This orange chicken casserole is a healthy spin on your favorite take-out classic! Just a few simple ingredients and a casserole dish you can have a dinner packed with veggies, protein, and whole grains, in just 60 minutes.
It’s casserole season, people. After you make this orange chicken casserole check out any of our delicious healthy chicken casserole recipes or this sweet potato green curry quinoa casserole.
Make Your Favorite Takeout AT HOME
One of the first meals I ever learned to cook as a kid was stir fry. You see, take out Chinese food was (and still is) my ultimate dinner after soccer practice when my parents were too tired to cook.
The people at New China in New Berlin, WI knew my mom and me by name. No shame. New China is who inspired me to make my own stir fry at home, because that’s what most 10-year-olds do, right? Sure.
Years later I still find myself craving stir fry like it was just yesterday. It’s such an easy meal to whip up and to make for the masses. It’s one of our Sunday family dinner staples that my siblings and I make.
So, what’s better than stir fry on a crazy weeknight? A stir fry casserole! Right when you thought dinner couldn’t get any easier than homemade orange chicken, I came up with an orange chicken casserole recipe.
You literally throw everything into your casserole dish 100% uncooked and pop it in the oven. It doesn’t get much easier than this, people. Freals.
What Kind of Rice to Use
Why germinated brown rice?
This recipe calls for germinated brown rice and it’s absolutely perfect. Germinated brown rice is brown rice that is soaked for anywhere from 4-20 hours. It tends to have a shorter cook time compared to other brown rice.
Whenever we get take out or eat at an Asian restaurant, I always order the brown rice if they have it. I just prefer the texture over all other kinds of rice and love the added nutrients you get from brown rice!
Will white rice and normal brown rice work?
Yes, you can use white rice and normal brown rice in this recipe. However, you will need to increase the cook-time.
If you are using normal or short grain brown rice, add everything to your casserole dish except for the chicken and the broccoli.
From there, cover the casserole dish and place it in the oven and bake for 30 minutes. Remove from the oven and THEN add the chicken and broccoli to the casserole dish and bake for an additional 30 minutes.
If your rice is still crunchy, bake for an additional 15-30 minutes.
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 (no matter what type of rice you use) 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!
Here’s what You Need
Once you have decided on what type of rice you are going to use, here are the additional ingredients you will need to make this tasty orange chicken casserole!
- chicken breast
- onion
- broccoli
- homemade orange chicken sauce
^^The sauce is rather simple to make. It’s made up of mostly orange juice, chicken broth, and tamari with a few other household ingredients thrown in there. For best results- don’t forget the orange zest!
Throw everything in your casserole dish and GO!
How to Store this Casserole
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.
Freezer: If you plan to freeze, we suggest baking this in a disposable/aluminum casserole dish
.
Place a piece of plastic wrap on top of cooked, cooled casserole and press out all of the air. Then, wrap the entire casserole in tin foil and place in the freezer. Write the name and date of casserole on the tin foil.
To Reheat: take the frozen casserole out of the freezer and let thaw in the fridge overnight. Either reheat single servings of the casserole in the microwave or reheat the entire thing in the oven.
Healthy Casserole Recipes
Easy Orange Chicken Casserole
Ingredients
For the Casserole
- 16 oz. chicken breast ~2 large
- 1.5 cups germinated brown rice
- 1/2 yellow onion diced
- 4 cups broccoli chunked
For the Sauce
- 1.5 cups orange juice
- 2 cups chicken broth
- 1/4 cups tamari or soy sauce
- 1/4 cup honey
- 2 tablespoons rice vinegar
- 1 tablespoon minced garlic
- 1 teaspoon freshly ground ginger
- 2 tablespoon sriracha
- 1 teaspoon orange zest
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 375ºF and spray your casserole dish with coconut oil cooking spray (be generous!).
- Next, prep veggies by dicing the yellow onion and chopping broccoli into chunks. Sprinkle veggies in to casserole dish.
