Tuesday, February 9, 2016

TASTY TUESDAY - SUGAR FREE ORANGE CHICKEN

One of hubby's favorite dishes is orange chicken - he loves the orange chicken from Panda Express as well as when it comes from a more upscale Chinese restaurant.  The problem with the full calorie, fat, sugar version is that it is usually deep fried and has a lot of sugar.  My quest was to try and make a similar taste without any sugar and less fat. There are recipes out there that suggest fixing this in a crock pot and if you do that you will eliminate the fat and flour but it just is not anything like the real thing so I decided that the one tablespoon of flour and vegetable oil was worth the calories.  Hubby was happy - is it exactly like the Chinese restaurant orange chicken?  No, but my test pilot says he would have again and again.
 These are the two main ingredients in the sauce - sugar free orange marmalade and sugar free BBQ sauce.  Both are available at Walmart (if your Walmart does not carry you can ask them to get them for  you).  I love this BBQ and the fact that it has no sugar means that you can mop it on meats while they are cooking on the BBQ without worrying about the sugar burning.
Once again, flying by the seat of my pants so I just pulled out things that I thought would work - I will be tweaking this next time. I did not feel that the SF orange marmalade had enough orange taste so I added the zest of an orange.  Next time I would use powdered ginger and omit the Chinese Five Spice but otherwise leave the same.  Once you mix the marmalade and the BBQ sauce you can add things as you like but like I said I was happy with everything but the Chinese Five Spice.
 Mixed all ingredients....added the orange zest.....
I brought it to a boil and then turned down the heat and let the sauce reduce a bit.....
 A word about rice and one of my favorite kitchen appliances the "Zoj" as we call our Zojirushi rice cooker.  We have had one of these for years and if this one dies will repair or purchase another.  You can cook all kinds of rice as well as steel cut oats, etc.  It has a warming feature so when I know I will need rice for dinner anytime in the afternoon I put on the rice knowing it will be perfectly done and warm when dinner is ready.  I made very simple brown rice to go with this dish.
See - perfect rice every time with the Zoj! Oh forgot to tell you the Zoj is so Japanese and so cute when you turn it on to cook  your rice, it plays "Twinkle, twinkle, little star."
I weighed out 8oz of chicken tenders, then added one more because when I cut them I will remove the piece of gristle that runs along the top and with that some of the meat.
Once cut into bite size chunks, salt and pepper them and then shake them in a plastic bag with one tablespoon Wondra flour.
 Brown the chicken in one tablespoon of oil (your choice, I use Canola oil), use a large enough pan to give them space to get nice and brown.
Once the chicken was done I added about two tablespoons of the sauce and let it cook for a bit, turning very often and letting the meat absorb the sauce.
 Placed the chicken on the rice and sprinkled some fresh snipped chives (toasted sesame seeds would be good too) and served with some broccoli and I had a few shrimp that needed to be used so I simple cooked them and brushed with the sauce.  Hubby says next time chicken only  please - the shrimp were OK but he loved the orange chicken.
I had a little half pint of the sauce leftover to go in the fridge and I will make this again next week.

Sugar Free Orange Chicken Sauce

1 cup SF orange marmalade (purchased or homemade)
1 cup SF BBQ sauce (purchased or homemade)
3 pkgs stevia
1T soy sauce
1T apple cider vinegar
2 big shakes of red Tabasco sauce
8 twists of Trader Joe's Everyday seasoning or spices of your choice
1/4 t Chinese Five Spice (next time I will eliminate and use ground ginger instead & maybe add a few red pepper flakes)
Zest of one orange 

Meat - 8oz chicken tenders, cut into chunks
1T Wondra Flour
1T oil

Directions

Mix all ingredients together and bring to a boil, reduce heat and cook until the sauce reduces a bit, turn off heat.

Salt and pepper the chicken chunks, shake them in a bag with the 1T of Wondra flour and fry the chunks in the 1T of oil in a large pan.  When the chicken is done add 2T of the sauce and continue to cook (turning often) to let the chicken absorb the sauce.

Serve with 1/2 cup cooked brown rice.

4oz of chicken with 1 tablespoons of sauce, 1/2 cup cooked rice is 460 calories, 18  grams of fat and 26g of protein. You can cut down on the calories and fat by making this in the crock-pot thus eliminating the flour and the oil and using half the rice.

The goal for the Tasty Tuesday food is to try and make tasty food that will become part of the cooking repertoire and not "diet food." To try and eliminate sugar and keep the protein high and the fat as low as possible while using everyday ingredients and making my test pilot happy and satisfied at dinner, dessert and other meals. 

Resource

Zojirushi rice cooker, Zojirushi NS-TSC10 5-1/2-Cup (Uncooked) Micom Rice Cooker and Warmer, 1.0-Liter
Wondra flour, any grocery store or Walmart
SF Orange marmalade, Smuckers, Walmart and other groceries
G Hughes SF BBQ Sauce, Walmart and other groceries

Thank you for stopping by.




 







2 comments:

  1. THIS LOOKS SOOOOOO GOOOOOD I BID $50 AND I HOPE I'M THE HIGH BIDDER.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Hey Anonymous come for a visit & I will fix for free! Thank you for stopping by! j.

    ReplyDelete