Simple Orange Chicken Freezer Meal Recipe

The Best Frozen Orange Chicken

This Orange Chicken Freezer Meal Recipe is an easy meal to make and throw in the freezer for another day.  It is also quick to prepare once pulling it out of the freezer and a family favorite!

Preparing the Orange Chicken Freezer Meal:

You can do this freezer meal two different ways. You can either cook the chicken and mix together the sauce ingredients in a bag to be frozen and cooked later, OR you can cut up the raw chicken and freeze it with a bag of the sauce ingredients to be cooked right before you want it.

I personally prefer to cook the chicken first because it is quicker and easier to prepare when pulling the meal out of the freezer, which is exactly what we want. Quick and easy.

So, I will cook the chicken as directed in the recipe, cool it, and then place it in a Ziploc bag to freeze.  I will also assemble the ingredients for the sauce recipe (but not cook it) and store it in a sandwich size Ziploc bag. Then, I will put the sauce bag in the chicken bag and freeze them both together in one convenient packet. Easy.

Cooking the Frozen Orange Chicken:

When you pull the meal out of the freezer, it’s super easy to prepare:

1. Place the frozen chicken on a cookie sheet and bake it at 350 degrees for 15 minutes or until thoroughly heated
2. Place the sauce ingredients in a small saucepan and heat over medium heat stirring until it thickens
3. Remove from heat
4. Place chicken in a mixing bowl and mix the sauce in with it

When it comes to serving the orange chicken, I find it’s best served over rice, which is great, because rice is so easy to make (especially with a good rice cooker). It really fits the “quick and easy” vibe that we’re going for.

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Simple Orange Chicken Freezer Meal Recipe

This Orange Chicken Freezer Meal Recipe is an easy meal to make and throw in the freezer for another day.  It is also quick to prepare once pulling it out of the freezer and a family favorite!

4.84 / 5 ( 6 Reviews )

Print Rate

Prep Time: 15 minutes minutes

Cook Time: 30 minutes minutes

Total Time: 45 minutes minutes

Serves: 4

Adjust Servings: 4

US CustomaryMetric

Ingredients

• vegetable or peanut oil for frying
• 4 whole egg whites
• 2 tablespoons cornstarch
• 4 whole boneless skinless chicken thighs cut into bite sized pieces

Sauce

• ½ cup orange juice
• 1 tablespoon soy sauce
• 1 tablespoon packed brown sugar
• 1 tablespoon rice vinegar or distilled white vinegar
• ¼ teaspoon sesame oil
• dash of salt
• dash of crushed red pepper to taste
• 1 clove garlic minced
• 2 teaspoons minced ginger
• 1 teaspoon cornstarch additional
• zest of 1 orange optional
• ¼ cup water
• 2 green onions sliced

Instructions

Chicken

• Whisk together the cornstarch and egg whites with a fork in a bowl until almost frothy, about 1 minute. Add the chicken pieces to the mixture and allow to sit for 5 to 10 minutes.
• Heat about 2 inches of vegetable oil in a heavy-bottomed pot until a deep-fry thermometer inserted in the oil registers 350°F/175°C.
• Working in batches, carefully drop pieces of chicken (one by one to keep them from sticking together) into the oil and move it around, 2-3 minutes or until light golden.
• Let the pieces drain on a plate lined with paper towels for 2 to 3 minutes.
• Once the chicken has cooled, place in a freezer ziploc bag.

Sauce

• In a small bowl, whisk together the orange juice, soy sauce, sugar, vinegar, sesame oil, salt, crushed red pepper, garlic and ginger (and orange zest, if using) and cornstarch. To freeze, transfer to a sandwich size ziploc bag.

To Freeze

• Place cooked chicken in Ziploc freezer bag along with sauce packet and freeze.

To Prepare

• Thaw sauce. Heat a nonstick skillet and whisk together sauce plus 1/4 cup water. Heat until bubbling and starting to thicken, about 3-4 minutes.
• Heat chicken in the oven at 350°F/175°C, until completely heated (usually 15-20 minutes).
• Coat the chicken with Orange Sauce. Serve over rice. Garnish with green onions.

Nutrition

Calories: 202kcal | Carbohydrates: 12g | Protein: 26g | Fat: 5g | Sodium: 405mg | Fiber: 1g | Sugar: 6g