Orange Chicken Thighs with Bok Choy – ONE PAN!

Try homemade orange chicken thighs, glazed with a heavenly sauce, and braised with tender baby bok choy and juicy mandarin oranges.  A much healthier version of Chinese take-out!

Spiced chicken, sweet baby bok choy, and mandarin oranges are braised in a super flavorful sauce, with ginger, garlic, shallot, soy sauce and Sriracha.  You’ll love this delightful one pan chicken entrée. It’s elegant but easy to make. 

Food bloggers spend a lot of time looking at recipes. It’s one of my favorite pastimes. My cookbook library is bursting at the seams and I subscribe to a variety of food magazines as well. As I was paging through an issue of Eating Well, I came across this beautiful chicken recipe and knew I had to share it with you.

Since we all love cooking but hate cleanup, I made quite a few adjustments to the recipe so it can be prepared in one pan, braising the chicken right in the sauce so the lovely flavors of the sauce permeate all the way into the chicken and boy choy, making it tender, juicy, and so, so tasty. 

I think you’re going to love this alternative to fast food deep fried Chinese orange chicken. I know we do! Add fragrant jasmine rice or healthy brown rice to your plate and you have a completely delicious meal. 

About this recipe

You’ll need a large heavy skillet that’s oven-safe to prepare this dinner. If you don’t have an oven-safe skillet, no worries, use a baking dish for the second part of the cooking time. That will be two pans but the baking dish can go in the dishwasher, right?

After you stir together the sauce ingredients, pat the chicken dry and sprinkle it with Chinese five spice. Heat the skillet and sear the skin side of the chicken until golden brown, just five minutes or so. Flip it over, and nestle halved baby bok choy and mandarin oranges alongside the chicken.

Pour the yummy sauce over everything and pop the pan into the oven for twenty minutes, or until the chicken is done. That’s it! 

As always, you’ll find the complete printable recipe below in the recipe card. 

What you need

• Chicken Thighs: This recipe uses bone in, skin on chicken thighs. If you prefer, remove the skin.
• Chinese Five Spice Powder: Chinese five spice is a blend of star anise, cloves, cinnamon, Szechuan peppercorns, and fennel. Try it on these sweet potato wedges, too!
• Oil: Choose a high-heat oil such as grapeseed, avocado, or coconut oil, since you’ll be using it for browning.
• Baby Bok Bhoy: About the cutest veggie in the market, with small tender leaves, and a sweeter flavor than bok choy.
• Mandarin Oranges:  Make sure to reserve the syrup, because you’ll be adding it to the sauce.
• Flavorful Sauce Ingredients: The sauce is comprised of reduced sodium soy sauce, rice wine vinegar, shallot, garlic, ginger, and Sriracha.
• Cornstarch: Cornstarch is used to thicken the sauce. You could also use arrowroot powder.

How to make this recipe your own

• Prefer white meat? You can make this recipe with chicken breasts. I find that chicken thighs have a bit more flavor and aren’t as dry but the sauce in this recipe is wonderful with both dark and white meat.
• This recipe works really well with pork, too. Try boneless skinless pork chops or pork tenderloin, browning all sides.
• Don’t have Chineses five-spice? Substitute garam masala, a blend of spices used in Indian cuisine that is somewhat similar.

Make-Ahead Ideas

Stir up the sauce ingredients up to a day ahead and refrigerate. That will save you a fair amount of prep time when you’re making dinner. You can also season the chicken earlier in the day, cover it with plastic wrap, and refrigerate it. Wash and halve the baby bok choy so it’s ready to use.

Storage Tips

You won’t be sorry if you have leftover orange chicken because it’s great the next day, too. Refrigerate leftovers for up to two days. 

Reheating Suggestions

Reheat for 60-90 seconds in the microwave or simmer in a skillet over medium-low heat until heated through. 

One Pan Chicken Dinner Heroes

Looking for healthy entrées that are easy to fix and don’t make a ton of dishes dirty? Aren’t we all!  One pan chicken dinners come to the rescue! Try:

• Creamy Chicken Spaghetti — one pan, endless variations!
• White Wine Chicken, Mushrooms and Bacon
• Easy Chicken Tikka Masala
• Chicken Fricassee Recipe
• Chicken Stir-Fry with Ginger and Basil
• One Pan Mediterranean Chicken and Israeli Couscous
• Instant Pot Chicken and Dumplings
• Chicken Thighs Sheet Pan Dinner with Smashed Potatoes (30 minute meal)
• Instant Pot Honey Sriracha Chicken — add steamed rice and broccoli for a quick tasty dinner
• Sheet Pan Honey Balsamic Chicken and Vegetables