Meals · Stir-fries & fried rice

Orange chicken

Name: Orange chicken
Prep time: 15 min
Cook time: 15 min
Total time: 30 min
Yield: 4 servings
Ingredients: 6 thighs chicken thigh, cut in chunks; 3 tbsp cornstarch; 2 1/2 tbsp canola oil; 3/4 cup 100% orange juice; 3 tbsp soy sauce; 3 tbsp granulated sugar; 2 tbsp rice vinegar; 2 cloves garlic, grated; a pinch red pepper flakes; 3 cups white rice; 2 green onion, sliced

The most famous dish on any American-Chinese menu, minus the deep fryer: seared chicken thighs in a real-orange glaze that tastes like the original and reads like a fruit bowl.

Time: 30 min (15 prep + 15 cook)
Servings: 4
Per serving: 556 kcal
Protein: 33 g

Both directions are legitimate — the score measures fullness per calorie, not virtue. Every version is the same dish, rebalanced.

Ingredients

6 thighs chicken thigh, cut in chunks600 g
3 tbsp cornstarch24 g
2 1/2 tbsp canola oil30 g

Sauce

3/4 cup 100% orange juice180 g
3 tbsp soy sauce45 g
3 tbsp granulated sugar40 g
2 tbsp rice vinegar30 g
2 cloves garlic, grated8 g
a pinch red pepper flakes1 g

3 cups white rice600 g
2 green onion, sliced15 g

Every ingredient links to its food page — same data, same score, same formula.

Steps

Toss the chicken in most of the cornstarch and sear in the oil until golden and crusted, about 6 minutes. This is the no-fryer compromise: 90% of the crunch, none of the oil bath.
Whisk the sauce (remaining cornstarch in first) and pour it into the empty side of the pan.
Let it bubble to a glaze — about 2 minutes — then toss the chicken through it.
Rice, scallions, done. Eat before the crust surrenders.

Why this score

easy to overeat

Dense calories with little protein, volume or fiber to fill you up.

Three routes to fullness — one is enough

25% of kcal

59% water

2 g/Mcal

What pulls it down

How scores work

Computed on the finished dish, not an average of the parts: 2224 kcal goes into the pot, 1573 g of ingredients comes out as ~1150 g of food → 193 kcal per 100 g. Cooking moves water, and energy density is the score's biggest lever — so we show the math. Full formula here.

Per

Calories: 193
Protein: (25%); 12 g
Fat: (29%); 6 g
Carbohydrates: (47%); 22 g
of which sugar: 5 g
Fiber: <1 g
Sodium: 385 mg

Percentages are the share of calories from each macronutrient.

Computed from the ingredients' USDA data — nothing typed by hand. Every number is traceable, every score recomputable.

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Photo: AI-generated. Nutrition and score are computed from the ingredients with the published formula — this recipe hasn't been kitchen-tested by us yet.