Recipe: Sweet & Tangy Orange Chicken

Yum. Yum, yum, yum. This recipe was absolutely delicious! It's largely based on a recipe I found here, but I did tweak it a little bit. It was my first time trying a recipe from that particular blog, and it was well worth the effort. The main reason I picked this recipe was totally in no way related to the fact that it sounds exactly like a meal Katniss eats in The Hunger Games. Nope. Not at all.

Anyways, on to the sweet, tangy goodness that is this wonderful, wonderful recipe. I forgot to take a picture of the ingredients, so we'll just launch right in. Take a couple of chicken breasts and slice them up into fairly even chunks.

Toss them in a bag with some flour, salt and pepper until they're nicely coated. Brown them on all sides in some melted butter in the frying pan.

While they're browning, mix together some brown sugar, white wine vinegar (or just regular vinegar if you don't have any), orange juice, nutmeg and dried basil. I was a little alarmed by the amount of nutmeg in this recipe (I am not nutmeg's biggest fan), but never fear! It turned out delicious, even if the nutmeg smell while cooking was a tad strong.

Once the chicken is browned, pour the sauce over the chicken in the pan. Simmer for 20 minutes. Add in some canned mandarin orange slices 5 minutes before you intend to serve for a sophisticated touch.

Serve over rice with a side of asparagus (or any other delectable vegetable you prefer), and you've got yourself a really amazing looking (and, more importantly, amazing tasting) meal that's done in 45 minutes flat. 

Absolutely delicious! 

Here's the full recipe:

Sweet & Tangy Orange Chicken

Ingredients:

2 boneless skinless chicken breasts, cut into even chunks*

1/2 cup flour

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 tsp pepper

Melted butter or olive oil

Sauce:

3 Tbsp brown sugar

3 Tbsp white wine vinegar (or regular white vinegar)

1.5 cups orange juice (with or without pulp, whichever you prefer)

1 tsp nutmeg

1 tsp dried basil

The juice from 2 small cans of mandarin orange slices

Optional: add some ground ginger

Directions:

1. Combine the flour, salt and pepper in a bag. Toss in the chicken chunks and shake until well coated. In a skillet, either melt the butter or heat the oil. Then add the floury chicken, browning on both sides. Because of the flour coating, they should brown up nice and crisp, should you desire it. Once the chicken is browned, drain off any excess fat. (I didn't find that necessary -- the flour tended to absorb any extra fat)

2. Combine the sauce ingredients, taking care to set aside the mandarin slices once you have added the juice to the sauce. Pour the sauce over the chicken. Cover and simmer for approximately 20 minutes. (If you want a thicker sauce - which I recommend - then leave the cover off to reduce the sauce, allowing it to naturally thicken as it cooks). 

3. Approximately 5 minutes before you are ready to serve, add in as many of the mandarin orange slices as you wish. I say the more the merrier! :)

4. Serve over a bed of rice, and devour eagerly.

Delectable right down to the last bite!

* I was a little worried about how many people this recipe would serve, but it easily made enough for 5. Depending on how generous you want to be with your portions, it could even be suitable for 6. Pretty good for 2 chicken breasts!