Orange Chicken Meatballs are the perfect option for a weeknight dinner when you’re craving Chinese takeout. Served with rice and broccoli, it’s a perfectly balanced nutritious and filling meal with so much great flavor! This recipe is also great for meal prep so you can make it at the start of the week for a healthy lunch option. It’s super easy to make a few tweaks to some of the pantry staple ingredients to make this a gluten free dinner, too!

a bowl of orange chicken meatballs with broccoli, rice, and scallions

Disclosure: This post contains affiliate links, which means I receive a small commission if you make a purchase through one of my links – at no cost to you! I appreciate your support that helps me run my blog.

Orange Teriyaki Chicken Meatballs with Broccoli and Rice

I’ve been a meatball lover my whole life (I *am* Italian and meatballs were their own separate food group growing up). Any time I’d walk over to my grandma’s house, she’d break out the tupperware full of homemade meatballs from her refrigerator and fix my brother and I a meatball “sangwich” (said with love, in a thick Italian accent). So naturally as I got older, started to branch out from traditional Italian cuisine, I continued to make meatballs but learned to dress them up a bit differently. I became known for my meatball recipes on TikTok, and I even built a section into my website solely for meatball recipes.

These little meatballs are packed with so much flavor: they’ve got a touch of sweetness from brown sugar and orange juice, some heat from sriracha, and the savory flavor of soy sauce. The sauce is thickened with a corn starch slurry to perfectly coat the meatballs and broccoli with an orange teriyaki glaze. Served over rice, this makes the perfect balanced meal high in protein with lots of micronutrients from lots of broccoli!

Why you’ll love this recipe

It’s a 30-minute meal! This dinner comes together in about 30 minutes with minimal chopping, quick mixing, and a super easy sauce.
It makes a great meal prep. These Orange Chicken Meatballs make a great meal prep. I have always loved any kind of meatballs for meal prep because the meat reheats well even in a microwave and doesn’t get tough or as dry as a cut of chicken.
It’s kid-friendly! I don’t have kids, but my friends with kids love making this for them, removing the sriracha. Who doesn’t love meatballs?!
SO much flavor! The sauce is SO so good.

Ingredients for Orange Chicken Meatballs

Ground chicken (or turkey): You can use either or!
Soy sauce: If you’re gluten free, use tamari, coconut aminos, or liquid aminos for a gluten-free alternative.
Orange juice: In a pinch, you can use bottled orange juice, but I always prefer using freshly squeezed orange juice!
Sriracha: This is optional if you’re not into heat, but this adds a nice kick! Use it sparingly or liberally depending on your taste.
Panko breadcrumbs: Helps keep the ball together.
Egg: Another ball-binding ingredient.
Scallions: Separate the whites from the greens.
Garlic: You can never have enough!
Ginger: Adds a punch of flavor to the sauce.
Brown sugar: Used to balance out the sauce with some sweetness.
Rice vinegar: Mild in flavor and gives the sauce the perfect vinegary bite.
Cornstarch: Used as a thickening agent for the sauce.
Rice: I use long grain rice as a base for this dish.

How to Make This

This is an overview of the Orange Chicken Meatball recipe with photos. Scroll to the bottom of this page for the full step-by-step recipe!

Cook the rice. Prepare your rice before getting started on the rest of the recipe.
Form the meatballs. Combine ground chicken, egg, breadcrumbs, sriracha, soy sauce, and scallion whites in a bowl and mix together with your hands. Form the mixture into 1 ounce balls.
Cook the meatballs. Heat a skillet over medium-high heat, then heat oil. Cook meatballs for 3-4 minutes, then flip and cook another 3 minutes. They do not have to be cooked through completely yet.
Cook the broccoli. Add broccoli to the skillet with the meatballs along with 1-2 tbsp of water. Reduce heat to medium, cover, and let the broccoli steam for 1-2 minutes.
Make the orange sauce. While meatballs cook, mix together the sauce ingredients in a jar with a lid: orange juice, soy sauce, sriracha, rice vinegar, ginger, garlic, and brown sugar. Shake well. Pour in the sauce mixture and bring to a simmer. Once simmering, add in a corn starch slurry (equal parts water and corn starch). Continue simmering until the sauce thickens.
Serve and enjoy! Serve with cooked rice, top with scallion greens, and enjoy!

Ingredients in a bowl being prepped to make orange chicken meatballs, including ground turkey or chicken, scallions, garlic, egg, soy sauce, panko bread crumbs, sriracha, and ginger — In a medium mixing bowl, combine ground chicken or turkey, egg, panko, scallion whites, sriracha, and soy sauce

ingredients mixed together in a bowl to make orange chicken meatballs — Mix together all meatball ingredients.

meatballs formed on a plate — Form 16 one ounce balls.

meatballs cooking in a skillet — Heat oil in a skillet over medium-high heat. Cook the meatballs for 3-4 minutes, then flip and continue cooking for 3 more minutes. They do not have to be cooked all the way through yet.

orange teriyaki sauce in a jar, including soy sauce, orange juice, rice vinegar, sriracha, and brown sugar — Meanwhile, make the teriyaki sauce by combining soy sauce, sriracha, brown sugar, rice vinegar, ginger, garlic, and orange juice in a lidded jar. Shake well.

broccoli and meatballs steaming in a skillet — Add broccoli to the skillet with 1-2 tbsp of water and cover to let the broccoli steam.

orange teriyaki sauce being poured into a skillet with meatballs and broccoli — Pour orange teriyaki sauce into the skillet with meatballs and broccoli. Bring to a simmer.

adding a corn starch slurry to a skillet with meatballs, broccoli, and orange teriyaki sauce — Add in corn starch slurry and continue simmering until the sauce thickens, meatballs are cooked through, and broccoli is fork tender.

Recipe Variations and Substitutions

Swap the protein: I prefer ground chicken or ground turkey for this recipe, but you can use ground pork, beef, or plant-based ground meat, too!
Make it gluten-free: To make this Orange Chicken Meatball recipe gluten-free, there are a few easy pantry staple swaps to make! Use gluten-free panko or regular breadcrumbs. To replace the soy sauce, use tamari, liquid aminos, or coconut aminos instead. That’s it!
Make it vegetarian or vegan: Replace the ground chicken with plant-based ground meat as a vegetarian alternative, and remove the egg and use a flax egg in the meatball recipe to make it vegan. You could also use a plant-based frozen chick’n nugget as a replacement to the entire meatball recipe. Cook according to package instructions, then steam the broccoli until fork tender and heat the sauce in a small saucepan. Toss the cooked broccoli and plant-based nuggets together and serve over rice!

Storing and Reheating

Storage: Store the meatballs and broccoli in an airtight container in the refrigerator. Store the rice in a separate container in the refrigerator.
Reheating: This is super easy to reheat in the microwave. Start with about 1 minute 15 seconds, then add 30 seconds as needed until the meatballs are warmed through. You can also reheat the meatballs and broccoli on the stovetop in a pan over medium-low heat. Add a lid and 1-2 tbsp water to help steam the food and loosen up the sauce, if needed.

Equipment