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.
Healthy Orange Chicken
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
- Heat a large skillet or wok over medium-high heat.
- Add 2 teaspoons of avocado oil (or other high heat oil), then add chicken to sear and season lightly with salt and pepper.
- Once chicken is cooked through, remove and set aside while leaving all the liquid released from cooking in the pan.
- 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.
- 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.)
- 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.
- Serve garnished with sesame seeds and green onion.
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!
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!
Eat and Enjoy,
Nicole
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 – 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
- 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 salt
- 1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
- 1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
- Garnish with sesame seeds and green onion
Instructions
- Heat a large skillet or wok over medium-high heat.
- Add 2 teaspoons of avocado oil (or other high heat oil), then add chicken to sear and season lightly with salt and pepper.
- Once chicken is cooked through, remove and set aside while leaving all the liquid released from cooking in the pan.
- 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.
- 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.)
- 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.
- 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, paleo, healthy orange chicken recipe, gluten free
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I made the orange chicken but unfortunately my sauce would not thicken up at all
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.