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Healthy Orange Chicken

23 · Jan 10, 2020 · 4 Comments

Lunch & Dinner

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Healthy Orange Chicken in a pot and served in a white bowl with black chopsticks taking a bite.

Healthy Orange Chicken – Make healthy take out style comfort food from the comfort of your own home! Made in under an hour with that classic sticky sweet sauce using only simple natural ingredients. It’s sure to be your family’s new favorite! 

Originally published on June 9, 2018. Last updated on January 10, 2020.

Two white bowls filled with Healthy Orange Chicken topped with green onions.

Healthy Orange Chicken Recipe

One of my all time favorite comfort foods is Chinese take out! It might all stem from the fact that my first job was in a family owned Chinese restaurant and man, I can still taste that sweet and sour sauce that I managed to pour over everything….. This Healthy Orange Chicken is every bit as good as take out while also being made with clean ingredients!

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How To Make Healthy Orange Chicken

*Full recipe including ingredients and instructions are listed below in the recipe card.

  1. Heat a large skillet or wok over medium-high heat.
  2. Add 2 teaspoons of avocado oil (or other high heat oil), then add chicken to sear and season lightly with salt and pepper.
  3. Once chicken is cooked through, remove and set aside while leaving all the liquid released from cooking in the pan.
  4. In the same pan, reduce the heat to medium and add the orange juice, coconut aminos, raw honey, apple cider vinegar, ground ginger, garlic powder, salt, black pepper and cayenne pepper and stir well to combine.
  5. Allow the sauce to reduce for 20 minutes at a simmer, stirring occasionally. (The sauce will start out very runny and will considerably thicken to the point where you can see the separation when you pull a spatula through it.)
  6. After reducing the sauce for 20 minutes, add the chicken back to the sauce and stir to combine. Reheat the chicken in the sauce for 5 minutes before serving.
  7. Serve garnished with sesame seeds and green onion.
Sauce pot full of reducing orange sauce and a white spatula.
Sauce pot full of reducing orange sauce and a white spatula separating the sauce.
Sauce pot full of simmering orange chicken in sauce.

Healthy Orange Chicken Sauce

We all know the magic of this dish is the sauce. Sweet and tangy, so good you could literally just eat it by the spoonful! You might assume that a restaurant quality sweet and sour sauce would be way too much work and involve tons of less than desirable ingredients, and that may very well be true of some recipes but not this one! This recipe involves a minimal amount of easy to find pure ingredients with bold flavors that pack a flavorful punch with very little effort required. So the next time you are craving Chinese take out, make this sweet dish instead!

Large stainless steel pot full of orange chicken covered in sauce.

A white bowl of healthy orange chicken with green onions and sesame seeds.

How To Serve Healthy Orange Chicken

This healthy orange chicken is paleo, to keep it paleo you can serve it over cauliflower rice or along side my Roasted Asparagus. If you’d like to serve this dish over traditional rice I highly suggest the organic basmati rice from Trader Joe’s!

A white bowl of healthy orange chicken with green onions and sesame seeds with black chopsticks picking up a bite.

More Healthy Asian Recipes:

  • Korean Beef
  • Healthy Sweet and Sour Chicken
  • Instant Pot Teriyaki Chicken
  • Instant Pot Beef and Broccoli
  • Asian Stir Fry

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Healthy Orange Chicken in a pot and served in a white bowl with black chopsticks taking a bite.

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A white bowl of healthy orange chicken with green onions and sesame seeds with black chopsticks picking up a bite.

One Pot Healthy Orange Chicken

★★★★★ 5 from 2 reviews
  • Author: Nicole
  • Prep Time: 5 minutes
  • Cook Time: 30 minutes
  • Total Time: 35 minutes
  • Yield: 6-8 portions 1x
  • Category: Lunch & Dinner
  • Method: Stove top
  • Cuisine: Asian
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Description

Healthy Orange Chicken – Make healthy take out style comfort food from the comfort of your own home! Made in under an hour with that classic sticky sweet sauce using only simple natural ingredients. It’s sure to be your family’s new favorite!


Ingredients

Scale
  • 2 lbs chicken breasts or thighs, cut into bite sized pieces
  • 2 teaspoons avocado oil, for sauteing chicken
  • 3 cups orange juice
  • 1/4 cup coconut aminos
  • 1/4 cup raw honey
  • 1 Tablespoon apple cider vinegar
  • 2 teaspoons ground ginger
  • 1 teaspoon garlic powder
  • 1 teaspoon unrefined sea salt
  • 1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
  • 1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
  • Garnish with sesame seeds and green onion

Instructions

  1. Heat a large skillet or wok over medium-high heat.
  2. Add 2 teaspoons of avocado oil (or other high heat oil), then add chicken to sear and season lightly with salt and pepper.
  3. Once chicken is cooked through, remove and set aside while leaving all the liquid released from cooking in the pan.
  4. In the same pan, reduce the heat to medium and add the orange juice, coconut aminos, raw honey, apple cider vinegar, ground ginger, garlic powder, salt, black pepper and cayenne pepper and stir well to combine.
  5. Allow the sauce to reduce for 20 minutes at a simmer, stirring occasionally. (The sauce will start out very runny and will considerably thicken to the point where you can see the separation when you pull a spatula through it.)
  6. After reducing the sauce for 20 minutes, add the chicken back to the sauce and stir to combine. Reheat the chicken in the sauce for 5 minutes before serving.
  7. Serve garnished with sesame seeds and green onion. Enjoy!

Notes

*Cayenne pepper controls the spice level of this dish. The recipe is written to achieve a mild amount of spice suitable for children and adults who can tolerate a little “kick” of heat and will not yield a spicy dish. I recommend starting with 1/4 teaspoon of cayenne pepper and building slowly from there if you desire a spicy dish.

Keywords: healthy orange chicken, healthy orange chicken recipe, healthy orange chicken sauce,

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23

Lunch & Dinner posted by Nicole on January 10, 2020
4 Comments

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Comments

  1. Mary Gillespie says

    February 19, 2020 at 4:10 pm

    I made the orange chicken but unfortunately my sauce would not thicken up at all

    Reply
    • Nicole says

      February 19, 2020 at 11:52 pm

      Hi Mary, I’m sorry to hear that. If you reduce the sauce at a simmer for 20 minutes as the recipe directs your sauce will definitely thicken up as evaporation takes place. It will take the full 20 minutes to achieve so be sure to give it time.

      Reply
  2. Val says

    September 22, 2020 at 7:30 pm

    This was tastier and healthier than ANY restaurant version! I served over brown rice. It was AMAZING! It is definitely going in my rotation!

    ★★★★★

    Reply
    • Nicole says

      September 22, 2020 at 7:56 pm

      Val, thank you so much for sharing! I’m so pleased you enjoyed it! It’s certainly a favorite of mine too.

      ★★★★★

      Reply

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