Baked Asian Orange Glazed Chicken

 

Looking around the kitchen this evening for something for dinner, I found a package of organic chicken breasts in the freezer. It was already 3:30 pm, so, doing the math, I figured there was no way I was going to both thaw the chicken, AND have time to marinade it before cooking. I learned this trick some time ago for thawing frozen chicken, where one submerges the package in 140 degree water for about a  half hour. It works great! 

So, I began the thawing process while I looked around for other things. Hmmmm…soy sauce….love that. I always have garlic, and they go well together. I thought Asian flavors…what else can I add? 

ORANGE! I had half a jar of marmalade in the fridge and two oranges in the bowl, so that was a good sign! 

As it turns out, the marriage of these flavors became a delicious chicken dish that we will have many times in the future.

Note: I had a nice bag of Brussels sprouts in the freezer also. I halved them, tossed them in a bowl with melted coconut oil, and my usual mixture of garlic powder, onion powder, and seasoned salt, and roasted them in the same 400 degree oven next to the chicken. They roast to a nice dark caramelized finish in about 35-40 minutes. Bonus in all this was that the cooked glaze from the chicken was delicious drizzled over the Brussels sprouts.

Baked Asian Orange Glazed Chicken

¾ cup organic low sodium soy sauce

¾ cup orange marmalade (need to make my own in the future for organic)

1 ½ tbsp. minced garlic

1 ½ tbsp. organic corn starch

2 tsp. onion powder

Juice of two small cara cara navel oranges

3 or 4 organic chicken breasts

In a saucepan, mix all the above ingredients except the chicken. Bring to a slow boil, then reduce the heat, stirring well, until the water content is reduced by a quarter, or about 10 minutes.

Place chicken breasts in a single layer in a baking dish. Choose the smallest one that will fit the chicken with as little extra room as possible. Pour the mixture over the chicken and allow to sit for approximately a half hour.  Near the end of that half-hour, preheat oven to 400.  Bake for approximately 30-40 minutes, turning once after 15 minutes, until the internal temperature is at least 170 degrees.

Serve with some of glaze. The cooked glaze is great drizzled over roasted veggies, as well!