Weight Watchers Orange Chicken

This quick and easy Weight Watchers Instant Pot Orange Chicken recipe is the perfect weeknight dinner when you’re craving Chinese food but don’t want to blow your points. 

Using either an Instant Pot, a wok, or skillet on the stove top, you can make this super easy orange chicken recipe in no time. Add this on top of precooked brown rice, or cook brown rice in your Instant Pot for a healthy, balanced meal that your whole family will enjoy!

Where’s the recipe?

I like to provide a lot of information in these posts so that anyone can make my recipes–whether you’re brand new to the kitchen or have been cooking for a long time.

If you’d like to skip past the detailed instructions, recipe tips, and nutritional information, just scroll down to the bottom of the page where you’ll find the easy to print Weight Watchers Orange Chicken Recipe.

Ingredients in WW Orange Chicken

• Chicken Breast: Chicken is a high protein, low fat staple in Asian cooking. Chicken soaks up all the flavors it is cooked in.
• Chicken broth: Be sure and grab low sodium chicken broth.  If you don’t have any on hand just use water.
• Low sodium soy sauce: Use a soy sauce alternative, like low- sodium tamari or coconut aminos if you want a gluten free version.
• Rice vinegar: Rice vinegar is a type of vinegar made from fermented rice. It has a mild, slightly sweet flavor. It’s a staple ingredient in many Asian dishes, including pickled vegetables, sushi rice, salad dressings and slaws. You can substitute with white vinegar, apple cider vinegar, or even lemon juice.
• Honey: Make sure to grab raw unfiltered honey, not the clover honey. Check your area bee farm, as there are tons of health benefits of using local honey. This recipe uses honey as a natural sweetener, rather than brown sugar.
• Ginger: Did you know ginger can help your body fight off germs? It’s a powerful antioxidant, and it tastes amazing.
• Crushed red pepper: No Asian recipe in my house is complete without some spice. Want more heat? Try adding half a tsp of chili paste in addition to your crushed red pepper.
• Garlic: Eating garlic can combat the common cold, improve cholesterol, and is low in calories. 
• Orange Zest: Orange zest is made from grating the top layer of an orange peel. It contains the fruits oils and gives your food a distinct citrus taste.
• Orange Juice: Loaded with vitamin C, you can hand squeeze or use a juicer to control the amount of pulp. Fresh oranges give an amazing orange flavor.
• Arrowroot Flour: Arrowroot flour is used as a thickener in gluten free cooking.  You can substitute with cornstarch, if you’d rather!

Instant Pot Directions

1. Cube your chicken
   Cube your chicken into bite-sized pieces, about 1 inch.
2. Sauté
   Lightly spray your Instant Pot insert with oil and set to sauté.
3. Make your sauce
   Mix together the chicken broth, soy sauce, rice vinegar, honey, ginger, crushed red pepper, garlic, orange zest, and orange juice in the pot.
4. Add chicken
   Once the sauce is boiling add your cubed chicken, stir until all of the chicken is coated with the sauce.
5. Pressure cook
   Close and lock the lid and turn the valve to sealing. Select Pressure Cook and set the cook time for 7 minutes.
6. Naturally release pressure
   When the cook time is complete let the pressure naturally release and remove the lid.
7. Thicken your sauce
   Scoop out ½ cup of sauce from the pot into a small bowl and whisk in your arrowroot flour. Add your sauce back to the pot and stir well. Let rest until the sauce thickens.
8. Serve
   Top with additional ginger and red pepper, if desired, and serve over brown rice or brown rice noodles.

Stove top directions

1. Cube your chicken into bite-size pieces, about 1 inch.
2. Preheat a large skillet over medium heat.
3. Add chicken broth, soy sauce, rice vinegar, honey, ginger, crushed red pepper, garlic, orange zest, and orange juice to your skillet.
4. Once the sauce is simmering, add your chicken. Stir to make sure all of the chicken is coated with the sauce. 
5. Cover and simmer over medium/high heat for 7-10 minutes until chicken is cooked to an internal temperature of 165°F.
6. Remove ½ cup of sauce, set in a small bowl and whisk in arrowroot powder.  Return sauce to the pan and stir well.  Remove from heat and allow the sauce to thicken.
7. Top with additional ginger and red pepper, if desired, and serve over brown rice or brown rice noodles.

Recipe tips

• I like to use partially frozen chicken as it is much easier to cut and handle.
• I use a small handheld grater for my garlic and ginger.  This also works great for zesting your orange.
• Having precooked frozen brown rice on hand is a huge help for busy weeknights.

