“Cinna invites me to sit on one of the couches and takes his place across from me. He presses a button on the side of the table. The top splits and from below rises a second tabletop that holds our lunch. Chicken and chunks of oranges cooked in a creamy sauce laid on a bed of pearly white grain, tiny green peas and onions, rolls shaped like flowers, and for dessert, a pudding the color of honey.
I try to imagine assembling this meal myself back home. … Days of hunting and gathering for this one meal and even then it would be a poor substitution for the Capitol version. What it must be like, I wonder, to live in a world where food appears at the press of a button?”
What I remember most about this scene was that this was what grabbed me about Cinna. When he knew what Katniss was thinking about that meal and commented about how despicable she must find them, it was like a light bulb going off in my head. This guy really understood her. He was on her side. I loved him from that point on.
I have two people to thank for the motivation for this meal, one being someone that I don’t know at all. The first time I was a guest on Picktainment’s Hunger Games Fireside Chat, someone posting on Twitter requested I do the chicken and orange dish that Cinna and Katniss have for lunch the first day they meet. I’d completely forgotten about that food scene and was very grateful for the suggestion.
I eventually forgot about it since I have ten billion things to do, but one day last week my cousin Jenn reminded me of it and sent me the link to this recipe on All Recipes that she said she wanted to try. This little mention was a great inspiration for me to finally get this done.
I practiced making that damn flower shaped roll for days because it kept turning out rather awful looking. I would definitely not land a summer job at Mellark’s Bakery. I had been trying and trying with some frozen Crescent roll dough, but that kept coming out looking like blobs, probably because you’re not supposed to freeze the dough. Oops. I bought a fresh one today and experimented with three different sized flower cutters. Eventually the one I’d thought was way too big was the one I needed.
I bought a bag of frozen peas and a bag of pearl onions, not realizing that peas and pearl onions are actually an item in the frozen section. That would have saved me 10 minutes of frustration trying to peel itty bitty onions. I boiled them in butter and water. The pudding was already made and I just spooned it into a pudding dish passed down to me from my grandma.
I ended up adapting the AllRecipes recipe so much that I think I can actually call this recipe my own.
Chicken with Creamy Orange Sauce
Serves 4
Ingredients:
- 2 chicken breasts, cut into 1″ cubes
- 4 tbsp flour
- 2 tbsp butter
- 2 tbsp unsweetened frozen orange juice concentrate
- 3/4 cup lowfat milk
- 1/2 cup heavy cream
- chunks from 1 orange
- salt
- pepper
- chives (optional)
Instructions:
- Season the chicken cubes with salt and pepper. Toss with flour until well coated.
- Melt the butter in a large skillet on medium heat. Add the chicken pieces one at a time and cook in the butter until golden brown, turning after a few minutes on each side.
- Add the milk, cream, and orange juice concentrate. Stir until the concentrate is melted and all the ingredients are combined. Lower heat.
- Cut the ends off the orange, then slice the sides off, making sure to cut off all the rind. Cut the orange flesh out from between the membranes and then cut those orange slices in half to get orange chunks. If you don’t know what the heck I’m talking about, watch this video on How to Segment an Orange.
- Add the orange chunks to the skillet and stir until coated in the sauce. Let the orange chunks warm up, about 5 minutes.
- Remove oranges and chicken from the skillet and season the sauce to taste with more salt and pepper. Let the sauce thicken to your desired consistency.
- Serve chicken and oranges on top of white rice, then pour the sauce on top. Top with minced chives.
A few tips about the oranges, they do break down if you leave them to cook too long, so be sure to watch, otherwise you’ll end up with tons of broken up pieces of orange in your sauce and that doesn’t look that great. Also, the amount of sauce I ended up with wasn’t nearly enough, so you might try doubling it or increasing it by 1/2. I used 3 breasts and it was way too much meat, which is why the recipe says to use 2.
I wasn’t expecting to like this because to me fruit and cream and meat just sounds strange, but I actually really liked it. The thickened sauce with oranges on top of the rice was the best part, with the chicken being a secondary factor for me. Mr. Pikko said it tasted good and I can always rely on him for an honest opinion.
I feel disgustingly bloated, as I was eating all my flower roll mistakes and when I sat down to eat after taking the photos, I realized I wasn’t very hungry. Unfortunately, the cream sauce was so good I sat there and ate all the chicken and rice. Horrible, horrible habit… I had no room for the roll, peas, and pudding. On the bright side though, this wasn’t another horror like the lamb stew!
