Homemade Orange Chicken with Orange Chicken Sauce

This award-winning Homemade Orange Chicken is a healthier alternative to takeout or a frozen meal. The whole family will love this stir fried chicken breast made with an orange juice marinade.

Healthier Homemade Orange Chicken

I don’t go to Trader Joe’s too often, but when I do stop by, I’m sure to pick up a bag or two of the frozen Mandarin Orange Chicken.

Breaded chicken covered in a sweet orange sauce that’s ready in less than 30 minutes? Sign me up.

But maybe sign me up just once in awhile. Because this won’t come as a surprise, but this dish is not outstanding in the health department.

So, I took an item that is often store-bought and made it better (and healthier) at home with this orange ginger chicken recipe.

“I downloaded this recipe about 5 or 6 years ago. The orange-ginger sauce has been in my fridge 24/7/365 since then. I use it for all my stir fries, fried rice, smoked ribs…EVERYTHING. Thank you for the many years of yummy.”

—Mark

Spicy Orange Chicken Ingredients

• orange zest – first things first, make sure you zest your oranges before you juice them, because you’ll need fresh orange zest for this orange chicken sauce recipe. And trying to zest AFTER juicing is the. worst.
• orange juice – you’ll need 1-1/4 cups orange juice for the orange chicken marinade. More on this below.
• low-sodium soy sauce – I chose the low sodium version because this orange ginger chicken recipe uses kind of a lot of soy sauce (1/4 cup) and I wanted to make it a little healthier than the frozen dinner version, after all.
• fresh ginger – grated from a ginger root, not the dried ground kind.
• garlic – you’ll need quite a bit – 2 tablespoons – of minced fresh garlic to add lots of flavor to the orange chicken marinade.
• vegetable oil – some oil will go into the orange chicken marinade and the rest will be used for sautéing the chicken.
• sriracha – this is optional, so my recipe calls for 0 – 2 tablespoons on purpose. Use no sriracha at all if you don’t want this dish to be spicy. Use up to 2 tablespoons (or even more, you daredevil!) if you love heat and want spicy orange chicken.
• rice vinegar – this adds acid and depth of flavor to the orange ginger sauce.
• light brown sugar – for that classic touch of sweetness that orange chicken always has.
• ground white pepper – I love ground white pepper because it really gives a Chinese restaurant flavor to this home-cooked dish, but feel free to use ground black pepper if you don’t have white pepper.
• cornstarch – this is used to thicken the marinade into a glazy orange chicken sauce.
• chicken – This time around I used boneless, skinless chicken breasts, but I often use boneless, skinless chicken thighs instead.
• green onions – to garnish the finished dish with a touch of green freshness.

Fresh is best for the orange juice marinade:

I know it’s tempting to just grab a carton of orange juice and use it for this orange chicken marinade, but I really encourage you to squeeze your own orange juice for this recipe!

First of all, the flavor of freshly squeezed orange juice in this orange ginger sauce simply cannot be beat. And squeezing 1-1/4 cups juice honestly doesn’t take that long.

Another reason to splurge for fresh oranges is that this spicy orange chicken recipe also calls for orange zest for a more intense orange flavor. You’ll need to buy at least 1 or 2 fresh oranges for the zest for the orange chicken marinade anyway, so you might as well juice them, too!

How to make Orange Chicken Sauce

1. WHISK. Whisk together the orange juice, soy sauce, ginger, garlic, vegetable oil, sriracha, rice vinegar, brown sugar, orange zest and white pepper.

2. MARINATE. Put the chicken breast strips in a zip-top bag and pour most of the marinade over them (reserve some extra marinade for sauce). Then, refrigerate for 1 hour so the chicken can marinate and have lots of flavor when you cook it.

3. STIR FRY. Take the chicken out of the marinade and stir fry it in batches in a wok or large skillet, then set the chicken aside.

4. REDUCE SAUCE. In the same skillet, bring the reserved orange juice marinade to a boil, add a cornstarch slurry and cook until it becomes a glaze consistency.

5. TOSS. Toss the chicken in the orange chicken sauce.

6. GARNISH. Serve chicken sprinkled with green onions.

How to serve Spicy Orange Chicken

• Lean into the takeout theme and make shrimp wonton soup as a starter!
• Pair this homemade orange chicken with steamed or stir fried broccoli or snow peas to get your veggies in!
• Spoon the orange ginger chicken over white rice, brown rice or quinoa.
• Serve over cauliflower rice for a lower carb meal.
• Serve this chicken with orange ginger sauce with a side of Asian noodle salad instead of rice.
• Sprinkle with sesame seeds for added flavor.

Orange Chicken Sauce Recipe FAQs