Busy Mom's Orange Chicken

The main ingredient of this Orange Chicken is, well, the chicken.  I understand that it probably is healthier for me to cut up my own chicken breasts, dip them in eggs and bread them with almond meal or something like that.  However, 355 days out of the year, I just don't have time for that.  So, the main ingredient for this meal is pictured below.  

That's right!  Trader Joe's saves the day, once again!  This tenderloins are actually very tasty and are around $7 a bag.  Well worth it to me!  By the way---an extra bonus is that these chicken breast are very low in sodium for a frozen item!  Although, the chicken is the main ingredient, it is all about the sauce, which is the homemade portion of this recipe, fresh squeezed OJ and all!

Busy Mom's Orange Chicken

Prep Time: 10 minutes

Cook Time: 25 minutes

Serves 8-10

Ingredients:

1 bag of Trader Joe's Breaded Tenderloin Chicken Breasts

Homemade Orange Chicken Sauce (recipe below)

Directions:

1) Heat oven to 400*F.

2) Spread chicken across a 9 x 13 casserole dish.

3) Put Chicken in oven for 10 minutes. (While chicken is cooking, prepare sauce!)

4)  Turn chicken over and cook for another 8 minutes.  

5)  Pour half of sauce over chicken.  Turn chicken over to make sure it is coated in the sauce.  

6)  Bake chicken for 7 minutes.  Pour most of the remaining sauce over chicken.  Garnish with green onions.  Enjoy!

Homemade Orange Chicken Sauce
1 1/2 cups water
2 Tablespoons Orange Juice (fresh squeezed)
1/4 cup lemon juice
1 Tablespoon orange zest  (Tip:  zest orange before juicing it.  A LOT easier!)
1 1/2 Tablespoon soy sauce
1/4 c honey
1/2 teaspoon minced garlic (fresh)
1/4 teaspoon ginger
2 Tablespoon white or rice vinegar
3 Tablespoon cornstarch
1/4 cup water

1)  In a saucepan, combine all ingredients except for the cornstarch and the 1/4 cup water.
2)  Turn on heat and bring to a boil.
3)  While the sauce in heating up, combine 3 T cornstarch with 1/4 cup water.
4)  Slowly mix cornstarch into sauce until it thickens.
5)  Pour over Chicken.  (Follow instructions above.)

If you are wondering what we eat this delicious Orange Chicken with, we always pair it with this rice medley from Trader Joe's.  It takes 3 minutes in a microwave for steamed rice.  Nothing beats that!  I make sautéed veggies to have with it most of the time, but tonight, I quartered Brussels Sprouts, put them in a 13 x 9 pan, sprinkled olive oil, sea salt, pepper, and fresh garlic and onions on it and put it in the oven with the chicken.  It took about 5 minutes more to bake than the chicken, but WOW!  It was worth it! 

If you use the whole bag of chicken, this meal feeds a good amount of people.  It tastes great the next day, so leftovers are always nice!  My husband is getting it in his lunch tomorrow!