[ratings]
Yum! I’m hungry now. That cream sauce looks delicious!
The sauce was the best part!
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After reading that part in the book over a year ago now, I came home made my own recipe for this dish. Mine was similar to this and it worked out fairly well.
I thought it was pretty yummy! What did you do different?
it looks awesome i got the link from from mockingjay.net after i saw this i begged my mom 2 let me make it. i love the hunger games you are really good at posting news updates.
Thanks Priscilla! I’m glad to help Kimmy out! 🙂
Awesome! I’d also love the lamb with dried plums (prunes) if you ever feel like returning to the HG universe. Oh and it would have be served with bread, (of course)
Just found you, and wow. I love this idea for a blog (book food is often the best part!) and I can’t wait to try some of these recipes. Maybe for second breakfast. 😉
Thanks E!
Hi! I was so inspired by your post that I tried the recipe out myself. Although it looked just like yours at the end, it tasted a little like puke. 🙁 Yuck! I wish I could’ve tasted yours! Maybe I did something wrong. Oh well. Maybe I’ll try something else next time. 🙂
OMG! I can assure you mine did not taste pukish! Maybe your orange was overripe or your cream a little over the date? 🙁
Everything looks delicious!!! Pretty much just how I pictured it 🙂
Just curious, you said the pudding was premade, but what kind was it? I can’t think of any pudding that’d be honey colored, and I’ve been wanting to make this whole meal for a while now.
It was a Hunts butterscotch pudding I had bought a while back. Funny thing though, I could NOT find it anywhere else afterwards, not even as a box!
I just tried making this the other day with my one of my friends and it actually turned out pretty good! I posted about it on my blog if you want to check it out. 🙂 http://thathapachick.blogspot.com/2011/08/i-cooked-hunger-games-meal.html
I think I was one of the people who requested you make this dish, and I am SO GLAD that you did.
I’m going to make this for my husband this weekend– at least I can pretend he’s Cinna.
Thanks!!!
This was delicious! The sauce was definitely the best part; it tasted great on it’s own and with the rest of the food, not pukish at all. Mine wasn’t as pretty as yours, but was still one of the better looking ones I’ve made (besides the peas and pearl onions, they were not pretty. The frozen pearl onions were all smushed and not nearly as pretty as the ones in your picture). I added a little garlic and a sprinkle of some crushed red pepper to give it a kick.
I didn’t even think to use a flower-shaped cookie-cutter so I just used a knife. Oops. A+ on the recipe! I can’t wait to try some more.
Yum!
Wow, you really cut that flower bread with a knife? It looks fantastic!! Glad you liked it and avoided the “puke factor” haha!
I love the concept but in my mind the roll was an actual roll, shaped more like a rose not a biscuit.
Like the roses on the bread in this blog.
http://bigblackdogs.net/rye-and-roses-painted-bread-with-decorative-roses/
I also didn’t picture rice as the grain since rice was mentioned elsewhere in the book. I envisioned quinoa or bulgur.
I don’t think it could be quinoa or bulgur, since neither is pearly white. Maybe it’s arborio rice.
I think I want to make this for my class’s Hunger Games party, how much would you recommend making for a class of 21(considering its not going to be an actual “entree” size) and can the chicken+sauce be made the night before?
I just made this. It was so good, and the recipe was so easy to follow. Thanks, Crystal!
That looks delicious! My best friend and i are having a HG feast to celebrate the movie and we are doing it the day we see it/the day it comes out! I will definitely add this to the list! Looks great! Nice job 🙂
Thanks! Let me know what you think!
I’m wondering if these rolls were more like the rolls in the book, because when I read the book, I pictured them as being similar to flowers, not actual flower cut outs? (They’re rosette rolls, in case the link doesn’t work.)
http://barbarabakes.com/wp-content/upLoads/2011/12/Rosette-Rolls-Collage-Barbara-Bakes.jpg
Still, though, you did an amazing job on this! I think I’m falling in love with your blog!
I love the biscuit it’s so cute! And that looks delici!
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I just found your blog and I am so glad I did! I plan on making your Primrose goat cheese and the (non-fail) lamb stew before the premier of the movie! I am so excited. I think I’ll have to try this recipe to celebrate my brother finally reading the books!
