Does anyone remember the days of Leeann Chin? During my high school years, my mom often took me there because it was connected to one of our favorite local Minnesotan grocery stores (Lund’s & Byerly’s baby!). We’d get a quick meal to go (my go-to was orange chicken), that frankly wasn’t healthy at all because it was fried + then I drenched it in sweet and sour — but still, this girl was obsessed.
In fact, I pretty much lived on quick food because my mom wasn’t home to cook often and I really didn’t pay attention to what I was eating. To be honest, as good as the food tasted at the time, those choices never made me feel good, on the inside, or out. I gained weight from eating out all the time.
Fast forward to adulthood where life is vastly different. Now I’m a food blogger, and wellness is my passion. These days, I’m all about healthier takes on my favorite childhood meals and today I’m here to prove that you can still enjoy the flavors of takeout but without all the added junk.
I eat good to feel good and I hope this recipe inspires you to do the same.
What’s in this healthy orange chicken stir fry?
Traditional orange chicken recipes call for frying your chicken in lots of oil, and then coating it with orange sauce that typically calls for at least 1/2 cup of sugar or orange marmalade. I say, why use that when you can use FRESH orange juice?!
I made this homemade orange chicken stir fry healthier by lightly stir frying the chicken in a skillet with red bell pepper, green beans and cashews, and then cooking it in a sweet and tangy fresh orange sauce. This homemade orange sauce uses:
- fresh squeezed orange juice
- a bit of honey or agave
- fresh ginger
- soy sauce
- just a tablespoon of cornstarch for a nice texture (but you can also use arrowroot starch!)
This is the ultimate healthy weeknight meal because it’s so easy and only takes 30 minutes from start to finish.
What to serve orange chicken stir fry with:
You can choose to serve it with rice or quinoa if you want something a little more filling, or you can try my low carb cauliflower rice flavored with coconut oil, fresh lime juice and a bit of cilantro! It’s absolutely delicious.
I like to serve this orange chicken stir-fry with hot sauce or red pepper flakes for a little heat, sesame seeds for crunch, and of course, cilantro on top! I can’t wait for you all to try this recipe. It’s a weeknight staple for us and we love switching up the veggies according to what’s seasonal. I recommend broccoli and asparagus.
If you like this orange chicken stir fry, you might also like:
Spicy Thai Peanut Chicken Sweet Potato Noodle Stir Fry
Kung Pao Chickpea & Brussels Sprouts Stir-Fry
One Pan Thai Coconut Yellow Curry Chicken & Rice
Thai Peanut Chicken, Edamame & Quinoa Stir-Fry
See how to make orange chicken:
You’re going to love healthy orange chicken, please let me know if you make it by leaving a comment and rating the recipe below. I’d love to hear from you and it helps encourage others to make the recipe! Enjoy xo!
Healthy Orange Chicken Stir Fry with Coconut Cauliflower Rice
Ingredients
- For the cauliflower rice
- 1 tablespoon coconut oil
- 1 head of cauliflower
- Salt and pepper, to taste
- For the sauce:
- 3/4 cup freshly squeezed orange juice
- 2 tablespoons honey (or agave nectar)
- 3 tablespoons gluten free soy sauce
- 1/2 tablespoon freshly grated ginger
- 1 tablespoon cornstarch or arrowroot starch
- 1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes
- zest from 1 large orange
- For the stir-fry:
- 1 1/2 tablespoon toasted sesame oil, divided
- 1 pound boneless skinless chicken breast, cut into large bite-sized pieces
- Freshly ground salt and pepper
- ½ white onion, cut into chunks
- 3 garlic cloves, minced
- 1 large red bell pepper, sliced into thin strips
- 8 ounces fresh green beans, trimmed and cut into 2 inch pieces
- ½ cup raw cashews
- To garnish:
- Green onion, for garnish
- Toasted sesame seeds, for garnish
Instructions
- First make your cauliflower rice. Remove all greens from cauliflower and break into florets. You can either use a box grater, or a food processor to process the cauliflower into rice. If using a food processor (the easier method), simply add half of cauliflower florets to bowl of the food processor with a blade attachment. Pulse until cauliflower resembles rice. Add in remaining florets and process again until cauliflower becomes rice-like. Transfer to a large, clean dish towel and squeeze all the moisture out of the cauliflower. Set aside in a large bowl until ready to cook.
