I was compensated by Nielsen-Massey Vanillas for my time in developing this recipe and post. All opinions are my own.
This Orange Chicken Vegetable Stir Fry is healthy, packed with a rainbow of vegetables and a light, sweet orange sauce. Forget take-out and make this version at home allowing you to customize to your tastes and use real, pure ingredients!
ORANGE CHICKEN VEGETABLE STIR FRY
I am excited to share today’s Orange Chicken Vegetable Stir Fry with you guys. This dish is packed with vegetables, chicken and a light orange sauce. Forget take-out, which can be loaded with sodium and ingredients you might not know, and create a lighter, healthier dish at home using real, pure ingredients that you know and love.
Today’s recipe is in partnership with Nielsen-Massey Vanillas , my favorite company for vanilla and extracts. You might remember this Mixed Berry Caprese Orzo Salad I made using their Pure Lemon Extract last summer. I used their Nielsen-Massey Pure Orange Extract in the sauce for this Orange Chicken Vegetable Stir Fry. I love the sweet flavor it brings into the dish paired with some spice and the crispy vegetables.
When cooking healthy recipes, like today’s Orange Chicken Vegetable Stir Fry, it is important to choose pure ingredients with rich, complex flavor profiles, such as Nielsen-Massey Vanillas and Extracts. The Pure Orange Extract is bright and refreshing. It serves as the perfect partner to many flavors, including strawberry, vanilla, pineapple and chocolate. The fresh citrus flavor worked wonderfully in this chicken dish. This extract is made from the finest-quality oranges. I like using it knowing that I am not adding additional sodium or strange ingredients I can’t pronounce into my dish.
While “pure” is a wonderful adjective that describes Nielsen-Massey’s beliefs about food and food ingredients, the use of the word “pure” in relation to extracts is a classification by the FDA. The FDA dictates that pure vanilla extract must contain 13.35 ounces of vanilla beans per gallon of liquid and be 35% alcohol. The agency also limits the permissible ingredients beyond beans and alcohol.
Nielsen-Massey Vanillas was founded in 1907 and remains a family company, owned and operated by the 3rd generation of Nielsens. One of the things I love most is that Nielsen-Massey uses as few ingredients as possible when producing its pure extracts to create the highest-quality product available. All Nielsen-Massey products are all-natural, certified gluten-free, certified Kosher, allergen-free and GMO-Free, and there is an expanding line of certified organic products. This makes me happy!
Nielsen-Massey uses a proprietary cold extraction process instead of heat extraction to preserve all of the 300+ distinctive flavor compounds present in vanilla beans, giving Nielsen-Massey extracts a rich, complex flavor profile. This cold extraction process takes 3-5 weeks – using heat and pressure in the extraction process takes only 3-5 days but damages and destroys many of the most delicate flavor notes in the beans. All vanilla beans are examined by hand, bundle-by-bundle, to ensure each bean meets the highest of standards.
Whenever I create Asian inspired recipes for my family I like to pack them full of a with a variety of colorful vegetables. This helps make sure your family is eating the rainbow and adds a lot of flavor to the dish. I like my vegetables on the crisp side and always sprinkle a handful of fresh cilantro and green onions on the finished dish. You can’t beat a handful of fresh herbs to finish a dish off.
I used broccoli, green beans, snow peas, carrots, bell pepper and red onion in today’s recipe but feel free to get creative. I have also used mushrooms, celery and big chunks of tomatoes and those worked great. If you use tomatoes make sure to only sauté them for a minute or two to avoid them becoming mushy.
In my photos you might notice I didn’t use rice with this dish. That is because it is great on its own, but also works well with white or brown rice. This dish is customizable based on your families likes. If chicken isn’t your thing you can leave it out and use tofu or even shrimp in its place.
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I was compensated by Nielsen-Massey Vanillas for my time in developing this recipe and post. All opinions are my own.
