How about juicy and tender chicken bites, cooked in a delicious sticky orange garlic teriyaki sauce? From this simple meal prep chicken, you can have your lunches so many ways. Pair this orange chicken with rice or noodles, along with different veggies, and you are set for a whole week.
And, we are giving you a lazy way to recreate the same orange chicken flavor. All you need is some orange marmalade in your pantry…
With busy days and busy life, planning your meals is the key to staying on track and feeding your family healthy meals for a whole week.
Meal prepping can be very helpful for those who don’t have enough time to cook every day. This is the perfect healthy-ish chicken recipe to serve your family for a weeknight dinner, then lunches all week long.
Why You’ll Love this Easy Chicken Recipe
1. Perfect for meal prepping: If you plan your meals ahead for the week, this is one of the great contenders.
2. Quick and easy to make: It’s really easy to make this chicken meal prep recipe. All you need is about 20 minutes and dinner is ready on the table.
3. Customizable: You can pair this with different veggies and grains, rice or noodles.
Ingredients Needed
Here are the things you will need for my meal prep orange chicken. You will find exact measurements in the recipe card at the end of this post.
- Chicken – I typically use boneless skinless thighs. This recipe would work perfectly well for chicken breast, too.
- Teriyaki sauce – Any of your favorite store bought varieties, or you can make my homemade Teriyaki Sauce.
- Orange marmalade – For sweetness and zest.
- Garlic – Always freshly minced.
- Sesame oil – This recipe is good without it, but great with it!
- Crushed red pepper – I like a touch of heat.
- Oil – Any neutral variety like canola or vegetable.
- Salt
- Black pepper
How to Make Orange Chicken
This orange chicken is made a little differently than what they serve in restaurants, but still has those same distinct flavors. You can make this on days when you don’t have orange juice, which normally goes in orange chicken. We just skip the juice and go the orange marmalade way. Most of us have a marmalade bottle in our pantry.
From there, it’s just mixing a few pantry staples and you have once delicious and quick chicken recipe.
1. Marinate: Mix all the of the marinade ingredients in a bowl, then add in with the chicken in a zip top bag. Marinate for at least a couple of hours, or overnight in the refrigerator. This way, all the flavors go into the meat for the best tasting orange chicken.
2. Sear: When ready to cook, simply heat the oil in a large skillet and cook the chicken pieces, along with the marinade, for about 20 minutes. Stir frequently.
3. Finalize: In the end, add a couple of tablespoons of water and scrape all the brown bits sticking to the pan, then mix everything together for added flavors. Taste and adjust for salt.
Serving Suggestions
1. Serve it over a bed of white rice, brown rice, noodles, quinoa or farro. We love it with our 15 minute Spicy Noodles.
2. Supplement the meal prep with veggies like green beans, broccoli, carrots, cauliflower, or asparagus.
Substitution for Orange Marmalade
If you don’t have orange marmalade at the moment, you can still make this orange chicken by simply replacing marmalade with orange juice (about a quarter cup) and a couple of tablespoons of orange zest. You will still end up with a delicious orange chicken dinner.
Storage and Leftovers
As you are making this for meal prep, refrigerate leftovers in individual meal sized portions in airtight containers, along with your preferred starch and veggies.
When ready to eat, simply microwave your prepared meals for 1-2 minutes, until hot.
Making meals in bulk is a great way to simplify life, and it takes off the pressure from cooking. This simple orange chicken recipe is your answer if you want to make that meal in under 20 minutes.
The big bonus is in the amazing orange flavors in every single bite, that you are going to love eating again and again. Give this orange chicken a quick try tonight and find out for yourself.
Meal Prep Chicken, on our Gypsy Plate… enjoy!
Try these other great meal prep ideas!
Ground Turkey Stir Fry
Creamy Sausage Pasta
Sweet and Sour Meatballs
Ground Chicken Pasta
Ground Beef Birria
Chicken and Broccoli
Meal Prep Chicken (Orange Chicken)
How about juicy and tender chicken bites, cooked in a delicious sticky orange garlic teriyaki sauce? From this simple meal prep chicken, you can have your lunches so many ways.
Ingredients
- 1½ pounds chicken thighs, cut into bite-sized chunks
- 3 tablespoons teriyaki sauce
- ⅓ cup orange marmalade
- 4 garlic cloves, chopped
- 1 tablespoon sesame oil
- ½–1 teaspoon red chili flakes
- ½ teaspoon ground pepper
- salt, to taste
- 2 tablespoons cooking oil
Instructions
- Combine teriyaki sauce, chopped garlic, orange marmalade, red chili flakes, ground pepper, sesame oil in a bowl and add in chicken pieces. Marinate it at least 2 hours to overnight in the refrigerator.
- Heat oil in a large skillet over medium high heat. Add chicken, along with marinade, and cook about 15-20 minutes until golden brown, stirring often.
- Season it with salt and pepper according to taste.
Notes
- Serve with your favorite grains and vegetables.
- As you are making this for meal prep, refrigerate leftovers in individual meal sized portions in airtight containers, along with your preferred starch and veggies. When ready to eat, simply microwave your prepared meals for 1-2 minutes, until hot.
- If you don’t have orange marmalade at the moment, you can still make this orange chicken by simply replacing marmalade with orange juice (about a quarter cup) and a couple of tablespoons of orange zest. You will still end up with a delicious orange chicken dinner.
Nutrition Information
Yield 6 Serving Size 1Amount Per Serving Calories 359Total Fat 23gSaturated Fat 5gTrans Fat 0gUnsaturated Fat 17gCholesterol 145mgSodium 649mgCarbohydrates 14gFiber 0gSugar 12gProtein 27g
Nutrition information calculated by Nutritionix.
Welcome to GypsyPlate! I'm Alpana, former wordwide tour manager and professional caterer, now full time blogger. I love exploring cuisines from around the world, and my recipes have been featured on sites such as MSN, Parade, Brit + Co, CNET and AOL. You can explore my entire collection of sortable recipes in my Recipe Index or learn more about me here.
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