Description
This golden Cilantro Orange Chicken is so flavorful, crisped to golden brown perfection, and just very finger-licking good! Served with rice, beans, and a quick homemade pineapple salsa.
Ingredients
Cilantro Orange Sauce:
- 1/4 – 1/2 cup cilantro, finely chopped
- 2 cloves garlic, grated
- juice of 2 oranges (about 4–5 tablespoons juice) + a bit of zest
- 3 tablespoons brown sugar
- 3 tablespoons avocado oil
- 2 tablespoons white vinegar
- 1 1/2 teaspoons salt
Chicken:
- 1.25 pounds boneless skinless chicken thighs, cut into bite sized pieces
- wood or metal skewers (optional)
Optional / For Serving:
- one 8.8-ounce pouch pre-made yellow rice (or make your own!)
- one 14-ounce can refried or regular black beans
- 1–2 cups diced pineapple, mango, and/or avocado (optional)
Instructions
- If you’re using wood skewers, start soaking them!
- Line a baking sheet with parchment paper or aluminum foil. Turn on the broiler, and make sure one of the oven racks is way up at the top, about 6 inches from the heating element.
- Place chicken in a large mixing bowl.
- Combine the sauce ingredients in a small bowl.
- Pour only half of the sauce over the chicken and toss to coat; reserve the other half of the sauce for later. Thread the chicken pieces onto skewers, or you can just let the excess sauce drip off and add the chicken directly to your sheet pan! If you want (I do!) season the chicken with a little pinch of extra salt.
- Broil for 12 minutes, or until chicken is cooked through and has a burnished and golden exterior.
- Optional – mix a little bit of the reserved sauce with the diced pineapple/mango/avocado to make a little “salsa.”
- Brush the golden brown chicken with reserved sauce. Serve chicken with rice, beans, and your fruit salsa! Fresh, juicy and savory, so good.
Notes
My oven has high / low broil settings – I use the high broil for this recipe.
If you’re using wood skewers, make sure you soak them in water for 20-30 minutes before threading the chicken on and baking.
When using parchment paper, mine usually gets a bit brittle around the edges but stays intact throughout the middle of the pan due to the moisture from the sauce and the chicken. This article says you can use parchment for a broil, and it has always worked for me! But if you’re feeling unsure about it you can use aluminum foil.
The sauce has a lot of salt, and that is on purpose – you’re only putting half of the sauce on the chicken, and even then, not all of it will actually bake into the chicken. If you’re worried about it, you can start with 1 teaspoon in the sauce and just add extra salt to taste the chicken itself during or after baking.
I like this yellow rice, and this precooked yellow rice. This would also be delicious with this amazing homemade green rice! For beans, I like these refried beans, or these ready-to-serve black beans.
- Prep Time: 15 minutes
- Cook Time: 15 minutes
- Category: Dinner
- Method: Oven
- Cuisine: Cuban-Inspired
Keywords: cilantro chicken, garlic chicken, cilantro garlic chicken, rice bowl, chicken skewers
