Mandarin Orange and Cashew Chicken is a dish with Asian roots that blends the sweet taste of the fruit with the salty taste of the nuts. While this dish can be high in fat and calories, many versions exist that may improve the nutritional value. Knowing more about each ingredient and how to prepare the dish will enable you to prepare and serve a traditional Asian meal that supplies many important vitamins and minerals.
Ingredients
Mandarin oranges, chicken and cashews are the stars of this Asian dish and can add quite a bit of beneficial nutrition to the meal, if you choose the right varieties. Most versions of this dish also include some type of vegetable, such as mushrooms and snow peas. The flavor of the dish is enhanced with the addition of a soy-sauce-based sauce that is poured over the top or added during the cooking process.
Nutrional Information
Not all dishes of mandarin orange and cashew chicken are created equal; it depends on what ingredients you choose to include, as well as which ones you choose to omit from your recipe. Some mandarin oranges are packed in syrup, which adds as much as 20 g of sugar. Many Asian dishes rely on dark meat chicken, such as the thigh, which contains over 15 g of fat in a 1-cup serving. Cashews can be roasted with salt, which adds up to 181 mg of sodium to your recipe. The sauce is often high in sodium as well.
How to Improve Nutrition
Opting for mandarin oranges packed in their own juice will eliminate the added sugars from this part of your meal, while also reducing the calorie content of 1 cup from 154 to 92 calories. Choose a white meat breast of chicken to prepare this dish as well, because it will cut the fat content from more than 15 g to just 5 g. White meat chicken also supplies 13.43 g of protein and 1.46 mg of iron. Trade salted cashews for an unsalted variety to cut the salt content while retaining the 4.34 mg of protein and 1.7 mg of iron. Add plenty of vegetables to your dish to increase fiber and vitamin A content for just a few additional calories and no additional fat. A 1-cup serving of mushrooms has just 28 calories, and 1 cup of snow peas has only 83 calories. Prepare your sauce with low-sodium soy sauce to make it more nutritious.
Suggested Recipe
Make the sauce by combining 1/8-cup 100 percent orange juice with 1/8-cup low-sodium soy sauce. Whisk in 2 tsp. of ground ginger and 1 tbsp. of minced garlic. Set aside. Cut white meat chicken breast into bite-sized chunks. Stir-fry in a small amount of canola or sesame oil, stirring frequently, until chicken is no longer pink. Remove from pan and set aside. In the same pan, heat a drizzle of oil, add chopped onions and cook for about 2 minutes. Add sliced mushrooms and trimmed snow peas, and cook for an additional 2 minutes. Return chicken to the pan and pour over sauce. Reheat and serve topped with no-salt-added roasted cashews.
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