Sesame Orange Chicken

This is a great week night meal. I served with rice and a veggie stir fry. Yum!

photo & recipe thanks to Simply Recipes

Serves 4

•   4 small boneless, skinless chicken breast halves

•   1 navel orange

•   1/2 cup orange marmalade

•   2 Tbsp soy sauce

•   1 Tbsp grapeseed oil or peanut oil

•   1 teaspoon Asian sesame oil

•   1 teaspoon red pepper flakes

•   1/2 teaspoon Kosher salt

•   1 cup breadcrumbs

•   2 Tbsp butter, melted

•   1/2 cup sesame seeds

Use a microplane grater to grate the zest from the orange. Place the zest in a large bowl.

Add to the large bowl with the zest, the marmalade, soy sauce, sesame oil, peanut oil, red pepper flakes and salt. Mix well. Set aside a little of the marinade for sauce for the chicken. Then add the chicken to the remaining sauce, coating every piece. Marinate chicken for at least 30 minutes (or you can do this 24 hours ahead of time).

Heat a small skillet on medium high heat. Add the sesame seeds. Toast sesame seeds until fragrant and lightly browned. Stir often to keep them from burning. When lightly browned remove from heat and set aside.

Mix butter in with the bread crumbs in a large skillet on a medium high heat. Stir often until the bread crumbs get toasty brown. Remove from heat, let cool.

Heat the oven to 400°F. Line a roasting pan with foil. Put a flat baking rack on the lined roasting pan.

In a large, shallow dish, mix together the toasted sesame seeds and bread crumbs. Working with the chicken one piece at a time, dredge the chicken in the coating, pressing down on the crumbs to make sure they adhere well. Transfer to the backing rack on the lined roasting pan.

Cook at 400°F until the chicken has an internal temperature of 160°F, about 20 minutes.


*If you need a good stir fry sauce, try this one.