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 by request from my 17 year old who has been asking me to make this recipe. I really didn’t want to fry the chicken in the true sense of “orange chicken”, so when i saw this recipe that was more of a browning of the chicken and the sauce i thought i would give it a try. The verdict was she LOVED it! The only changes i made is i used fresh grated ginger and added double the fresh orange juice so she would have more sauce. It turned out great and i have added this to our rotation!
Thank you for sharing this one!
The Marshall Family
Do you use juice from the orange or a bottle? Crazy question I know but one is thicker than the other so I don’t know if matters.
I love this dish! It is packed full of flavour…the orange zest ans sweetness from the honey is just delicious! I make it at less once a month!
Just whipped up a pot of this orange chicken and it’s so yummy! We haven’t found a place in town good enough to satisfy our Chinese food cravings yet. So this recipe is a godsend. I added drained pineapple as someone in the comments suggested and it just put it over the top. Keep up the good work!
I’m TERRIBLE at cooking, but I needed to make something for a date that would impress. Thank you for this recipe, they were impressed.
OMGoodness! Killer recipe. Delish! Sprinkled with toasted sesame seeds and green onions. Looked just like the picture. Made stir fry vegies and served over quinoa. ( I love quinoa, but never added salt to it…what a difference. Thx for the tip!) Can’t wait to make this again! I never rate recipes, but this was just too tasty not to say so.
Listennnnnnnnn Listen Linda. This is delicious. On the couch just took a bite and had to leave a comment. Hot damn!
This recipe was soooo good! It was nice, light, and did not leave out flavor! I made mine with Jasmine rice instead of quinoa but the orange sauce was just so good! I thought it was sweet enough on its own so I did not add extra honey.
I put this over cauliflower rice! Very yummy and even healthier!!
How many calories per serving and what is a serving? I know this recipe is from years ago but hoping you get this! Tracking calories so need the info. Thank you!!