20 Minute Crispy Orange Garlic Chicken.

This 20 Minute Crispy Orange Garlic Chicken is inspired by everyone’s favorite restaurant-style orange chicken. It’s made quicker and with a few tweaks that make it slightly unique and even more delicious. The chicken (or use ground beef or pork) and broccoli are cooked in a golden buttery, sweet-spicy sauce until caramelized around the edges. Then served simply with steamed rice and plenty of green onions. The addition of butter and ginger (pickled sushi ginger) are the secrets. This dish is saucy, salty, tangy-sweet, and has just the right amount of spice. This dish is sure to become a favorite takeout-style staple!

It’s that time of the year when the weather is finally nice, and literally all you want to do is be outside. It may not be this way in the Colorado mountains just yet (where winter/spring tends to run late into June), but in places like New York, the weather is perfect. I’m writing from my hotel where the sun is out and it’s around 60 degrees.

A little chillier than I prefer, but it’s the sunshine – it gives me so much energy, I really do crave it. As you might guess, when it comes to cooking at this time of year, I’m just like you all, keep it simple, fast, and effortless.

This is when the 20-30 minute dinners come into play.

This chicken is the easiest to prepare, but beyond the ease, I also love the colors and, even more importantly, the taste! Inspired by our favorite takeout style orange chicken, but made very easily at home with ground chicken and zero frying!

The ground chicken is the key. There’s no cutting up of raw chicken, and it cooks so quickly. That’s something we can all love.

These are the Details

Step 1: let’s mix the sauce

Keeping things basic, I use fresh squeezed orange juice, tamari, a small amount of honey, pickled ginger and ginger juice from the ginger jar, chili paste (use either Thai red curry paste or gochujang; I prefer gochujang), toasted sesame oil, black pepper, and chili flakes. 

Give this a good mix before starting the chicken.

Step 2: cook the chicken

To keep the recipe quick-cooking and avoid frying pieces of chicken, I love to use ground chicken. I toss the chicken with cornstarch and black pepper. The cornstarch helps the chicken get crispy and gives it a slight “breading”.

Pan-cook the chicken, then toss in butter and garlic. Add the broccoli and let the butter caramelize and brown around the chicken pieces.

Step 3: add the sauce

Now, add the orange sauce and let it thicken around the chicken and broccoli. This should only take a few minutes, after which you can pull the pan off the heat.

If you enjoy fresh herbs mixed in you can add fresh Thai, sweet basil, and cilantro. If I have any of these on hand, I do like to add fresh herbs!

Step 4: serve over rice

Now, you really do need a side of rice with this dish. Spoon the chicken, broccoli, and sauce over a plate of rice.

Green onions and toasted sesame seeds on top are my favorite.

All the right flavors and they all hit so well together.

Plus, I really appreciate all the fresh colors – the best kind of recipe! Great for spring and summer!

Looking for other quick weeknight dinners? Here are some favorites:

20 Minute Thai Basil Beef Rolls

Chili Crisp Chicken Mango Cucumber Rice Bowl

Spicy Orange Sesame Chicken

30 Minute Sticky Thai Meatballs with Sesame Noodles

Better Than Takeout Sweet Thai Basil Chicken

Thai Basil Beef and Lemongrass Rice Bowls

Lastly, if you make this 20 Minute Crispy Orange Garlic Chicken, be sure to leave a comment and/or give this recipe a rating! Above all, I love to hear from you guys and always do my best to respond to each and every comment. And, of course, if you do make this recipe, don’t forget to tag me on Instagram! Looking through the photos of recipes you all have made is my favorite!