Healthy Orange Chicken
By: Jamie Lau
Published: Friday, June 8, 2012 - 1:00pm

Ingredients




1 lb chicken breast
1 tsp vegetable oil
1/4 cup orange juice
1/4 cup rice vinegar
1 tsp rice wine
2 tbs soy sauce
1 tbs hot chili sauce
2 cloves minced garlic
1 tbs brown sugar
2 tbs orange zest
1 stalk green onions
1/4 cup water
1 tsp corn starch
salt and pepper to taste
white rice

Preparation

1 Cut the chicken breast into cubes. In a mixing bowl, marinate the chicken with orange juice, rice vinegar, rice wine, hot chili sauce, brown sugar, and minced garlic. Cover the chicken with plastic wrap and press down so the marinade will soak the chicken evenly. Refrigerate for 1 hour. 2 While waiting for the chicken to marinate, prepare the vegetables. Chop the onion into square pieces. Chop green onions and separate the white and green parts. Zest the orange. 3 In a sauté pan, add vegetable oil and turn to high heat. Add in the chicken and sauté for 1 minute. Toss the chicken and sauté for another minute or until caramelized. Transfer the chicken to a dish. 4 Continue to use high heat. Add the chopped onion to the pan and sauté until soft. Add the chicken back to the pan, with the white parts of the green onion and orange zest. Cook for about 30 seconds. Add the liquid to the pan and let it simmer to 30 seconds. Add the remaining green onion to the pan and let the sauce continue to reduce and thicken. 5 When the sauce is reduced to desired consistency, add salt and pepper to taste. The orange chicken is done. Serve over white rice.

About

Everyone knows about the orange chicken from Panda Express, but perhaps not everyone knows that it contains no real orange. The dish is rather unhealthy with deep fried heavy batter and lots of food coloring. However, it is something I crave once in a while when I am at the mall looking for food. To satisfy my craving for orange chicken and not feel overly guilty, I created a low fat version with real orange in the ingredients. I substituted chicken thigh with breast meat for a lower calorie dish.