Semi-Homemade Spicy Orange Chicken Recipe

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WHAT YOU'LL NEED:

Sauce: (this recipe has been halved since I only serve two people)
1 ½ cups water
4 tablespoons orange juice
2 tablespoons lemon juice
1/3 cup rice vinegar
2 tablespoons soy sauce
1 cup packed brown sugar
½ teaspoon minced fresh ginger root
½ teaspoon minced garlic
2 tablespoons chopped green onion
1/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes

3 tablespoons cornstarch
2 tablespoons water

Chicken:

Tyson Buffalo Style Popcorn Chicken Bites® (try regular if you don't like it spicy)

Added Fun-ness:
Frozen Peppers (I chop mine a little, but that is entirely preference)
Baby Carrots (julienned & boiled with the rice. Julienne cut carrots cook faster.)

Oh yeah, you'll want RICE with this dish since the sauce is awesome. I use the Uncle Dan’s® Boil-in-a-Bag® brand but I have used regular Minute Rice and boiling the carrots with it, didn't seem to affect how the rice turned out.  Of course, I likely over cook my rice anyhow. Gourmet, I ain’t!

DIRECTIONS:

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Place the popcorn chicken on a cookie sheet and follow the cooking directions on the bag. So, in my case, I would put half a bag of the popcorn chicken on the sheet and cook them for 10 - 12 minutes. That should be enough for three people.

2. Grab a pot and boil your rice and julienned carrots, this works for me because the Uncle Ben's Boil-in-a-Bag takes like 10-12 minutes. Depending on the rice you choose, you may have to cook your carrots some other way or leave them out. (You can steam them in the Micro.)

3. NOW, while you have a second, start making the sauce. Pour 1 1/2 cups water, orange juice, lemon juice, rice vinegar, and soy sauce into a saucepan and set over medium-high heat. Stir in the orange zest, brown sugar, ginger, garlic, chopped onion, and red pepper flakes. Bring to a boil over medium-high heat. Mix together the cornstarch and 2 tablespoons water separately then stir water/cornstarch mixture into the sauce.

4. Reduce heat to medium low, fish out your carrots and add them and the peppers and simmer, about 5 minutes, stirring occasionally. (I go until the peppers look done.) The sauce thickens as it cools but you can add more cornstarch... not that I would recommend this, especially if you want to eat leftovers that don't look like jell-o.

5. Now while you were making the sauce, the Chicken and the Rice should have finished cooking. Perhaps the Chicken may have even cooled. You can add the piping hot sauce to the chicken and everything should warm back up.

I tweak my recipes nearly every time I make them. This recipe is a foundation to build on and make changes to so feel free to make them and leave them below as comments. I would love to hear how you have improved upon this.

Thanks!