Easy Orange Chicken Casserole
Published 2/7/2023
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This Orange Chicken Casserole combines a classic takeout meal with easy at-home prep, made with just one dish!
This orange chicken casserole is a Fit Foodie favorite! It was recently updated on 2/4/2023, to be made with a more accessible rice (jasmine rice). If you love the old recipe, you can find it HERE.
Orange chicken, but a casserole!
Hello, takeout meets meal prep! This orange chicken casserole is bursting with flavor and uses nutritious ingredients to make an easy meal with just one pot.
It features long-gran white rice, chicken breast, broccoli, and an easy orange chicken sauce for a colorful meal that feeds a crowd.
The best part is that this chicken casserole is made with a homemade orange chicken sauce created with better-for-you ingredients such as orange juice, chicken broth, honey, and sriracha.
PS: try our healthy orange chicken and Instant Pot orange chicken recipes!
Featured Ingredients
This takeout-inspired dish is made with fresh ingredients and the most delicious homemade orange chicken sauce you’ve ever tasted. Here are the mean ingredients:
- chicken breast (thighs work, too)
- onion
- broccoli florets
- Jasmine rice
- homemade orange chicken sauce
The sauce is rather simple to make. It’s made up of orange juice, chicken broth, honey, soy sauce, rice vinegar, and fresh ginger.
make it easy
Print Your Own
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Can I use a different kind of rice?
While we used jasmine rice, any kind of long-grain white rice works.
Why is the rice still crunchy after I bake the casserole?
The key to making sure the rice and sauciness of the casserole turn out just right is letting the casserole sit covered for 15 minutes after removing it from the oven.
This is important because it allows the rice to soak up the remaining liquid!
Veggie Add-In Ideas
Make this casserole your own with more veggies! Here are some ideas:
- Bell pepper
- Cauliflower
- Mushrooms
- Pea pods
Storage
Healthy casseroles are great for meal prep throughout the week! Make this orange chicken casserole on a Sunday and throw it in the refrigerator or freezer for easy meals to warm up for your busiest weeks.
Refrigerator: Store in an airtight container glass container, for up to 5 days in the refrigerator.
To Reheat: reheat your casserole in the microwave on high for 60-90 seconds.
Easy Orange Chicken Casserole
Ingredients
For the Casserole
- 1.5 lbs. boneless, skinless chicken thighs, cut into ~½ inch chunks
- 2 tablespoons soy sauce
- 2 tablespoons orange juice
- 1 teaspoon garlic powder
- 2 teaspoons sesame oil
- 1 cup jasmine rice, uncooked
- 1/2 medium yellow onion, diced
- 4 cups chopped broccoli
For the Sauce
- 1.5 cups orange juice
- 1/4 cup honey
- 2 cups chicken broth
- 1/4 cups soy sauce
- 1 teaspoon fish sauce
- 2 tablespoons rice vinegar
- 4 garlic cloves, minced
- 1 teaspoon freshly ground ginger
- 2 tablespoon sriracha
Toppings
- 1-2 teaspoons sesame seeds
- 3 green onions, chopped
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to broil and then add the chicken to a 9×13-inch ceramic casserole dish. Add 2 tablespoons soy sauce, 2 tablespoons orange juice, garlic powder, and sesame oil to the chicken and toss to coat. Let the chicken marinate for 10 minutes.
- Place the casserole dish into the oven under the broiler and broil the chicken for 2 minutes, toss, and add additional 2 minutes to brown the chicken.
- Remove the casserole dish from the oven and add the jasmine rice, onion, and broccoli. Toss to combine.
- Next, mix up the sauce. Add the orange juice and honey to a bowl and whisk until there are no clumps of honey at the bottom of the bowl. Add the rest of the sauce ingredients to the orange juice and whisk to combine.
- Pour the sauce over the chicken mixture in the casserole and toss to combine. Be sure the rice is submerged in liquid.
- Turn the oven heat down to 375ºF and cover the casserole dish with tin foil. Bake the casserole for 30 minutes.
