Chicken with Mandarin Oranges

This is a vintage potluck recipe that’s been passed around church cookbooks for decades, and for good reason. Boiled chicken gets folded into a creamy mushroom sauce thinned with mandarin orange juice, studded with orange segments, sliced mushrooms, and crunchy water chestnuts.

The mandarin orange juice is the move that makes this more than a basic cream-of-something casserole. Diluting the condensed soup with the sweet, citrusy canning liquid instead of water or milk gives the sauce a fruity brightness that cuts through the richness. Only half the orange segments go into the sauce to keep them intact as little bursts of sweetness throughout.

Water chestnuts add something no other ingredient here can: crunch. In a dish where everything else is soft and creamy, that crisp snap of water chestnut keeps every bite interesting.

Boiling the whole chicken first means the meat is incredibly tender and easy to pull apart. Save the cooking liquid for soup stock if you like.

Kitchen Tips

• Boil the chicken until it’s truly falling-off-the-bone tender. Undercooked chicken won’t shred easily and will be chewy in the finished dish.
• Add the remaining mandarin orange segments as a garnish on top just before serving so they hold their shape and color.
• Serve over steamed white rice to soak up the creamy citrus sauce.
• This reheats well the next day, though add a splash of water when rewarming since the sauce thickens in the fridge.

Variations

• Add a teaspoon of soy sauce and a pinch of ginger to push the flavors in an Asian direction.
• Use rotisserie chicken to skip the boiling step entirely and cut the time in half.
• Stir in a handful of snow peas for added color and crunch.