You'll love this super easy and delicious dinner! Made with crispy chicken and mixed vegetables tossed in a simple, sweet and spicy Asian sauce, all served over white rice.
A complete meal in one bowl!!!
★ Why You'll Love this Recipe ★
This recipe is very simple to prep when you start with frozen popcorn chicken and frozen mixed vegetables. You can make your own rice or use pre-cooked rice or minute rice.
These simple shortcuts save a ton of time.
You'll love the sauce. The sweet and spicy orange sauce coats the crispy chicken, vegetables and rice tying everything together and adding the perfect amount of flavor.
★ Ingredients You'll Need ★
You'll need just 8 total ingredients to pull this entire meal together!
Here's everything you'll need:
- Popcorn chicken. You can find this pre-cooked chicken in the frozen foods aisle. Just bake or air fry according to the package instructions to heat and crisp the outside.
- Orange marmalade. This sweet and tangy jam adds the perfect amount of flavor, texture and a touch of sweetness to this dish.
- Yellow mustard. Just standard yellow mustard works or you can try Chinese mustard which is a bit stronger in mustard flavor and has a little spice too.
- Rice vinegar. This adds a nice tang to your sauce that cuts through and compliments the sweetness.
- Sriracha sauce. You can adjust the amount to increase or decrease the level of spice.
- Broccoli stir fry vegetables. You can use any medley of fresh or frozen vegetables but I really like the stir-fry vegetables with broccoli for this dish. This variety includes baby corn, broccoli, Italian green beans, carrots, water chestnuts, and red bell peppers.
- White rice. I like to cook a big batch of white rice ahead of time and freeze it 2 cups at a time. Just microwave to defrost and fluff with a fork.
- Green onions. This adds a final layer of spice and a little crunch too. These aren't required but add a yummy finish.
★ How to Make this Recipe ★
This recipe is SO EASY!
Everything comes together in just a few steps making this an easy weeknight dinner.
Here's a snapshot of what's involved:
- Bake frozen crispy chicken.
- Heat and combine sauce ingredients.
- Add and cook frozen stir fry vegetables.
- Layer cooked rice in bowl.
- Add cooked chicken.
- Pour sauce and vegetables over chicken.
That's it! You can precook the rice ahead of time and just heat it up in the microwave or let it cook while you prepare the crispy chicken and sauce with vegetables.
★ Tips & FAQs ★
Is this similar to Applebee's crispy orange chicken?
Yes. This recipe is not exactly the same but is inspired by Applebee's popular chicken bowl made with breaded chicken, a tangy orange sauce, stir-fried veggies and cilantro rice. Applebee's dish is topped with green onion and toasted almonds.
So the main difference is that we are using regular white rice and no almonds.
If you'd like to season your rice, simply stir in fresh lemon or lime juice, fresh chopped cilantro and salt after cooking the rice, right before serving.
Sauté Your Veggies
My recipes are always designed for quick and easy prep. However, if you desire your vegetable to have some additional snap to them, you can sauté them before adding them to your sauce. If you do this, you will need about 2-3 tablespoon of any type of cooking oil.
Fresh or Frozen Vegetables
Again, we're using frozen vegetables to save time and offer a convenient option for cooking a homemade dinner quickly on those busy weeknights.
However, you can certainly opt for fresh vegetables. Any vegetable or combination of veggies you'd like to use, works.
Perfect rice every time
The key to cooking rice is to rinse it first! This removes excess starch and prevents the rice from clumping and unevenly cooking or under cooking.
If you cook a lot of rice, you may want to consider a rice cooker or an Instapot which you can use as a rice cooker.
★ More Recipes You'll Love ★
Looking for more easy dinner ideas?
Browse all my dinner recipes and be sure to Pin your favorites for later!
Crispy Orange Chicken and Vegetable Bowl
Ingredients
- 26 oz breaded popcorn chicken frozen
- 12 oz orange marmalade
- ⅓ cup yellow mustard or use Chinese mustard
- 2 tablespoon rice vinegar
- 3-6 tablespoon Sriracha sauce more or less to taste
- 20 oz broccoli stir fry vegetables (frozen) frozen
- 4 cups cooked white rice
- 4 green onions finely chopped
Instructions
- Heat chicken according to package. (Bake or air fry - approx 10 minutes)
- Prepare rice according to package instructions or use pre-cooked white rice and heat according to package.
- While chicken and rice are heating, add orange marmalade, mustard, rice vinegar, and Sriracha sauce to a large skillet over medium/high heat. Bring to a boil, stir to combine.
- Add stir-fry vegetables to sauce. Cook in bubbling sauce for 3-5 minutes or until vegetables are soft but still bright in color. Reduce to simmer.
- When chicken and rice are ready, build each bowl by layering cooked rice, cooked popcorn chicken, then pour the sauce over top of the chicken, completely coating it and adding as many vegetables as you’d like. Top with chopped green onions.
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