Sending this Easy Orange Chicken recipe with some sunshine your way! This is a beautiful time of year here in Arizona. We had a pretty rainy, cold (for us) December, but January was sunny and 60 degrees. My sugar snap and snow pea vines have been taking over the garden, and we’ve been harvesting like crazy.
And since our orange tree is ready for picking too, it was definitely time to put them to good use as well. My family really loves this Easy Orange Chicken recipe (well 4/5, not bad), and I love that it uses ground chicken. I buy organic ground chicken from Costco in a three-pack and keep it in the freezer. While some recipes might call for dredging chopped chicken breast in cornstarch or flour, this recipe is a little more streamlined and better for a quick weeknight meal.
My family likes to have extra orange sauce to drizzle over the rice, so I’ve doubled the ingredients from the sauce recipe I’ve adapted it from. So if you are wondering why there’s so much sugar, this is why! But the flavors are really well balanced, so I’d encourage you to just take a deep breath, add that sugar, and don’t look back. It’ll be okay. You could also add honey in place of some of the sugar if that makes you feel better.
My older two boys love that this Easy Orange Chicken recipe is sweet, tangy, and a little spicy. The garlic, ginger, and crushed red pepper flakes give it a nice kick.
To make the prep even quicker, I use the little 1 teaspoon-sized cubes of fresh garlic and ginger you can find in the frozen section at Trader Joe’s. You keep them in the freezer, and then just pop out a cube whenever a recipe calls for them. Super convenient!
You can substitute any vegetable or vegetable mix that you prefer in this recipe. Broccoli, red peppers, grated carrots, and edamame would all be so good too.
This is one of those recipes that works well when you have your ingredients all laid out and ready to go before you start. I’d recommend having your rice steaming first thing, mix up the orange sauce, then sauté veggies and brown the ground chicken. Everything will come together quickly at the end, and you can gather everyone around to assemble their plates. I hope you all enjoy it as much as we do!
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Easy Orange Chicken
- Prep Time: 15 minutes
- Cook Time: 15 minutes
- Total Time: 30 minutes
- Yield: 4 servings 1x
- Category: Dinner
- Method: Sauté
- Cuisine: Chinese
Description
This Easy Orange Chicken is a family favorite because it’s sweet, tangy, and a little spicy too. It uses ground chicken so it comes together quickly!
Ingredients
- 4 teaspoons fresh grated ginger
- 4 garlic cloves, minced or pressed through a garlic press
- 1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes
- 2 tablespoons rice wine
- zest of one orange
- 1/4 cup freshly squeezed orange juice
- 1 tablespoon sesame oil
- 3 tablespoons soy sauce
- 3/4 cup granulated sugar
- 2/3 cup white vinegar
- 2–3 tablespoons oil (I use avocado oil)
- 1 to 1 1/2 pounds ground chicken
- 2 tablespoons cornstarch
- 1 tablespoon butter
- 2 cups snow peas (or other veggie of choice)
- kosher salt
- 2 cups steamed white rice
- fresh orange slices for garnish
Instructions
- Add ginger, garlic, red pepper flakes, rice wine, orange zest and juice, sesame oil, soy sauce, sugar and white vinegar to a medium bowl and whisk together. Set aside.
- In a large skillet or wok, heat oil over high heat.
- When pan is preheated and the oil is very hot, carefully tilt pan so the oil is coating most of the surface of the pan. Add ground chicken and flatten to a single layer. Allow the chicken to cook on high heat without stirring for 3-5 minutes, or until the bottom layer is seared to a golden brown. Then stir the chicken, and continue to cook until cooked through, breaking it up as you go.
- While the chicken is cooking, sauté snow peas in a separate pan in butter over medium high heat for 3-5 minutes, or until tender crisp. Season with kosher salt to taste.
- When the chicken is completely cooked through, whisk cornstarch into the orange sauce until completely incorporated, and then add to chicken in the wok. Cook on high heat and bring the orange sauce to a boil for 2-3 minutes. It’s ready when it thickens up and coats the chicken.
- Serve the orange chicken over white rice with the vegetables and garnish with orange slices and additional red pepper flakes if desired.
Notes
This recipe is adapted from Dinner Then Dessert’s Ground Orange Chicken.
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 1 Serving
- Calories: 809
- Sugar: 44g
- Sodium: 962mg
- Fat: 36g
- Saturated Fat: 8.8g
- Unsaturated Fat: 24.6g
- Trans Fat: 0.3g
- Carbohydrates: 76g
- Fiber: 3.7g
- Protein: 46g
- Cholesterol: 190mg
Becky Bibelheimer says
My family LOVED this dish!! It is so easy to make. This will be my go to Orange Chicken from here on out.