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Ground chicken and some pantry ingredients are transformed into a quick and delicious orange chicken dish on the Flatrock, perfect for a weeknight family meal. Paired with white rice and a steamed veggie, this is a great way to use simple, affordable and common ingredients to make dinner on the Traeger Flatrock for your family.

Finished orange chicken on a white plate. — Finished Orange Chicken on the Flatrock

A NEW TWIST ON TAKEOUT

When we order Chinese takeout, one of the dishes we always like to get is orange chicken. Whether from Panda Express our our local neighborhood spot, orange chicken is one of our favorite things. But making it at home can be a complicated process– dredging and frying the chicken. So in order to make a quick and easy version for dinner for our family at home, we turned to the Traeger Flatrock griddle and staple ingredients we had at home.

PANTRY AND STAPLE INGREDIENTS

For this twist on orange chicken, we started with some base ingredients that we had on hand and keep on hand for easy dinners. Ground chicken is one of them. It works really great on the Traeger Flatrock griddle and is super versatile and can take on a variety of flavors. This seemed like the perfect base for quick orange chicken on the Flatrock.

We used a package of ground chicken for this recipe– about a pound of it– and cooked it unseasoned while we seared it on the Flatrock. We knew the punch of flavor would come from the sauce that would be added to the chicken in the third step of the process.

To the seared chicken we added half a finely chopped onion and a couple cloves of garlic that had been finely chopped. When you cook ground chicken on the Flatrock, we have found that the onion sort of melts into the meat as it continues to cook, adding amazing flavor and some moisture to the end result.

Ground chicken cooking on the griddle. — Sear the chicken first

ORANGE CHICKEN SAUCE

The part that makes takeout orange chicken so great is the flavor of the sauce. We love how in really good batches of orange chicken, there are pieces of orange peel throughout the dish. For this recipe, we created a quick and simple orange chicken sauce and then added lots of finely chopped orange peel towards the end which really added to the orange flavor of the dish.

To make the cook really simple, we added all the ingredients for the sauce together in a jar and shook it until well blended. Then, when it was time to add the sauce to the chicken, we simply poured it all atop and let the heat of the Traeger Flatrock griddle meld the flavors together.

ORANGE THROUGHOUT

In this sauce, we used prepared orange juice, the squeezed juice and pulp of a few mandarin oranges and finely diced peel from one mandarin orange. Once plated, we squeezed a little more fresh orange juice over top for that final orange punch of flavor.

PRIMARY INGREDIENTS

Ground chicken
Orange juice
Mandarin oranges
Onion
Garlic
Soy sauce
White sugar
Corn starch
Water
Sesame oil
Rice wine vinegar
White rice for serving
Green onion for garnish

Ingredients for Orange Chicken. — Ingredients

WHY COOKING QUICK ORANGE CHICKEN ON THE TRAEGER WORKS

We are having so much fun cooking on the new Traeger Flatrock griddle, which has opened up a world of possibilities for easy weeknight dinners at our house. The unique design of the griddle– with three distinct cooking zones, a massive cast iron griddle that maintains excellent heat.

In addition, you get the pleasure of cooking outdoors like on every other Traeger– which makes creating meals for your family fun and enjoyable. We love the new Traeger Flatrock griddle and this quick orange chicken dinner is an example of why!

Quick orange chicken on the griddle. — Add the sauce and keep cooking

STEP-BY-STEP

Preheat your Traeger Flatrock griddle to medium high heat.
Only one zone is needed.
Assemble your ingredients.
In a jar, combine all of the sauce ingredients, including the corn starch.
Cover the jar and shake the sauce well.
To the hot griddle, add a bit of oil or nonstick cooking spray.
Then add the ground chicken and spread it as much as possible to increase surface area.
Sear the chicken for about 4 minutes, until it starts turning golden brown.
Using two spatulas, begin breaking apart the chicken.
Add the onion and garlic and continue cooking until those ingredients become translucent.
Continue mixing the ingredients and searing until the chicken is cooked through.
Pour the sauce over the cooked chicken and continue mixing with two spatulas.
Cook the chicken in the sauce for another 3-5 minutes until well combined and thickened.
Stir in the chopped orange peel and mix well.
Transfer orange chicken to a serving platter along with hot white rice.
Garnish with green onion and serve.

ALTERNATE RECIPES/PRODUCT LINKS

Here are some recipes that you might enjoy trying, similar to this quick orange chicken on the Flatrock:

Products used in this cook:

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