- Next make the sauce: Add the orange juice, honey, soy sauce, ginger, cornstarch/arrowroot starch, red pepper flakes and orange zest to a large bowl; whisk until the cornstarch is dissolved. Set aside for later.
- Next preheat a large skillet or pan over medium-high heat and add in 1 tablespoon of the toasted sesame oil. Add in chicken, season with salt and pepper, and cook for 5-6 minutes or until fully cooked and no longer pink. Once chicken is cooked, transfer to a bowl and set aside. Keep the heat in the pan.
- Add the other 1/2 tablespoon of sesame oil to the pan (over medium-heat); add in onion and saute until onions become slightly translucent, about 2 minutes.
- Next add in the garlic, bell pepper, green beans and cashews and saute for 4-6 minutes. You want the green beans to still have a little bit of crunch!
- While your veggies are cooking, make your cauliflower rice. Add ½ tablespoon coconut oil to a separate large skillet and place over medium heat. Once oil is hot, add in cauliflower rice and cook for 5 minutes, stirring occasionally. Season with salt and pepper to taste.
- Pour the orange sauce into the pan. Stir frequently as the sauce will start to thicken up.
- Add in chicken and stir again. Reduce heat to medium low and let the sauce simmer and thicken some more, about 2-3 minutes.
- Serve immediately over your cauliflower rice. Garnish with toasted sesame seeds, green onion and cilantro if desired. Serves 4.
Recipe Notes
To make gluten free: Please ensure that all of your ingredients are gluten free, including the cornstarch and the soy sauce.
To make vegetarian: use 1 can of chickpeas in place of the chicken.
Recipe by: Monique Volz // Ambitious Kitchen | Photography by: Eat Love Eats
56 comments
Love everything about this!! Can’t wait to try 🙂
Such a great dinner. Hope you love it!
This is SO good and so easy/quick! I also loved Leann Chinn’s orange chicken growing up, and this has much better real orange flavor with a spicy kick.
Isn’t it good? I’m obsessed! Glad you enjoyed it, Ashley!
YES it was so good growing up. Glad you found this healthy alternative 🙂
This was amazing. I used sugar snap peas and broccoli instead of green beans. I also added some thinly sliced carrots. The sauce is so good. Thanks for a great recipe!
Hi Melanie! So happy you liked this recipe, it’s one of our go to easy weeknight meals!
Delicious. Marinaded chicken and tofu. I added jalapeño to the sauce – it’s a nice lil kick. 👌👌👌
Perfect!! All about an extra kick of heat 🙂
This is so good! Doubled the whole recipe….next time will add snap peas and broccoli like someone else suggested.
Perfect! This would be delicious with those add-ins, too 🙂
Love your recipes! Thanks for sharing! Is your print button working….I can air print from other web sites but for some reason it doesn’t hold the print page…might just be me. Thanks, can’t wait to try this!
Hi Gayle! So glad you’re loving the recipes here! Are you printing from your computer? The print button should be working correctly, but I will definitely look into it. Hope you get a chance to make this one!
This recipe was delicious! Have you thought about making a cookbook? I’ve only tried a few of your recipes but they’ve all been delicious! Thanks so much for sharing!
So happy you liked it! Hopefully a cookbook in the future 🙂 thanks for your note!
Love this easy recipe!
such a good way to use up orange juice!
everything look delious
I was surprised at how good this was. I thought it would be just “meh” but using the fresh oranges really made it so good!
Absolutely! It adds such a delicious brightness.
This was a crowd pleaser. I have three growing boys and they all dug right in and asked for seconds. I doubled the chicken and added additional veggies including carrots & mushrooms and I used frozen riced cauliflower. I will definitely use this in my regular rotation. So so good! Thank you for the recipe!! Happy Mom here!!
Amazing! So happy to hear that. Love the idea of some extra veggies + mushrooms!
Such a great recipe to make when I’m craving take out, but I want something a little lighter. I used orange juice from the carton for this and it turned out great. One of my favorite AK recipes. The red paper flakes give it such a good kick.
