Orange Chicken is by far the one of the most popular dishes at any Chinese-American restaurant, but have you ever tried to find a lighter, real food version while you’re out and about?

It’s like trying to find a needle in a haystack! Because both of our families love this savory dish, we set out to create a lighter version that has less calories, uses FfL-friendly (real food) ingredients and doesn’t involve frying.

What we came up with was tender pieces of pan-seared chicken, paired with broccoli and then smothered in the most delicious sweet and sticky orange sauce. It’s a recipe that is so simple to make, it’s perfect even on busy weeknights. Plus (at least in our opinion), the leftovers taste so good after marinating in the sauce overnight, that we often make a double batch.

No, General Tso’s Chicken is almost always deep-fried, often much spicier and typically doesn’t have the same sweet, tangy and citrus flavor of Orange Chicken.

The key to this delicious dish is, not surprisingly, the sauce. The ingredients are easy to find and yield a sweet, sour and slightly salty flavor with a mild touch of heat.

Yep, substitute 1/4 tablespoon of ground ginger for 1 tablespoon of fresh ginger (about a 1″ knob of ginger root, minced).

You sure can. In fact, we recommend it! Just allow the sauce to cool completely before freezing it. We keep a mason jar or two in the fridge or freezer for a quick-and-easy topping to rice, chicken and even steamed veggies.

We love to serve our Orange Chicken with whole grain rice, cauliflower rice or zucchini noodles. When we make rice or cauliflower rice, we add scrambled eggs for a little “fried rice” flavor.

Simple fried rice: Scramble 4 eggs in a pan, add salt and pepper to taste. Mix the scrambled eggs with 2 cups of cooked rice. Serve Orange Chicken over rice.