Weight Watchers Points

1 Serving (recipe serves 4):
4 Points on the 2023 Plan | 3 Blue Plan Points | 6 Green Plan Points | 3 Purple Plan Points.

If you want to reduce the points from the honey, use Stevia or Sugar free maple syrup as the sweetener. The points in this recipe come from the honey and coconut aminos.

I use the Weight Watchers online recipe creator to make my recipes. It takes all the ingredients and values and gives me the points info–if you change any ingredients in this recipe, make sure to check your points online.

More Weight Watchers Instant Pot recipes

• Weight Watchers Beef Gyros in the Instant Pot
• Weight Watchers Instant Pot Lasagna Recipe
• Instant Pot Weight Watchers Beef Pho
• Weight Watchers Egg Roll in a Bowl | Zero Point Dinner
• Instant Pot Weight Watchers Drunken Noodles Recipe

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Weight Watchers Orange Chicken

Created by: Becca Ludlum

Prep Time 20 minutes mins

Cook Time 7 minutes mins

Total Time 27 minutes mins

Servings 4 servings

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This Weight Watchers Orange Chicken Recipe is delicious, easy to make and will help keep you feeling full and satisfied after dinner. Instant Pot Orange Chicken is a great family friendly meal.

Equipment

• Instant Pot 6 qt
• Coconut Aminos
• Kitchen Knife

Ingredients 

US CustomaryMetric

• ▢ 1/4 cup chicken broth low sodium
• ▢ 1/4 cup coconut aminos or low sodium tamari or soy sauce
• ▢ 1/4 cup vinegar rice vinegar
• ▢ 6 tsp honey
• ▢ 1 tbsp ginger I prefer fresh :)
• ▢ 1 tsp crushed red peppers
• ▢ 2 cloves minced garlic
• ▢ orange zest from 1 whole orange
• ▢ orange juice from 1 whole orange
• ▢ 1.5 lbs chicken breast cut into 1 inch cubes
• ▢ 2 tsp arrowroot powder or corn starch

Instructions

• Cube your chicken into bite-sized pieces, about 1 inch.
• Lightly spray your Instant Pot insert with oil and set to sauté.
• Mix together the chicken broth, soy sauce, rice vinegar, honey, ginger, crushed red pepper, garlic, orange zest, and orange juice in the pot.
• Once the sauce is boiling add your cubed chicken, stir until all of the chicken is coated with the sauce.
• Close and lock the lid and turn the valve to sealing. Select Pressure Cook and set the cook time for 7 minutes.
• When the cook time is complete let the pressure naturally release and remove the lid.
• Remove ½ cup of sauce from the pot to a small bowl and whisk in your arrowroot flour. Add the sauce back to the pot and stir well. Let rest until the sauce thickens.
• Top with additional ginger and red pepper, if desired, and serve over brown rice or brown rice noodles.

Stovetop Directions:

• Cube your chicken into bite-size pieces, about 1 inch.
• Preheat a large skillet over medium heat.
• Add chicken broth, soy sauce, rice vinegar, honey, ginger, crushed red pepper, garlic, orange zest, and orange juice to your skillet.
• Once the sauce is simmering add your chicken. Stir to make sure all of the chicken is coated with the sauce.
• Cover and simmer over medium/high heat for 7-10 minutes until chicken is cooked to an internal temperature of 165°F. 
• Remove ½ cup of sauce from the skillet to a small bowl and whisk in your arrowroot flour. Add the sauce back to your pan and stir well. Remove from heat and allow the sauce to thicken.
• Top with additional ginger and red pepper, if desired, and serve over brown rice or brown rice noodles.

Video

Notes

4 Points on the 2023 Plan | 3 Blue Plan Points | 6 Green Plan Points | 3 Purple Plan Points

 

Recipe Tips:

• I like to use partially frozen chicken as it is much easier to cut and handle.
• I use a small handheld grater for my garlic and ginger.  This also works great for zesting your orange.
• Having precooked frozen brown rice on hand is a huge help for busy weeknights.

Nutrition

Calories: 252kcal | Carbohydrates: 12g | Protein: 38g | Fat: 5g | Saturated Fat: 1g | Cholesterol: 109mg | Sodium: 470mg | Potassium: 642mg | Fiber: 1g | Sugar: 9g | Vitamin A: 90IU | Vitamin C: 4mg | Calcium: 11mg | Iron: 1mg

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