Chicken With Savory Orange Sauce
In my recent quest for recipes that are both healthy and delicious I have been making a lot of poultry recipes, which as you know if you follow IFF is one of my favorite foods. I chose chicken thighs for this recipe as they are less expensive than chicken breasts yet have a lot of flavor and remain moist when cooked, but you could use chicken breasts if you prefer. I wanted to create an orange sauce using marmalade, but was initially concerned that most marmalades contain such high quantities of sugar but I stumbled across a Smucker’s sugar free brand that had only 10 calories per tablespoon. This brand also had a fresh, clean orange flavor and I found it worked out perfectly in this recipe. I made this dish twice now, and after tweaking the ingredients just a bit, I love how it turned out and know I’ll make it many times in the future. This dish actually keeps well, and I found that even when slowly reheated the next day, the chicken stayed moist and tender.
Buon Appetito!
Deborah Mele 2011
Chicken With Savory Orange Sauce
Meaty chicken thighs become elegant in this easy entree.
Ingredients
- 8 Boneless, Skinless Chicken Thighs
- 2 Tablespoons Olive Oil
- Salt & Pepper
- 1 1/2 Cups Chicken Broth
- 3/4 Cup Sugar Free Orange Marmalade
- 2 Teaspoons Dijon Mustard
- 1 Tablespoon Red Wine Vinegar
- 2 Teaspoons Cornstarch
- 1 Sweet Red Pepper, Cored, Seeded And Diced
- 2 Cloves Garlic, Peeled & Minced
- 3 Tablespoons Chopped Fresh Parsley
Instructions
- Trim the thighs of any excess fat, and season with salt and pepper.
- Heat the oil in a large, heavy skillet and brown the thighs well on both sides over medium heat, about 7 to 8 minutes.
- Remove the thighs to a plate and cover.
- Cook the garlic and diced pepper in the same pan for 3 or 4 minutes.
- Add the chicken broth, marmalade and mustard and mix well.
- Bring to a boil and cook until the sauce has reduced by about 1/3 volume.
- Stir together the vinegar and cornstarch and whisk this into the broth mixture and cook until thickened.
- Season with salt and pepper.
- Reduce the heat to a simmer and return the chicken to the pan.
- Cook over low heat until the thighs are cooked through, about 15 minutes.
- Place the thighs onto a platter and spoon the sauce on top.
- Sprinkle with chopped parsley and serve immediately.
My wife and I enjoy cooking and made the Chicken w/Savory Orange Sauce today, along with the Risotto Primavera. Both were delicious. Felt like dining at a fine restaurant.
Thanks for the fine recipes and great site. I’m sure we’ll be trying more of these recipes in the future.
Thanks for the feedback Steve, much appreciated!
Deborah,
If I may be so bold? This is such a nice site I wondered why I didn’t see any other reviews (None that I saw at least). When I suggest recipes to my wife I frequently go by the number of positive reviews a recipe gets.
For example, I also really like the recipes I find on “Allrecipes” because they are rated 1-5 stars and have the number of ratings and the person’s input. I’m sure you know what I’m talking about.
By the way, when I first started looking over your recipes the first thing that came to my mind was I wish that every day I could pick out one of these recipes and have it prepared for us, just like in a restaurant; they look that good! I don’t recall ever thinking that before while looking at recipes.
Thanks again and best wishes,
Steve
Steve, allrecipes.com is a public, commercial site with folks from all over adding recipes so it makes sense for folks to rate them after they try them. Italian Food Forever is my own personal food blog, and I cover all the costs. All the recipes on Italian Food Forever are also my own recipes (or recipes I adapted from others), and are tested by me personally before they are posted. Honestly, if the recipes weren’t good I would not share them, and I really do not think private food blogs usually have ratings for the reasons I describe.
This looks delish, but what can I use to replace the corn starch?
Kelly, not sure why you need a substitute (health reasons, availability, etc.), but rice or potato starch, arrowroot, or all-purpose flour can be used in place of corn starch.