While I was working on my meal plan for this week, I posted on Facebook that I was having trouble deciding what to make. A friend of mine, CrunchyMetroMom, said she was working on a dish with chicken and orange juice. Since I am getting a little burned out on making Sesame Chicken, Orange Chicken popped into my mind, like the Orange Chicken at Panda Express. So, I went in search of recipes online and then ended up doing something in between 2 recipes. Then, since I got part of my friend’s Asian themed veggie pack, I had vegetables to stir fry to go along with the chicken. The chicken I did in the slow cooker, but I think next time, I might do it like I do Sesame Chicken, cook the chicken, mix the sauce, then add the chicken and vegetables. One advantage to using the slow cooker is that the chicken really absorbs the sauce well, but with my slow cooker, it didn’t leave a lot leftover for the vegetables. I could have added the vegetables to the slow cooker, but I was worried about them being too mushy, but would have saved me some time. Anyway, I’ll walk you through how I did it, and you can decide if you want to the same, do all in the slow cooker, or all in a wok. Also, if you would like to add some heat to this, add some crushed red pepper flakes.
Orange Chicken and Vegetables over Rice
Based on recipes here and here
What you need:
Orange Sauce: (I made this twice, once for the chicken, once for the vegetables)
– 3/4 cup pulp free frozen orange juice concentrate, thawed (this is 1/2 can)
– 2 Tbsp rice vinegar
– 1 Tbsp soy sauce
– 1 Tbsp ketchup
– 3 Tbsp brown sugar
– 1/2 tsp sesame oil
1.5 lbs boneless, skinless chicken breasts, cut into 2 inch pieces
1/4 cup flour
Vegetable oil
Vegetables to stir fry (I used carrots, water chestnuts, green onion, bok choy stems and leaves, and broccoli)
Cooked rice
How to make it:
Dredge chicken in flour. Heat some vegetable oil in a skillet, and brown chicken just enough to get the flour to stay on the chicken. Place chicken in slow cooker.
Meanwhile, combine all ingredients for the orange sauce in a bowl. Pour over chicken in the slow cooker to evenly coat. Cook on low for 6 hours or high for 3-4 hours.
Once you are ready to serve, heat some vegetable oil in a wok. Start with veggies that take longer to cook (in my case, the carrots, broccoli, water chestnuts, and bok choy stems), then add the veggies that take shorter to cook (in my case, green onions and bok choy leaves).
Meanwhile, again, combine all ingredients for the orange sauce in a bowl. Once veggies are all tender, pour in orange sauce and stir to coat evenly. Add in the chicken from the slow cooker. Cook until all heated through. Serve over the cooked rice.
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