This Orange Chicken is one of the most popular recipes on my blog, and for good reason! A slow cooker meal that is completely delicious is bound to be awesome.
He’s home maybe 2 or 3 days and then he’s gone about 2 weeks. Or longer.
Which stinks.
His family is nearby, which helps. Lance’s brother and his wife live right behind us and always help out when needed.
Like when my bath tub drain lever breaks off.
Or my pipes under the bathroom sink leak and need fixin’.
Or when my smoke alarm chirps and even though I’ve removed the batteries and pushed the button and such to  hush it up, it still chirps. I felt like Phoebe in Friends when the same thing happens and she finally destroys it and it still chirps. Even my brother-in-law couldn’t quiet it so we stuck it in the SUV till morning and it could be handled better.
So Lance called me and needed some easy meals that he could prepare out there all by his self. {Proud moment here}
Apparently you can only eat so many t.v. dinners when your  fabulous and lovely wife isn’t there to cook for you.
Huh. Who knew?
So my sister-in-law suggested this recipe.
I fell in love with it and made it the next day for myself.
Orange Chicken For Dummies
Author: Mandy Bird
: Main
Ingredients
- 1 envelope (1 oz.) onion soup mix
- 8 oz. apricot preserves
- 8 oz. Catalina salad dressing
- 2-3 lbs chicken tenders
Directions
- Place all in a slow cooker and stir to coat the chicken.
- Cook on low 6-8 hours or high 4-5 hours.
- You can also put it in a 9x13 baking dish and bake it in the oven at 350 degrees for 45-60 minutes.
- Serve over rice.
Ashley @ Kitchen Meets Girl says
Oh my goodness, this would be a HUGE hit in my house! Got it bookmarked and I'm making it next week for dinner. Thanks for sharing this!
Lesa @Edesias Notebook says
I actually have a bottle of Catalina dressing in my pantry and had no idea what to do with it. Definitely trying this. Thanks!
The Better Baker says
I have no doubt I could eat this whole thing by myself! How fun when hubby calls you for ideas to cook…he's missing you for sure. =)
bitsy8 says
I made this today using Smucker's sugar free apricot preserves. Served it with brown rice. The family loved it. I'll be making this again. Thanks.
Anonymous says
Orange chicken but no oranges in it?
Anonymous says
Hello! Are you supposed to defrost the tenders first?
Mandy Bird says
No, you don't need to.
Gayle Ibizugbe says
I'm making this for the second time right now. When I first read the recipe I was skeptical, Orange Chicken with no orange ingredients! I still don't know why it's called Orange Chicken, but whatever you call it, it's REALLY good! The 18-oz. jar of apricot preserves didn't contain a full two cups, so I had to adjust the quantities of the other ingredients accordingly for the
sandy white says
probably just called that for the color
thesweetestpea says
I have a jar of tangerine marmalade in my pantry and I'm going sub some of it for part of the apricot preserves. Then it will be partially "orange chicken".
Patricia says
doesn’t the c mean cup of dressing & cup of preserves….8oz cup or did I miss understand
mandyrecipebox says
Yes, the c is for cup or 8 oz. I will change that to be better understood 🙂
Mary Ann says
Sounds great. Frozen kind are too spicey. Guess my taste buds are too old. Will try orange marmalade tho, from the Dollar store.