chicken recipe Archives

Orange chicken uses marmalade, jelly, jam, or preserves to make a sauce with vinegar and vinaigrette. It’s a great adaptable recipe since you can use other meats and change up the taste by the sweet you choose and the spices you choose. This is one of our favorites for using those specialty preserves you find in the farmer’s market or get as a gift. You will need a saucepan, measuring spoons, a spatula and a grill or baking pan. First I’ll go over the recipe in the standard version. I’ll give you tips on mix and match with this recipe later. Cook the chicken tenders. You can do this by applying a meat rub and grilling outdoors or baking in the oven for about 20 minutes.

Drain the mandarin oranges. I look for oranges that are in pear juice, or something that is not heavy syrup.

In a saucepan, stir together orange marmalade, vinegar, and salad dressing over medium high heat. Stir until it becomes a smooth sauce. Turn the heat to low.

Add pumpkin pie spice and drained oranges. Stir gently.

Add the cooked chicken and heat through. Serve with slivered or sliced almonds and a vegetable medley. I mix carrots, snow peas, and black beans. Serves 4. Now for the remixes:

Meat: use turkey loin cut into 4-inch square cutlets
Marmalade: our favorites are tomato jam or apricot-peach-passion fruit preserves. Onion jam or blackberry preserves work. Experiment with savory and sweet that go well with chicken.
Fruit: use pineapple chunks, peaches, or for old school flavor, use canned fruit cocktail
Vinegar: our favorite is Blueberry BBQ Sauce from The Vivian Howard Shop. Experiment with red wine vinegar or other specialty vinegars
Salad dressing: our favorite is mandarin-ginger-poppy seed. Try Italian, onion, or other vinaigrette type.
Spice: our favorite is powdered li hing mui, made from salted dried plums (a Hawaiian treat!). You might try five spice or Bavarian spice.

Orange chicken is sweet and savory with mandarin oranges, preserves, and vinegar. Lots of alternatives versions provided. Healthy and very tasty. You can make it as fruity or savory as you wish.

Nutrition for orange chicken with mandarin oranges

1 whole recipe of orange chicken with mandarin oranges is about 1470 calories. 1 serving is about 368 calories. Nutrition facts are approximations.

Resource links for orange chicken with mandarin oranges

https://www.thekitchn.com/how-to-make-tomato-jam-247279
- How to make sweet and savory tomato jam from The Kitchn
https://www.saveur.com/blueberry-barbecue-chicken-recipe
- Vivian Howard’s blueberry barbecue chicken from Saveur
https://www.snackhawaii.com/blogs/news/5-ways-to-use-li-hing-mui-powder
- 5 ways to use li hing mui powder from Snack Hawaii

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Sweet and sour chicken is an old style American takeout Chinese dish that is not difficult to make at home. I wanted to update my old recipe to make it healthier. The biggest change is taking out the fried crispy coating on the chicken. I went for crunch by using ground toasted almonds and baking the chicken before adding it to the zingy sweet and sour sauce.

You will need a baking pan, saucepan, cutting board, knife, measuring spoons, 3 small pans or bowls for dredging, and immersion blender with chopper (or food processor).

Use a food processor or small chopper to chop the almonds into a coarse flour.

Place in a dredging pan, add panko crumbs and salt and pepper mix and mix thoroughly. You may do this with all almonds, just take into account the calories (1/2 cup almonds 360 cal, 1/2 cup panko 120 cal.)

Cover the baking pan with a silicone baking mat. Or cover with aluminum foil, shiny side down. Spray with cooking spray.

Cut chicken into 1 inch pieces.

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

Line up dredging pans near the baking pan. Place cornstarch in first, pineapple juice in second, and almond-panko mixture in the third. Dredge the chicken chunks in cornstarch, juice, and almond mixture and place on baking pan. Spray with cooking spray.

Place in oven and bake for 10 minutes. Remove pan from oven and use tongs to flip chicken pieces. Bake for up to an additional 10 minutes, if necessary. Check for doneness (175 degrees) and add additional oven minutes if needed.

While the chicken is baking, place pineapple juice, vinegar, liquid aminos, and marmalade in the saucepan.

Stir the sauce over medium high heat until hot.

Add carrots to pan, heat until they begin to be soft.

Add peppers to pan, heat until they begin to be soft.

Add arrowroot 1 teaspoon at a time until the sauce thickens enough to stick to the spoon. Remove from heat if the chicken is not ready.

Add the cooked chicken and pineapple to the sauce and heat on low until warm.

Serve with cooked brown rice. Makes 4 servings.

Clean eating tip: You can use gluten-free panko, arrowroot instead of cornstarch, lime juice or water with chicken bouillon instead of pineapple juice, organic raw unfiltered apple cider vinegar, and coconut aminos.

Healthy sweet and sour chicken gets flavor from marmalade and vinegar. Chicken is baked with an almond coating. Pineapples, peppers, and carrots round out the dish.

Nutrition for healthy sweet and sour chicken

1 whole recipe of healthy sweet and sour chicken with brown rice is about 2911 calories. 1 serving is about 728 calories. Nutrition facts are approximations.