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
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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 facts
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Photography: photos taken in this post are by Ashley McGlaughlin from The Edible Perspective.
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!
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!