- Stir the casserole after 30 minutes (it will still have a lot of liquid in it). Bake the casserole, covered, for an additional 15-30 minutes, or until the rice is fully cooked.
- Remove the casserole from the oven and let it rest for 10 minutes without removing the cover.
- Top with sesame seeds and green onions.
Tips & Notes
You can add more vegetables to this dish if you’d like.
This is a saucier casserole. Let the dish sit longer if you’d like the rice to absorb more liquid.
Watch It
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
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Photography: photos taken in this post are by Ashley McGlaughlin from The Edible Perspective.
Unfortunately this recipe does not work. I read the recipe, read several of the reviews that commented on the cooking time and the type of rice being an issue – I saw the recipe had been update to reflect jasmine rice and a longer cooking time. I thought these updates suggested that the recipe would be improved based on the feedback from reviewers so I pressed on as written. However, even with additional cooking time my rice was not fully cooked. I let the casserole sit for an extended period on the stovetop when it was removed from the oven to absorb the excess moisture to no avail. I had a very thin sauce (essentially a both) and my casserole was swimming in it. Easily 1-2 cups of excess liquid after cooking for > 1hr and sitting for > 15 minutes.
Great flavor and reheats well! I used Good&Gather brand jasmine rice from Target and didn’t have an issues with the rice cooking.
Yum!
I subbed basmati for jasmine and my rice didn’t cook, even after cooking it for 30/20/20 and letting it rest for 20. Very disappointed.
I made this after the 2/7/23 update with Jasmine rice and felt it was a good cooking time and easy to put together. Only feedback is that even after letting it rest for 10 minutes after the cook time, it is liquidy so I would suggest 1/2 cup less of broth.
Gave up on getting the rice cooked after an extra 30 letting it sit for 10 in the stove then microwave then stovetop for 30 more minutes. Everything else is over cooked and the rice is barely cooked at all.
Hi Melissa, We’re so sorry to hear this! Wondering if you used germinated brown rice as it calls for in the recipe? There is a shorter cook time with this variety of rice than long grain white or brown rice. If you’re using another variety of rice, we make some recommendations on how to ensure everything cooks perfectly in the post. Hope this helps!
The recipe actually calls for jasmine rice and has a link to long grain jasmine rice… am i about to make a recipe that will fail?
For those who don’t have/can’t find germinated brown rice and are worried about the comments saying their dish was ruined, the dish DOES work with long grain brown rice… Just needs the instructions fleshed out a tad when doing it that way.
Followed the instructions as is, cooked rice and onions in the sauce for half an hour. Then throwing in the uncooked chicken (I did season the chicken with some salt and pepper beforehand) and broccoli in together. Cook for an hour stirring halfway through.
From here the brown rice was not fully cooked and I was a little concerned. Put back in another 10 minutes, still hard 😬. Another 10, still hard 😬.
Here’s the catch that the instructions mention, but aren’t super clear, I took the casserole dish out after what was said above (30+60+20) and the rice wasn’t softening. So I let it sit, covered, on the stove top for the recommended 15 minutes… VOILA. Rice is cooked.
So if you get to the letting it sit stage and the rice isn’t fully cooked just know the sitting stage WILL continue finishing the rice, don’t just cook the casserole until the chicken is ruined like others have said they did!
Hope this helps!
I used normal brown rice, and did your directions of the 30 minutes/30 minutes thing.
It turned out fine, but the taste was very acidic and the smell was very vinegary. My husband thought it was fine and had seconds, as usual, but my toddler wouldn’t take a second bite. I finished my plate, but it wasn’t my cup of tea . 🙁
Would chicken thighs work here also?
I tried to follow the directions carefully, but this recipe did not work out for me. I ended up throwing it away and too much time and ingredients wasted to try it again. Better Luck to others that may try it.
Hey sue! What kind of modifications did you make? Specifically with the rice?
I used regular long grain brown rice for this recipe so I cooked the rice with the sauce for 30 minutes as recommended, then added the chicken and broccoli. After it was done and had sat for over 10 minutes all of the liquid was absorbed but my rice was still not even close to cooked. I would not recommend using regular rice for this recipe!