5:30 Challenge: Honey-Orange Chicken

Green salad with honey-mustard dressing

Today is the first day of Rosh Hashanah, the beginning of the Jewish year. It’s traditional to eat foods made with honey to symbolize a desire for a sweet year. This recipe is adapted from one in Joan Nathan’s “The Jewish Holiday Kitchen.” The original recipe calls for whole chickens, cut up, breaded and pan fried, and then coated with the honey-orange sauce. I’ve created the quick version here, which I think you’ll find just as delicious.

Get the rice cooking first and then accompany this honey-orange chicken with a tossed salad. Continue the honey theme with Alton Brown’s honey-mustard dressing. It goes together in a minute: In a small screw-top jar, combine 5 tablespoons honey, 3 tablespoons Dijon mustard and 2 tablespoons unseasoned rice wine vinegar. Shake vigorously to mix. Done!

Honey-Orange Chicken

Hands on: 25 minutes

Total time: 25 minutes

Serves: 4

1 tablespoon unsalted butter

1 pound boneless, skinless chicken breast, trimmed, cut into bite-size pieces

Salt and pepper

Zest and juice of 1 orange

1/4 cup honey

3/4 teaspoon ground ginger

In a medium skillet, melt butter over high heat. Sprinkle chicken breast pieces with salt and pepper and quickly sauté until browned on both sides, about 2 minutes per side. Remove from pan and keep warm.

In same skillet, reduce heat to medium, add orange zest and juice and scrape browned bits from bottom of skillet. Add honey and ginger and stir to combine. Return chicken pieces to sauce, cover and heat until chicken is cooked through, approximately 5 minutes. Serve over rice.

Adapted from “The Jewish Holiday Kitchen” by Joan Nathan (Schocken Books, $19.95).

Per serving: 224 calories (percent of calories from fat, 17), 26 grams protein, 20 grams carbohydrates, trace fiber, 4 grams fat (2 grams saturated), 74 milligrams cholesterol, 74 milligrams sodium.

Take the 5:30 Challenge. If you have a great-tasting main-dish recipe that uses no more than five ingredients and can be made in 30 minutes or less, tell us. (Salt, pepper, water and oil for greasing a pan don’t need to be included in the ingredients.) You can also suggest a side dish if it can be made within the same time. Send recipes to 5:30 Challenge, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Sixth Floor, 233 Perimeter Center Parkway N.E., Atlanta, GA 30346. E-mail fivethirty@ajc.com.