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This Light and Skinny Kickin’ Orange Chicken uses SunkistTEN to get extra flavor without the extra calories. Plus it is gluten free! Huge win in my book!
Orange chicken is one of my family’s favorite recipes, but the version I usually make has lots of sugar and lots of calories. I eat it, and lick my plate clean, but I usually end up with an extra hour at the gym as the result. Ugh. With this recipe using Sunkist TEN you can eat your fill without the guilt and extra gym time! You get all the flavor you want and expect with very few calories thanks to the ten calorie Sunkist TEN! Plus it is baked not fried, and is tossed in potato flour to make it gluten free! Amazing.
Did I mention it is also very easy to make?
Head to your local Kroger store and pick up your ingredients. There were a few places in the store that carried the Sunkist TEN, which was great. Your best bet is to just head to the beverage aisle.
Cut your chicken into chunks, put it in a bowl with zest and juice from half of an orange, and about half a cup of Sunkist TEN, and pop it in the fridge for about ten minutes.
While your chicken is marinating, make your sauce by putting a cup of Sunkist TEN in a heavy pot.
Add zest and juice of half an orange, a couple tablespoons of honey, vinegar, and soy sauce, a dash of hot sauce, and a heaping tablespoon of minced garlic.
Add in each ingredient and give it a nice stir. Tip: When zesting your orange, zest it right into the pan, that way the oils from the orange will go into your pan and give extra flavor!
Bring it to a boil over medium heat.
In a small bowl mix ¼ cup cornstarch with ¼ cup water and stir. Then add it into your orange sauce to thicken it up, stir well, and remove from heat. You want to make sure you mix the water and corn starch first, or you will get clumps when you add it to your orange sauce.
Turn your oven on to 400 degrees.
Now get that chicken out of the fridge, and toss it in some potato flour/or regular flour (to make it Gluten Free choose a gluten free flour). I put flour in a bag, and add the chicken pieces in a few at a time.
Then spray a baking sheet, and lay your chicken out in a single layer. Bake for 10 minutes, flip over, and bake for 10 more. Then put it in a big bowl, put your orange sauce over the top, and toss to coat.
For extra fun, garnish with green onion and sesame seeds and enjoy!
And another big plus is that this sauce can be made ahead of time, and frozen to use later. I love this because on busy school nights I can pull the sauce out of the freezer, ready to go, and all I have to take care of is baking the chicken. Then I get to eat this delicious dinner!
Sunkist TEN Kickin' Orange Chicken
Ingredients
- 2 lbs chicken breast
- 1-2 cups potato flour or other gluten free flour
Marinade
- 1/2 cup Sunkist TEN
- zest of half an orange
Sauce
- 1 cup Sunkist TEN
- zest and juice of half an orange
- 2 Tbs honey
- 2 Tbs white vinegar
- 2 Tbs soy sauce go with the light and choose a gluten free option if you need it to be gluten free, or use Braggs Liquid Amino Acids
- 1 tsp ground ginger
- 1 tsp sriracha or hot sauce of choice
- 1 Tbs minced garlic
- Thickener: 1/4 cup cornstarch mixed with 1/4 cup warm water
Garnish
- Sesame seeds
- Green onion chopped
Instructions
- Cut chicken into bite sized chunks
- Marinate in Sunkist TEN and orange zest and put in fridge.
- In a heavy sauce pan mix together 1 cup Sunkist TEN, zest and juice of half an orange, soy sauce, minced garlic, vinegar, ginger, and honey
- Bring to a boil over medium heat
- In a cup mix together the cornstarch and warm water
- Stir cornstarch mixture into orange sauce, and remove from heat.
- Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
- Remove chicken from fridge, and toss in potato or other gluten free flour until evenly coated
- Spray a cookie sheet with cooking spray, and place chicken pieces over tray in single layer
- Bake for ten minutes, flip over, and bake for ten more minutes.
- Remove from oven, and put chicken in a big bowl, pour sauce over the top, and toss.
- Garnish with sesame seeds and green onion, serve hot!
