Asian Style Orange Glazed Chicken
This Asian Style Orange Glazed Chicken is a bit of a hybrid between the Honey Sesame Chicken recipe that I recently came up with, and Foodie Crush’s Glazed Orange Chicken, a recipe that I luckily stumbled upon a weeks ago, during one of my many Pinterest browsing sessions (I think I may be spending a little bit too much time on Pinterest lately…)
Given my love for Asian food, I guess it will come as no surprise if I say that Heidi’s recipe was immediately added it to my “must-do-asap” list.
The original recipe sounded absolutely delicious as it stood, too, but I decided to make a few substitutions to make it paleo friendly. Plus, you know me when it comes to following a recipe, right? It’s like some crazy tour de force that I just can’t seem to be able pull!
Now before we start cooking, I have to ask you to please forgive me for the poor quality of my pictures: it was so unbelievably dark out on the day that I decided to make this recipe, it might as well have been the middle of the night…
Good thing I have a decent tripod and a pretty good amera, but still… For a while, I wasn’t even sure that I’d manage to get enough decent shots for me to share the recipe with you. Thank goodness, I was able to perform a little miracle on a handful of them, because not logging this recipe would’ve been a total shame. This orange glazed chicken is even better than take-out, and it’s even easier to make than my equally delicious Honey Sesame Chicken.
I think it’s a recipe you’ll definitely want to add to your regular rotation, especially if you too are a fan of Asian food! As you can very well imagine, it’s sweet and sour, and has just what it takes of spiciness to it. Don’t be alarmed by the seemingly generous addition of sambal oelek. While it may seem like a lot, the touch of heat that it contributes to the dish is fairly subtle. Even my baby grand-daughter had some of this orange chicken dish and she totally loved it.
If it makes you feel safer, though, or if you really can’t tolerate heat at all, feel free to completely leave it out.
Before you start cooking the chicken, you should get your sauce ready, this way you can concentrate on the meat while it’s browning in the hot pan. Whisk all the ingredients together in a large glass measuring cup and then set aside.
Next, heat some extra-virgin olive oil (or other healthy cooking fat of your choice) in a large, skillet set over high heat and sprinkle the pieces of chicken generously with salt.
When the pan is nice and hot, add half the pieces of chicken, pretty side down, and let the meat cook undisturbed for about 2 minutes, until the chicken gets nice and golden at the bottom. Flip the pieces of chicken and continue cooking for another minute or two, until browned on the other side.
Remove to a plate and repeat with the remaining pieces of chicken (unless you have a crazy large pan and was able to fit them all in there at once…)
Once all the meat is cooked, return it to the skillet and pour the sauce right in. Lower the heat and simmer, uncovered, for about 10 minutes, to finish cooking the chicken.
Now make a slurry by mixing the tapioca starch and water together, and then and then move the pieces chicken to the side, leaving a great big space in the middle of the pan so you have plenty of room to whisk that slurry in.
Pour the slurry in that hole you just created and whisk constantly for about a minute, until the sauce is thickened (I had taken a shot of that whisking action, but I doubt seeing it would help you at all with the process… I’d rather not show it to you, for fear that you would try to replicate the strange kind of blurry whirlwind action that’s on the picture!)
Once all the slurry has been whisked in and your sauce is nicely thickened, toss the chicken delicately with a large spoon until it’s completely covered with the sauce.
And you are now ready to serve your Orange Glazed Chicken. I opted to serve mine with a side of jasmine rice and garnished it with a little bit of orange zest.
Orange Glazed Chicken – Asian Style
Ingredients
- 1-2 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil
- 12 boneless skinless chicken thighs, patted dry , (about 900g | 2lb total)
- Generous sprinkle of salt
For the sauce
- 1 cup fresh squeezed orange juice (from about 3 oranges)
- the zest of 3 oranges, save some for garnish
- 1 cup light chicken stock
- 1/2 cup pure maple syrup
- 1/4 cup coconut aminos
- 2 tbsp unseasoned rice vinegar
- 1 tbsp toasted sesame oil
- 1 tbsp fish sauce
- 1 tbsp sambal oelek
- 1 clove garlic, finely minced
- 1/2 tsp Himalayan salt
- 1/2 tsp Chinese 5 spice
- 1/2 tsp ground ginger
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- 2 tbsp tapioca starch
- 2 tbsp water
Instructions
- In a large glass measuring cup, whisk together all the ingredients for the sauce, up to the ground ginger.
- Heat the olive oil (or other healthy cooking fat of your choice) in a large, skillet set over high heat and sprinkle the pieces of chicken generously with salt. When the pan is hot enough, add half of the pieces of chicken, nice looking side down, and let the meat cook undisturbed for about 2 minutes, until it gets nice and golden at the bottom. Flip the pieces of chicken and continue cooking for another minute or two, until browned on the other side. Remove to a plate and repeat with the remaining pieces of chicken.
- Once all the meat is cooked, return it to the skillet and pour the sauce in. Lower the heat and simmer, uncovered, for about 10 minutes, to finish cooking the chicken. Make a slurry by mixing the tapioca starch and water together, and then and then move the pieces chicken to the side, leaving a great big space in the middle of the pan to allow you to whisk the slurry in. Whisk constantly for about a minute, until the sauce is thickened, then delicately toss the chicken so it's completely covered with the sauce.
- Serve immediately with a side of rice and garnished with a little bit of orange zest, if desired.
Nutrition
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7 Comments on “Asian Style Orange Glazed Chicken”
This looks unreal! Also this pictures are great – looks like a bright sunny day outside 🙂
Nikki | http://www.nikkibstyles.com
Thank you Nikki! Let’s just say I had a little bit of tweaking to do in order to save them…
Funny because right before I read about how bad the pictures were I was thinking to myself, Wow, gorgeous picture. So really Sonia, not as bad as you thought. I’ll be making this soon 🙂
Really? Wow! Thanks Beth. Guess I’m being a little hard on myself, sometimes! Love the new name, by the way. Why d’you change?
Ha! Do you really like it? I was thinking about changing it. It has been that since the beginning (after my divorce). I was doing single serving recipes. Then I started Hooked on Health and just attached it to that site. However, now I am considering dumping HOH (its for sale btw) so I decided to start using it again. A friend of mine said it was depressing because no one want’s to eat alone. That comment has stuck in my head and after that I felt negatively about it. At this point I’m trying to imagine that it is indicative of meals alone not being enough to sustain but emotional and and social etc. Whew! What did you imagine when you saw it?
Is there a possible substitute for the coconut aminos?
You can use soy or tamari sauce instead.