I tried it! I couldn’t find any unsweetened concentrate so I had to use regular, it came out too sweet 🙁 my little brother said it was too sweet and my dog couldn’t keep it down ;(
Next time, I’ll use unsweetened
Thanks so much for this recipe! I tried it and found that the acid from the orange juice made my cream sauce taste kind of yuck- I switched it out with lots of orange zest which was kind of time consuming but MUCH better! I also added a little marmalade, which gave it that sweeter orange flavor!
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Great job! Although I imagined the peas, onions and grains mixed together.
Made this on Thursday along with the goat cheese tarts, and it was fabulous. We actually ended up with a lot of sauce, so we used 3 breasts, and I think we could’ve done with 2 oranges instead of one, but it was splendid. I definitely think the chives make this dish. They go so well with the sweetness of the oranges. Thank you for coming up with this! You’re very talented. 🙂
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I have a lot of vegetarian friends, would it drastically change the recipe to swap out chicken for super firm tofu?
Would you mind to post me the recipe for this flower shaped rolls?
I would love to make some of these and I’m not able to find a recipe for them.
Well, I thought it looked delicious. Being a bored 16 year old with a whole lazy summer to do nothing, I decided to cook this. I don’t know if I did it wrong, or it’s just not my thing, but it tasted awful 🙁
I spent my days lunch money on this and now I have nothing to eat. I’m disappointed.
It looks delicious, however, I’m not sure if I’ll be able to cook it the same way even if I follow the instructions, just like Miranda above.
Is this the recipe where she bites into the bird and the orange sauce comes out?
No, that’s from Catching Fire. This is from The Hunger Games when she first meets Cinna.
I’m going to make this with my grandma and maybe i will find other recipes like the dreid plum dish that katniss liked of course… i don’t like plums though… oh well thanks for this!
Hi, I just found your website, and I can’t even tell you how delighted I am at your recreating THG recipes! I’m so excited to try this one, bec. in the book, it sounded quite delicious!
Just a quick question, for those of us who are allergic to milk, is there anything we can substitute for the lowfat milk and heavy cream? I figured I can use canola oil or margarine for the butter. But I was wondering if rice milk or soy milk could possibly work in place of lowfat milk, and if there was some sort of substitute I could use for heavy cream (maybe a non-dairy creamer?)
Hi TG, sadly, I’m not sure what you can substitute! Just be warned this recipe seems to be really hit or miss for folks. Some like it, others say it tastes like puke!
What about coconut milk? I use that a lot in curries and soups, I think t would be worth a try.
The reason for the pukish taste is the acidity in the orange, it can curdle the lowfat milk. If you get one that fairly mild, it won’t curdle, but that will be hit or miss. I saw one who did this with mandarin oranges, orange liquor, and just cream, no lowfat milk, and I think that may be less likely to curdle.
What I don’t understand is why everyone who attempts this makes it on rice. It’s made on a “pearly grain Katniss has never seen before.” Clearly she’s seen rice, as she identifies the wild rice served with the lamb stew. I imagine this being either couscous or barley.
*not that I’m over-invested in this series at all*
I imagine quinoa.
I always imagined pearl couscous.
But just because she was familiar with wild rice doesn’t mean she’d recognize white rice. Wild rice aka Indian Rice is a very different from Asian Rice. They’re not directly related to each other, pretty much just sharing a name.
This looks delicous! Another recipe to add to my “need to make asap” list! Maybe there is an easier way to make the flower biscuts. Maybe you can get biscut dough (pilsbury if you want to make it easy) and shape it into a flower with your hands? And could those canned oranges (I think they are called manderine) work? And I imagined the chicken to be in bigger chunks. I cant wait to try it!
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One thing that kind of confuses me is the part about removing the chicken and orange. Is that referring to the chicken and orange with the sauce or just taking the orange and chicken bits out of the sauce while you season it?
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Just made this dish and it was the most amazing thing I have ever eaten! Thank you soo much!
I tried to make this about a year ago and had the “pukey” taste, but this time followed some of your tips and it came out AMAZING! I actually kept the sauce entirely separate from the chicken and oranges. I segmented the orange, and then put it in a ziplock bag and floated it in hot water to warm them. Then I cooked the chicken and directed. I made plain couscous. I used whole milk this time, but otherwise followed the directions for the sauce and cooked it on VERY low heat. When everything was done, I laid out the couscous, put the orange chunks on, then the chicken, and then poured the sauce over. Thanks for this recipe, and for all your suggestions to help avoid souring the milk. I’m so glad I gave it another shot!! 🙂
Awesome! I’m glad it turned out great! 🙂