Our recipe card software calculates these nutrition facts based on averages for the above ingredients, different brands, and quality of produce/meats may have different nutritional information, always calculate your own based on the specific products you use in order to achieve accurate macros for this recipe.
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Do you love Orange Chicken? Be sure to check out this awesome recipe: Orange Chicken
Or you could change things up and try Lemon Chicken:
Or how about this awesome Asian Lemon Chicken:
occasionalcooker says
Your chicken looks delicious!
Lisa Sullivan says
Sounds delicious, but it’s not gluten free. According to my son’s dietician, soy sauce is not gluten free.
Rachael says
Lisa, I should have specified I use a gluten-free soy sauce. I will go in and change that. Most people with gluten issues know about soy sauce. Have you tried Braggs?
Lisa Sullivan says
Gluten issues are new to me. I didn’t know there was a gluten free soy sauce. Thank you! I will look for it. I really wanted to try this recipe. Now I can and will. I will let you know what my family thinks.
Rachael says
Thanks Lisa! The best way to go to insure gluten free on the soy sauce is to go with the Braggs Liquid Amino Acids, which has the same exact taste as traditional soy sauce! Good luck! I hope your family enjoys it as much as mine did.
Marion@Life Tastes Good says
I’ve never tried this SunkistTen. I’ll have to look for that in our stores. This chicken sounds delicious. We love Orange Chicken!! I like the idea of having a lower calorie option. Thanks!
Sheena @ Hot Eats and Cool Reads says
This is such a great recipe! I’ve never tried this soda before, but will definitely check it out!
Jen78 says
Can you use regular flour?
Rachael says
Yes. For sure.
Thien-Kim says
That looks so good! I’ve never thought about baking orange chicken before. #client
Trician says
I was wondering what to do with my chicken today thanks for the idea
Rachael says
thank you for coming by, I hope you love it!
treva says
I wish it had the nutritional values, I am on a strict calorie diet.
Rachael says
I am sorry I can’t provide them at this time. Unfortunately with the number of recipes I put out each week, I simply do not have the time to add nutritional values to each one.
Lorrie says
How does the chicken look when it comes out of the oven? Does the flour brown and get crispy, or is the flour kind of soggy/doughy? I would love to make this for my husband for his birthday but he wouldn’t like it if the flour isn’t crispy. He’s real big on things not being doughy.
Rachael says
Not particularly brown, but the outside is crispy. You can see in the pictures, but the sauce seeps in really nicely.
Rachael says
Lori, If you are worried about the crispiness, you could put some oil in a fry pan, and heat it, and then instead of baking, fry it for 3-5 minutes per side. Then toss it in the sauce. The flavor would be the same, but you would add some calories by frying (fine by me!).
Mary E. Hands says
What do you mean when you say zest? Are you talking about the grated orange peel?
Rachael says
Mary, yes. If you have a zesting tool use that, if not, use the fine side of a cheese grater.
Karen says
you could also use a frozen popcorn chicken cook it in oven then go from there.
Rachael says
That is a good point. There are many ways to make it even easier!
steven jones says
is it really spicey? if so can you eliminate the hot sauce?
Rachael says
Hi Steven, It is not very spicy, but you can certainly leave out the hot sauce if you would like. Thanks!
Colleen says
Did not like the taste. It was OK but not great.
Rachael says
Colleen, I am so sorry to hear you did not like the flavor. Hopefully you can find something else on my site that is more to your liking. My family liked it a lot, but our favorite recipe for orange chicken can be found here: https://www.eazypeazymealz.com/orange-chicken/
The Foodie Affair says
I’m all for cutting out extra sugar and orange chicken is my absolute favorite! Yum!!
Rachael says
Thanks! We love orange chicken over here!
magicalslowcooker says
What a great idea! I’m always looking for ways to cut out sugar.
Rachael says
Thanks Sarah!
Mary Ellen says
What a great recipe, love that you took all of that sugar out of this recipe.
Rachael says
Thanks Mary Ellen!