YUM! Chicken with Mandarin Oranges & Cilantro

This chicken is absolutely divine and has quickly become a family favorite in my house. I wish I could take full credit for it but I was inspired by a recipe I learned in a cooking class taught by Food Network’s own, Robin Miller.

Her recipe is Seared Tuna with Oranges, Avocado and Cilantro from The Robin Takes 5 – Cookbook for Busy Families. As luck would have it I was assigned that recipe during the cooking class and all the other students swooned when we sat down to eat. WOW!

The sauce is AMAZING and laughably easy to make. I found myself craving the dish for days to come but was bummed because we have yet to introduce seafood to our daughter and my often finicky husband would never eat tuna if it wasn’t from a can. Not to mention both he and Jax have an aversion to avocados (I know, right?!). I would get banished from my own home if I served up Robin’s tuna dish no matter how delicious it is! So my rotors started turning — I knew the sauce would be pretty versatile and thought chicken would be a great vehicle for it.

I substituted skinless, boneless chicken breasts for the tuna steaks, omitted the avocado and added green onions. PERFECT! I was able to adapt the luscious flavors of Robin’s original recipe into a meal my picky family would love. HUGE SUCCESS!

Chicken with Mandarin Oranges & Cilantro 

Ingredients:

• 4 Skinless, Boneless Chicken Breast Halves
• 1 Can Mandarin Oranges, No Sugar Added in Water (11 ounces)
• 2 TBS Low Sodium Soy Sauce
• 2 TBS Cilantro, finely chopped
• 2 TBS Green Onions, finely chopped
• 1 TBS Brown Sugar
• Salt and Pepper to Season
• 1 Tablespoon Coconut Oil (or light cooking oil of your choice)

Directions:

1. Heat the oil in a large skillet over medium/high heat.
2. Season both sides of the chicken lightly with salt and pepper. Add the breast halves to the hot pan and allow to get a golden brown on each side. Cook until slightly underdone and remove from pan (they will finish cooking in the sauce). Set aside.
3. Turn heat down to medium and add mandarin oranges with liquid to the pan, scrape up all the chicken bits and allow to simmer a few minutes, breaking up the segments.
4. Add the sugar and soy sauce and allow to cook for 5-8 minutes or until the sauce starts to slightly reduce.
5. Add chicken breasts back to the pan and cook until chicken is cooked through, about 5 additional minutes.
6. Add the cilantro and green onions over the top and serve.

Tip: Complete the meal with cilantro lime rice and roasted asparagus. The citrus flavors of the sauce and the rice marry well together in both taste and presentation – positively delicious! FYI: I cheat and use minute rice with a squeeze of fresh lime juice and a little cilantro reserved from the bunch I use for the recipe. This entire meal takes less than a half an hour to prepare!