Healthy Orange Chicken Recipe - Major Hoff Takes A Wife (2024)

FAQs

Can I eat orange chicken on a diet? ›

Is Orange Chicken Healthy? Traditional Chinese Orange Chicken is loaded with lots of excess fat, salt, carbs and sugar thanks to the batter, frying oil and sweet orange-flavored chili sauce, so it's not necessarily the healthiest option.

Orange Chicken is traditionally coated in batter and deep fried. This increases fat content and increases the caloric density of the dish.

Tangerine chicken tastes fresh and spicy, but orange chicken tastes sweet and sour. Orange chicken is crispy cooked in a sweet and little spicy orange sauce. The sweetness of orange chicken was introduced to cater to American tastes.

While the orange chicken is one of the most famous Chinese dishes in America, it is a purely American invention, with no authentic Chinese resturants or restaurants in China serving this dish.

Steamed Fish and Vegetables

Takeout menus tend to offer a mild-tasting variety of protein-rich white fish, such as sole, and pair it with mixed vegetables. The veggies add fiber, a key nutrient for digestion and heart health. If you have the chance to choose or add Chinese eggplant as a veggie, go for it.

No, it is not. Traditional orange chicken is full of fats, carbohydrates, added sugars and a lot of salt, all things that are not good for your body, weight management, or overall health.

The chicken in many orange chicken recipes is usually battered and fried before adding the sauce. So you end up having a dish that is high in calories, fat, and sugar. It gets worse when you insist on eating it with sauce drippings and rice, which itself is highly caloric as well.

True Chinese-style orange chicken is made with sliced fresh chicken—not the battered and fried stuff you'll find in the US—and is flavored not with fresh orange, but with dried orange or tangerine peel.

In Chinese, this dish is known as "橙花雞", literally "(Fresh) Orange peel chicken". The dish also has a variation known as "陳皮雞", literally "Dried Citrus peel chicken", referring to dried orange or tangerine peel , which is used in traditional Chinese medicine as well as cooking.

Whether you need to whip up dinner fast or just want to quickly add flavorful chicken to your meal, each $17.99 box of this new Costco addition is “fully cooked, family size” and ready to “heat and serve.”

Is Japanese food healthier than Chinese food? ›

Generally, Japanese foods are considered healthier and more nutritious than Chinese meals. The reason lies in the use of fats, carbs, and proteins. Japanese cuisine uses a lot of proteins, and the primary source is seafood. Usually, the Japanese serve raw seafood. However, some prefer steaming and stir-frying.

"Panda Express can be unhealthy due to the high amount of sodium found in their meals as well as added sugar," says Roxana Ehsani, MS, RD, CSSD, LDN, a registered dietitian nutritionist in Miami, Florida. "Some meals can also be high in total fat, too."

Instead, the origins of orange chicken, similar to Panda Express, are uniquely American. Customers should cast their gaze to the island state of Hawaii. Executive chef Andy Kao invented orange chicken in Hawaii in 1987, having ventured there to lend a hand in opening the state's first Panda Express.

Orange chicken (1 cup) contains 60.8g total carbs, 59.6g net carbs, 11.2g fat, 29.2g protein, and 465 calories.

100g of Orange Chicken contains 14.5g of protein, which is about the same as 2.4 eggs, 0.5 chicken breasts, or 1 cups (281g) of black beans.