Mandarin Orange Chicken
Looking to order some take out? Â If you have a few key ingredients in your pantry you can whip up this delicious Mandarin Orange Chicken and have fresh take out right from your own kitchen.
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While cleaning out my pantry and making room for the jars of pasta sauce that I featured yesterday I noticed I had several cans of mandarin oranges on the shelves so it was time to put a can of these to use. Â Mandarin oranges are one of those staples I always have in my pantry. Â They are great on salads, Â with cottage cheese, or in this case, added in to this tasty and delicious chicken dish.
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The perfect compliment with this dish is Coconut Rice that I have featured previously. Â The hint of orange in the chicken and the sauce combined with the infused coconut rice makes for the perfect weeknight dinner and if there are any leftovers, the best lunch the next day!
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| Toss chicken with orange juice and corn starch. |
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| Prep peppers, onion and garlic. |
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| Cook chicken in oil, stirring frequently. |
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| Add in vegetables and cook until slightly tender. |
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| Add in remaining ingredients and cook until sauce thickens. Â |
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Mandarin Orange Chicken
Ingredients
- 1 ½ pounds boneless chicken breast, cubed
- 2 tablespoons orange juice
- ¼ cup plus 1 tablespoon corn starch
- 2 tablespoons vegetable oil
- 1 ½ cups red, orange or yellow peppers (or combination), cut in to strips
- 1 cup sweet onion, sliced
- 1–2 garlic cloves, minced
- 2 tablespoons soy sauce
- 2 tablespoons hoisin sauce
- 1 11oz can mandarin orange with juice
- 3 tablespoons distilled white vinegar
- 3 tablespoons brown sugar
- Salt and pepper
- 1–2 tablespoons orange zest for serving (optional)
Coconut Rice
- 1 14oz can lite coconut milk
- 3 tablespoons water
- 1 cup white rice
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
Instructions
- Directions
- In a medium bowl sprinkle chicken with a pinch of salt and pepper. Pour orange juice over chicken and toss with ¼ cup corn starch until coated evenly.
- Heat oil in a large skillet on medium heat and add chicken to skillet.
- Cook chicken, turning frequently until all sides are brown and chicken is cooked thoroughly.
- Add peppers, onion and garlic and cook until slightly tender, about 5 minutes.
- Mix 1 tablespoon cornstarch with soy sauce and hoisin sauce.
- Add mixture to skillet with mandarin oranges with juice, vinegar and sugar and stir until blended. Cook for an additional 3 minutes.
- Add a pinch of salt and pepper for taste if desired.
Coconut Rice
- In a medium pot add coconut milk, water and a pinch of salt and bring to boil.
- Add rice and stir.
- Reduce heat to low and cover for 20 minutes until milk is absorbed and rice is cooked.
- Add salt if desired, fluff with fork and serve.
I love take-out style dishes at home. The veggies look so good in this and it sounds so much healthier than the restaurant version. Love this Jennifer!
Thanks Cassie! 🙂
That chicken looks fantastic. Great pictures. Come visit us. We have a terrific gnocchi recipe this week. We are also celebrating our blogiversary and we would love for you to comment on the post and win a prize.
Orange chicken is one of my favorites, but I’ve never had coconut rice! Definitely on my list now.
The coconut rice is fabulous! Just that perfect hint of coconut infused in the rice. If you love coconut, you’ll love it! 🙂
Going to make the orange chicken this weekend, looks good. Maidene Scheiner
Hi Maidene! Let me know how you like it!
I did an internet search of mandarin orange chicken and chose your recipe because it looked the best. I also made the coconut rice. It was awesome! Thanks for the recipe! I’m sure I’ll use this site as a resource in the future.
I know this is an oldie, but I wanted to thank you for this recipe! I’d never made any sort of orange chicken, although we love a boxed version from Sam’s Club. I was pretty skeptical after dumping the mandarin oranges in because it looked so watery and weird. But then the oranges broke down and turned into something spectacular! My whole family gobbled it up–even the toddler. We made it with frozen peas, broccoli, and carrots. Had no hoisin, but it was still delicious!
So glad to hear you tried this recipe and it was a hit with your family. Thanks for letting me know! 🙂
I just made this last night and it was a hit with my husband and I! He got seconds and thirds. I didn’t have hoison sauce though, and we substituted liquid aminos for the soy sauce, it turned out great!
Hi! I’m so glad to hear this was a hit with you and your husband. It is one of my favorites too!
I was looking for a good orange chicken recipe that tastes like the restaurant. This is the closest I have found. Very good and the orange peel on top gives it my of the orange flavor. Love it!
Hi Angie! Glad to hear you enjoyed this recipe. Happy New Year!
I just made this and it was incredible! It tasted like real chinese food and my husband loved it!
I just made this recipe for my lunch over onion rice. All I have to say is YUM!
★★★★★
This was fantastic! although I changed up a few things to save money.
1. I used the 2 tbsp. of the mandarin juice for the orange juice,
2. I used only 1 tbsp. of vinegar and used Mirren instead of white vinegar.
3. Marinated the chicken for 2 hours in the juice and cornstarch.
4. and finally added a tbsp. of brown sugar to the rice ( I USED STICKY RICE).
This is absolutely wonderful!!!!!!
Thanks a bunch!
Deb