#9 - Orange Pepper Chicken (an Original by Heather)

Original source... ME!

From time to time I concoct my own recipe that I fall in love with. This Orange Pepper chicken is one of them. The marinade alone is worth keeping, but I love the whole shebang! 

Ingredients:

• 3-4 chicken  boneless, skinless chicken breasts. (If they're particularly thick, I cut them in half to thin them up. Or, you can use chicken tenders or fillets. Anything works. In fact, I'd bet this would be great for fish or shrimp too.)
• 1 bell pepper, cut into strips, or diced if you prefer.
• 1 orange (large) -- Cut into halves, then cut one half into another half. So basically, you have one half of an orange plus 2 quarters.
• vinegar (about 1 -2 TB, depending on how much you like vinegar.) 
• 4 TB olive oil - divided
• Salt
• Pepper

Directions:

• Throw chicken, 1/2 the bell pepper, 2 TB olive oil and the vinegar into a bag or some other container for marination. Squeeze the HALF orange into the bag (juice only, though a little pulp is good too). 
• Add salt and pepper to taste. Shake bag or mix contents, then let sit for at least an hour. I've done this over night and it's perfect, but an hour gets the job done, too.

Note: If you used a baggie for marinating, you can beat the crud out of it with a hammer or rolling pin or whatever to tenderize it and flatten out the breasts before removing from the bag.

 At this point, you should still have some of the oil to use, 2 orange quarters and half the bell pepper.

1. put remaining oil into pan, get hot, then toss in contents of marinade/chicken. Try to make sure the chicken is flat on the pan and the peppers etc are on top for even chicken cooking.
2. Throw on the remaining peppers.
3. Take ONE quarter orange and squeeze the juice onto the chicken.
4. Peel the other quarter orange and cut into small chunks, and place on top of chicken and peppers

NOTE: Sometimes the oranges come out a bit bitter after being cooked. I think it depends on the orange you use. If you're unsure how yours will taste, I recommend cutting into large chunks that you can easily pick out before biting into it.

•  Let the chicken cook for 3-5 minutes before flipping (you can check underneath to see if the cooking side is nice and brown). Flip ONCE, readjust peppers and oranges so they're on top again, and let the other side of each breast cook until brown or no longer pink inside.

 Serve and enjoy!

That's it! Have a great meal and express your saucy side!

Heather