! Since you would need this info for health reasons, and we aren’t health professionals, we wouldn’t feel comfortable advising you on any dietary conversions, especially since we aren’t sure of the nutritional info of this recipe. We’d recommend consulting with your wife’s doctor or a nutritionist to be on the safe side. We’re sorry we couldn’t be of any help and we do hope you both can give this one a try!
I’ve made this recipe a million times with chicken and my family absolutely loves it! I was wondering if I could use shrimp instead of chicken for this recipe. Would it work? Has anyone tried this?
Thank you for sharing, Elsa, we’re so happy to hear that! We haven’t tried this with shrimp, but you definitely could! It won’t need much time to cook though, that would be the only difference.
Tried this tonight and served it over quinoa. It was absolutely delicious! Can’t wait to try more of your recipes.
We’re so happy you enjoyed it, Linda! :)
Great idea! I love this recipe, I do it often! Thanks for sharing yours cooking ideas.
We’re glad you enjoy it!
So I made this, and it’s delicious but it turned brown. It wasn’t orange at any point. I’m wondering if I added to much soy sauce to it or what. I’m not sure. But it’s still really good.
Hmmm, we’re not sure why it turned brown (maybe it got a little overcooked, or maybe it was too much soy)? We’re glad to hear you still enjoyed it though!
Can I make the sauce and keep it in the fridge for a couple of days and then take it out and use it when I wanna make the dish?
Yes, totally — we hope you enjoy!