You’ll Never Want the Fast-Food Version Again!
The truth is, I struggle with my love of sugar. The problem for those of us who love our Sees Candies and buttercream cupcakes is that once you start it’s HARD to stop. Why? Because sugar is addicting and I don’t mean that figuratively. The more we have it – the more our bodies crave it.
Sugar is ubiquitous throughout our foods. It isn’t just the obvious (cake, ice cream) – it’s in most everything. Think all Plain Non-Fat Greek Yogurt is the same & a super healthy option? Nope. In CHOBANI – 4 grams per serving. In The GREEK GODS version – 14 grams per serving. It’s everywhere.
Have your Cake & Eat it Too with Healthy Orange Chicken
As part of my 2020 commitment to reduce sugar intake, which for women, no more than 24 grams of sugar per day – I want to focus on bringing you amazing recipes that I think you’ll love – without all of the sugar, and as always – lite, fresh, delicious and easy!
This Healthy Orange Chicken is so freaking good – you’ll never want the unhealthy version again. Traditional recipes use up to a full cup of brown sugar (ugh!!!), dark meat, no veggies and lots of oil to fry the chicken. Then, they serve it over refined white rice. Blech.
Why this is different:
Here – I’ve used skinless white meat breasts, minimal oil, pumped it up with fresh vegetables, swapped out the brown-sugar with Xylitol – a sugar alcohol…. and swapped refined white rice for Farro, which is a Farro, a high-protein, high-fiber ancient whole-grain wheat. It looks similar to barley, and has a nice amount of “chew” when cooked.
Xylitol instead of refined or chemical sweetners
You’ll also see lots of other “healthy” Orange Chicken recipes that use Sugar-free Marmalade. The problem with the sugar-free marmalade is that it’s sweetened with chemical sweetening agent such as Splenda, Equal and the like. Instead, I’ve used Xylitol in this recipe. Xylitol is a sugar alcohol that occurs naturally in certain fruits and veggies, and is an excellent low-cal sweetener.
Unlike sugar, Xylitol is slowly absorbed into the system. This means it won’t cause a rapid blood sugar spike, and therefore – doesn’t require an immediate insulin response for it to be metabolized (as is the case with most sugars). Xylitol has an extremely low glycemic index score of 7, on a scale 0-100. For comparison, glucose scores a 100 on this scale.
Let’s Make it Together!
Healthy! Orange Chicken – Gluten-Free, Sugar-Free
Ingredients
- 3 tbsp Garlic Paste or 4 large cloves minced.
- 2 tbsp Ginger Paste or 2 TB fresh ginger, minced
- ½ cup fresh squeezed orange juice (1-2 oranges).
- Zest of 1 orange.
- ⅓ cup Tamari (it’s gluten-free).
- ¼ cup Rice wine vinegar
- ½ cup Xylitol.
- Sriracha sauce to taste.
- 3 tbsp cornstarch for sauce + 3 tbsp to coat chicken.
- 3 lbs chicken breast, boneless skinless.
- ½ medium yellow onion, sliced thin.
- 1 red bell pepper, julienned.
- 3 cups broccoli florets, cooked.
- 1 8-oz can, sliced water chestnuts, drained.
Instructions
For the Orange Sauce
- In a medium sized bowl, whisk together all of ingredients up to and including the 3-TB of cornstarch. Set it aside. Yes – it’s that easy
Now prepare your veggies & cut the chicken
- In another bowl, add your julienned red bell pepper, sliced onion, defrosted or cooked broccoli & water chestnuts.
- Set aside.
- Finally – cut chicken into bite-sized pieces and place in a separate bowl. Season chicken liberally with salt, and sprinkle with about 3-TB of cornstarch mixing to ensure all the chicken is lightly dusted.
Now bring it home baby!
- Heat 2 tsp of vegetable oil in a large Dutch oven or large pan over medium to medium-high heat. Sautee onion and red bell pepper until soft and onions are translucent (about 5 minutes). Transfer to a plate.
- Next, turn the heat up to High and add 2 more TB or vegetable oil into the pan. Add the chicken and brown it on all sides. I am impatient – so I just added and cooked the chicken all at once. If you want your chicken a little crispy – fry it in 2-3 batches.
- Once the chicken has browned and is almost cooked through – add in your orange sauce (keeping heat on high) and make sure to keep stirring – the mixture will thicken fairly quickly (like gravy) and start bubbling. Last – add in the cooked bell pepper, broccoli and water chestnuts just to warm through.
- Serve it up! Serve over Farro if you like – it’s also delicious and LOW CARB on it’s own.