Absolutely! Love that.
Soooo delicious!! Will definitely be making again soon.
Glad you enjoyed!
This recipe is awesome! Using fresh orange juice makes it so much less sugary and fake tasting than when using marmalade. I served this with regular jasmine rice, used less chicken, and added more veggies.
Absolutely. Glad you loved it!
Move over Chinese takeout! Guilt free meal with great flavor.
Absolutely!
Very tasty! Next time I will add more veggies like others suggested. I’d probbly double the sauce as well. I had to serve with white rice because my son loves it. He also loved this and ate it up! Thank you!
Perfect! Glad you enjoyed and that you son loved it, too!
I’ve made this before but want to skip using the red pepper flakes so my 3 year old will eat it. Has anyone tried that before? I’m worried it will be too sweet.
Leaving out the red pepper flakes should be fine!
YUM! another winner! This was REALLY flavorful and delicious. Just enough orange flavor to be interesting without overpowering the other ingredients. I made a few quarantine-time substitutions, most notably I used pork instead of chicken and sugar snap peas instead of beans. I didn’t have quite enough orange juice so I added a tablespoon of orange marmalade and coconut water to make up the volume. Lastly, I threw in some sliced shiitake because I love them. I feel a little bad leaving a review when I made so many modifications, but the spirit of the recipe was absolutely in mind, even if I didn’t have all the ingredients at hand. I’ll definitely be making it again.
Perfect! This one’s great for customizing 🙂 glad you enjoyed!
I’ve made this a few times now, it’s amazing, better than takeout and I love that you can surprise it with any veggies you want! Amazing recipe!
This dish is SO flavorful! To cut down my preparation time, I used H‑E‑B’s prepared cauliflower rice as well as their fresh-squeezed orange juice. I think I could’ve used half the amount of honey, as it was pretty sweet. Still SO delicious! I’ll definitely be making this again.
Perfect! So glad you enjoyed!
Excellent!!!!!! Regular meal for us!
So happy to hear that!
I made this tonight with my 7 year old son. We are a family of 6 and everyone loved it! The flavor was delicious! Simple and family pleasing….thank you for a great option!
Prettt solid. Very orangey so be prepared for that
Glad you enjoyed!
This was so great! I doubled the recipe and cooked the chicken in a cast iron in the oven 400f for 15 min after searing on the stovetop for 5 min on med high. I’ll definitely make this again, but might try bottled oj next time. Juicing all those oranges took a long time 😂 served over jasmine rice. Will probably 1.5x the sauce on the next try as well, it was so good! Would’ve loved to have more to drizzle on the rice.
I always love your recipes Monique! Everything is so darn good! I’ve made this several times. My teenage son LOVES it… I double it because I know better now! This is so flavorful and an easy meal to make. It’s one of our go to dinners!
We will definitely make this again. My son, normally a picky eater, loved it. Healthy, flavorful, and satisfying, this will be in our normal dinner rotation.
Amazing! So happy to hear that.
Loved this recipe! Only used one orange for juice- very delicious, thicker sauce, very flavourful!
love this recipe! it’s become my go to for a quick, healthy weeknight meal
My husband and I really liked this recipe. The kids were surprised they liked the cauliflower rice! I used liquid aminos instead of soy sauce and I didn’t use fresh squeezed orange juice. I also left out the cashews because we didn’t have any! Very tasty and healthy.
Perfect! Glad it was a hit!
This dish not only tastes delicious, it is beautiful as well! I was tired of my usual stir fry flavor and this was just what I was looking for. The orange flavor is DELICIOUS and made my kitchen smell delicious too. We are trying to eat more vegetables and eat very healthy and this was all that. The only thing I changed was that I did 1 whole red pepper and added a whole yellow as well. My husband’s only request was that I cut the green beans smaller next time. I used honey instead of agave. I will definitely make again.
Love that! So glad you enjoyed 🙂
Honestly, hands down the BEST stir-fry sauce!! Furious I am only discovering it now!! Will definitely make again and wouldn’t change a thing!
Note: I didn’t have any coconut oil so I simply added some unsweetened desiccated coconut into my olive oil for the cauliflower rice and I worked perfectly!
So happy to hear that!!