Easy Crispy Skinned Chicken a l’Orange

Two simple ingredients, orange juice concentrate and honey, make an easy and delicious sauce to glaze these crispy skin chicken breasts. This is a very budget-conscious meal that is worthy enough to serve company.

I made this delicious and E-A-S-Y dinner last Sunday. This recipe, is definitely a keeper for several reasons. It’s economical, it’s so simple and it’s very good.

Well, let me show you:

Here are the simple ingredients: Orange juice concentrate, chicken breasts–bone in, skin on, honey and salt & pepper. I admit that I’m a little picky about using frozen concentrate, so I paid extra for this organic version, that doesn’t contain high fructose corn syrup. The honey came from a local bee keeper right down the street where I live. Now, for the sauce.

Roll up your sleeves. In a pot, pour 1/2 cup of frozen orange juice concentrate (no need to thaw), 4 Tablespoons honey, some salt and pepper. Yes, that’s it! You won’t even break a sweat.
TIP: I poured olive oil in my measuring cup and poured the oil into the skillet I was going to use. Next, I pour in the honey into the same measuring cup– the honey slides right out!

Bring the sauce to a boil, for three minutes, turn off the heat and set aside.

Season the chicken with kosher salt & fresh cracked pepper. Always be careful when working with raw chicken, of course. These chicken breasts are resting on a silicone cutting sheet, on top of my wooden board. That way, I don’t cross-contaminate and I wash the plastic mat in the dishwasher. You want the chicken to come to room temperature– 15-30 minutes, tops.
TIP:  To quick thaw frozen chicken I never use the microwave. I soak chicken (I use a Food Saver bag) in a bowl of water. Within 30 minutes, it’s safely thawed.

Preheat the oven to 375F. Heat an oven-proof skillet with 1 Tablespoon vegetable oil (you can use olive oil, but when I am searing I prefer vegetable oil because it has a higher smoke point). The idea is to sear the chicken and get that beautiful crispy skin. The secret? Be sure that you chicken is bone dry…pat, pat, pat with towels to get all moisture off. Bring the oil hot enough to where it ripples, but it’s not smoking. Put the chicken in, skin down, and sear the meat for 3 minutes (not moving it around). Flip the chicken over and glaze the chicken with a brush– don’t POUR the sauce on (or the skin can become soggy).

Put the oven-proof skillet into the oven and bake/roast for about 15-20 minutes. We want an internal temperature between 160F-170F. Halfway through I carefully (remember, the handle is hot) removed pulled out the skillet and glazed the chicken again.

I’d say the chicken is cooked. Look at the pan sauce! Remove the skillet, and set the chicken onto a carving board and cover with foil– let is rest for about 10 minutes.

What I like about this recipe, is that there is nothing to deglaze and no sauce to reduce. It’s already passing my “test” that when I ran a spatula through it, it separated. This really is a tasty sauce.

I’m still working on my “removing bones from chicken skills”– but I managed to cut out the breast bone and then I sliced the chicken breasts. I had four generous portions.

I plated this with Perfect Crisp Potatoes and Haricot Vert with a compound butter of tarragon and herbs. The entire meal took less than an hour, from start to dining room table.

TASTING NOTES: The chicken was really moist, and the sauce… mmm-mmm-mmm. My son does not like chicken breast meat at all. He ate this dinner and said it was incredibly delicious.

One last thing about this recipe– buying chicken breasts with bone-in and skin on is more economical, and I do believe that the bone keeps the meat juicier. I have a confession to make, though– can you guess? I don’t like chicken skin. Still, I loved the recipe– I ate every single bite…except for the skin.

…and, I really loved this recipe, too! These potatoes are so easy to make, non-greasy and very Parisian. I’m going to tease you, and post how to make these on a separate post.

Truthfully, I would serve this dinner to company. I also think that the sauce would be delicious with pork tenderloin– and I definitely plan to test that theory.

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Crispy-Skinned Chicken a l’Orange

Two simple ingredients, orange juice concentrate and honey, make an easy and delicious sauce to go on chicken. This is a very budget-conscious meal that is worthy enough to serve company.

Prep Time15 minutes mins

Cook Time25 minutes mins

Total Time40 minutes mins

Course: Main Course

Cuisine: American, French

Keyword: Crispy Skinned Orange Chicken

Servings: 3

Author: Debby – www.AFeastfortheEyes.net

Ingredients

• Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
• 3 skin-on bone-in chicken breast halves
• 1 tablespoon vegetable oil

ORANGE GLAZE:

• 1/2 cup frozen orange juice concentrate
• 4 tablespoons honey

Instructions

• Preheat the oven to 375˚F.
• Liberally salt and pepper the chicken breast halves.
• Heat the oil in a large saute pan over medium-high heat and sear the chicken, skin side only, until brown and beginning to crisp, about 5 minutes.

ORANGE GLAZE:

• In a small saucepan, heat the orange juice concentrate, honey, and salt and pepper, to taste, over medium heat, and boil for 3 minutes. Remove from the heat.
• Turn the chicken over and brush each piece with the glaze.
• Turn the chicken skin side up and transfer the pan to the oven.
• Bake until the internal temperature reaches 160 to 170˚F on an instant-read thermometer, brushing on more glaze halfway through, about 15 minutes in total.
• Let the chicken rest for 10 minutes on a cutting board.
• Remove the chicken breast from the bone and slice the meat on the bias.

  Transfer the chicken to a serving platter and serve.

Notes

Recipe source: Food Network

Tried this recipe?Mention @afeastfortheeyes or tag #afeastfortheeyesblog!

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