Grilled Orange Chicken
Ingredients
- 1-2 pounds boneless skinless chicken breast
- 2 Tablespoons olive oil
- 3 Tablespoons orange juice
- 1 teaspoon garlic powder
- 1 teaspoon onion powder
- 1 teaspoon kosher salt
- ½ teaspoon dried oregano
- ¼ teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes (optional)
Instructions
- Combine all marinade ingredients into a large zip-top bag.
- Add chicken and allow to marinate in the refrigerator for a minimum of 2 hours, up to 6 hours (any longer and the outside of the chicken may start to chemically cook from the acid in the orange juice).
- Grill until fully cooked; 165 °F internal temperature per the USDA.
Obligatory Fictional Backstory
Back in 2008, I was a contestant on a show called Diced – a poor (in both senses of the word) facsimile of a more popular show on a major food channel. (Since I am not a professional chef I did not qualify for the more successful show.)
The concept of Diced was similar to the more familiar show, with one significant difference: rather than winning a large amount of money, the last cook standing won a small amount of money.
Okay, two significant differences. If you lost, you also forfeit using your favorite ingredient in any capacity for a year.
Obviously I couldn’t lose garlic. I mean we’ve established how much I love garlic (see my posts for Garlic Soup and Creamy Garlic Farro if you missed it). Therefore my recipes had to be amazing.
And amazing they were! I don’t recall what I made for an appetizer, as I suffered a slight concussion from hitting my head on an open cabinet door (I told you it was low budget – filmed in someone’s kitchen), but I made this grilled orange chicken as my entrée and my never fail No-Bake Cheesecake Dip for dessert.
The judges were amazed and awarded me the winner! I think I won twenty bucks. BUT, I got to keep my garlic, yay!
Real Talk
We eat a lot of chicken. I’m sadly allergic to pork, a.k.a. “the other white meat”, as well as seafood, and hubs is not a big fan of lamb, so that leaves us with chicken and beef. And alligator, I guess, but it’s not readily available in our area.
That said, I try to come up with a lot of variation for chicken so we aren’t eating the same thing all the time (though we do have our favorites). I LOVE citrus with chicken so I try to incorporate it into any recipe I develop. This grilled orange chicken was a hit with my whole family!
The green in the photo is actually oregano from my garden – it’s gone crazy and is trying to take over the whole bed I have it in! Photo evidence:
That’s a three foot wide garden bed, for reference. You can barely see the poor thyme over on the left side, and the lavender has about given up.
If there’s no new post next week, it’s because the oregano has taken over my house and I’m trying to fight my way out with my Cutco machete. (not an affiliate link, I just love my ridiculous knife)