- Prep chicken breast by cutting it into small pieces and then placing on top of the vegetables.
- Add germinated brown rice into the casserole dish and set aside.
- In a medium size bowl, mix together all ingredients for the sauce.
- Add sauce mixture to the casserole dish and use a large spoon to mix all ingredients together, making sure everything is (mostly) covered.
- Cover with tin foil and bake for 30 minutes.
- Then, remove and stir. It will still be a little soupy, but don't worry this is how it's suppose to be! Place back in oven for 30 minutes, covered.
- When casserole is done, take out and let sit for 10 minutes before serving.
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!
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!
How can you make your own germinated brown rice? Soak, drain, let it sprout?
Wonderful recipe!! Easy and quick
I ended up using Lundberg Sprouted Brown Basmati Rice, as I wasn’t able to find the germinated. All I had to do was add 20 extra minutes of cook time for the rice to softened up, and it turned out great! I loved the sauce. I bet this would go great with zucchini noodles or white rice noodles too.
That is wonderful! Thank you so much for sharing!
I just made this with regular long grain brown rice and it worked perfectly! I followed the instructions in the additional note. I first cooked the rice with the sauce mixture and onions for 30 mins (I used a little bit less than 1.5 cups of rice, maybe 1.25 cups). I checked on it and the rice was cooking but I was a little bit worried it wouldn’t cook through so I put it back in for 15 mins before adding the chicken and broccoli. I then cooked the casserole (with broccoli and chicken) for 30 mins, stirred and put it back in for 20 mins, which was enough because I cooked the rice for a little bit longer in the beginning. Every element of the dish was cooked perfectly and it tastes so good!!
So glad everything worked for you!
This came out perfectly for me. I used Trader Joe’s quick cook organic brown rice, followed the steps to a T and came out amazing! The rice was fully cooked and the liquid fully absorbed. Would recommend!
YAY!! Glad you loved it!!
Really struggling with how this is considered a skinny recipe given the sugar content. The recommended daily max of sugar for women is 25 grams and you’d be getting most of that, 21 grams, in one serving us this dish. I’ll have to pass.
My rice did not cook through, even after an extra 15 mins in the oven. Also, my sauce did not thicken, let it sit for 20 mins and remained soupy. Very disappointed.
Hi Mrs. Smith! Did you use the sprouted rice like we recommended with this recipe? That could be the issue as we’ve noted using normal brown rice takes much longer!
After reading the comments about the rice not cooking, I decided to try “quick cook” brown. I gave it a little extra cooking time, but other than that, the recipe worked great just as is. Love that it’s a healthy version of something i always want to order takeout. The flavor of the sauce is very good and I like that I usually have all those ingredients on hand. I will make this again
So glad the quick cooking worked for you! Did you do a 1:1 ratio with the rice and/or change any of the liquid?
No changes to your recipe were needed for the sauce- it was quicker cook brown rice but not “instant” so I think it was about the same cooking-wise as the TruRoots so it worked well (I think the brand I used was SimplyNature from Aldi)
Thank you so much for letting us know!
Can this be made with less Rice? Watching our carbs mom
Can i sub cauliflower rice for the brown rice? If so, how do i modify Cooking this?
Can i do this quinoa? Looks amazing for a family dinner! Thanks!
Read before you cook… This recipe does not work with Normal or organic brown rice and after waiting for it to cook for 3 and a half hours – the rice was still rock hard and I had to throw it all away as the chicken had completely dried out and brocolli had dissolved !!
I’m getting ready to make this for the first time tonight. Anything I need to know before I start?
Just made this recipe following the directions to a t and it set up PERFECTLY! Was a little nervous reading the other reviews – my only thought of how it may be “undercooked” is if you do not leave it to sit covered for the 10 minutes after baking. That step seemed crutial for the rice to cook through! Fantastic recipe !
So glad it worked for you! A lot of the other people who left reviews didn’t actually use sprouted rice, which is the main issue for the rice being too hard. Glad it worked for you!