Prep Time: 10 minutes

Cook Time: 45 Minutes

Living around the Asia area I had grown to love Orange Chicken as a child. We never ate meat in our home but we did eat chicken and fish. Now being vegan I no longer eat chicken or fish. But now and then I do love Chinese Orange Chicken. I have been experimenting with different way to recreate this dish for my vegan life style.

I have used in place of chicken seitan. This was nice but did not have the flavor I was looking for. I have also used tofu which turned out very nice but still was lacking the taste I wanted. Then one day in our markets here I found in the frozen food section a box of "Beyond Meat – Chicken Free Strips". I decided to purchase this after reading the label and found out that it was excellent for vegans.

I had to experiment with some of the other ingredients that are in an Orange Chicken recipe in order to make this for myself. One ingredient in Orange Chicken is honey. Well this one was not so hard to replace but my first two attempts I used agave nectar and molasses. The taste was nice but still did not taste like I remembered this one. My third attempt I used maple syrup and this seemed to be a better choice.

The next ingredient that was hard to eliminate was Teriyaki sauce. I saw on the internet how to make your own teriyaki sauce for vegans. I tried a few of them and yes they were nice but also took time to make these. One visit of a good friend to the islands brought a brand new alternative to teriyaki sauce. She was hooked on dark soy sauces and teriyaki sauces in her cooking. She came prepared with three bottles of Soy Vay Veri Veri Teriyaki Sauce in her suitcase. I tried this and was immediately hooked on the flavor of this sauce. You can now enjoy Chinese Orange Chicken Vegan Style if you follow this recipe at home. It is outstanding and delicious and really worth the efforts to make this one.

Ingredients:

1 Can Vegan Vegetable Broth

¾ Cup Wild Rice Rinsed – You may use white or brown rice

1 Cup Orange Juice – I fresh squeeze mine

2 Tablespoons Soy Vay Veri Veri Teriyaki Sauce

1 Teaspoon Cornstarch

1 ½ Teaspoon Maple Syrup

2 Cloves of Garlic Minced

Vegetable Non-stick Cooking Spray

¾ Pound "Beyond Meat Chicken Free Strips"

¼ Cup Dried Currants

2 ½ to 3 Cups Fresh Snow Peas

1 Orange – peeled and separated into segments

3 Teaspoons Grated Orange Peel – divided

3 Green Onions, Thinly Sliced Diagonally

1/3 Cup Chopped Fresh Cilantro

Prepare:

Combine the chicken broth and rice in a large sauce pan. Bring to a boil on high heat. Once boiling reduces to a low simmer, cover the sauce pan, and cook for 45 to 50 minutes until rice is tender. When the rice is cooked turn off the fire and keep covered.. Keep the rice warm so that you can finish preparing the rest of your meal.

Blend orange juice, teriyaki sauce, cornstarch, maple syrup and garlic in a small bowl until smooth. Please note you will have to stir this again because cornstarch will settle to the bottom of your bowl.

In a wok spray the wok with non stick vegetable spray. Heat the wok until very hot on your stove top. Once hot add the Chicken Free Strips and cook. This should not take very long to prepare these. I normally only cook them for around 2 minutes.

Mix well your orange sauce before pouring it over your chicken free strips. Add the currants into the wok and bring to a rolling boil and cook uncovered for 3 minutes.

Add the orange segments, snow peas, and 1 ½ teaspoons orange peel. Stir well and cook for 2 minutes until heated through. Stir in your onions and cilantro. Heat for one minute

Service Instructions:

Serve over a bed of brown rice and sprinkle the remaining 1 ½ teaspoon of orange peel on top.

I hope you will try this at home. You may use tofu or seitan in place of the chicken free strips I have suggested to use in this recipe. Please try this at home I know you will not be disappointed in the results.

One dinner I had there was some friends who were not vegan. I decided to serve the recipe here for dinner. They could not tell the difference in the chicken. They all thought they were eating chicken this night for dinner. I never told them the difference. What did my Grandma use to say "What they don't know won't hurt them". So you see even if you have guest over for dinner you can still prepare a vegan meal and they will enjoy this so much.