Crispy Orange Ground Beef and Broccoli

Need a dinner recipe to feed the whole family in a hurry? This crispy orange beef and broccoli is super easy to make, is loaded with flavor, and makes eating cruciferous veggies enjoyable.

And if you’re a calorie conscious foodie, each serving has 30 grams of protein, 20 grams of carbs, and only 270 calories!

How to Make This Crispy Orange Beef and Broccoli 

Thanks to a few convenience ingredients, you should have this recipe on the table in 30 minutes or less. In terms of technical kitchen skills, the most advanced requirement is zesting an orange.

Don’t have a zester? No worries, you can use orange juice and skip the zesting altogether. Orange you glad you found this recipe?

Beyond the citrus, the rest of the recipe is as simple as browning ground beef, microwaving frozen veggies, and adding them to a pan. Seriously, that’s it.

Crispy Orange Beef Ingredient Modifications

This is a pretty barebones recipe, but I’ll briefly run through a few ingredient questions you may have below.

What is hoisin sauce? 

This is my backwoods Arkansas explanation: a thick, slightly sweet garlic sauce made with ingredients like soybeans, sesame seeds, vinegar, sugar, garlic, and sometimes peppers

You can find hoisin sauce in most grocery stores (I find it at Walmart and Kroger in my neck of the woods). If you have trouble finding hoisin, you could try something like the gochujang and brown sugar or honey combo from my Korean Ground Beef and Spicy Coconut Ground Chicken recipes, or the brown sugar and soy combo in my healthy Mongolian ground beef.

Do I have to include the orange zest? 

You could use a lite or sugar free orange juice if you’re looking for a shortcut.

Can I use ground turkey or chicken? 

Absolutely. In fact, my orange ground chicken meal prep bowls use a slightly different orange chicken sauce you may like. I actually have a ton of simple sauce combos for ground proteins for you to check out:

• five spice ground beef
• black pepper beef
• firecracker chicken
• honey sesame ground chicken
• harissa honey chicken
• ground pork al pastor

Will olive oil or coconut oil work instead of sesame oil?

Feel free to use any oil you want to fry the cauliflower rice and broccoli. Though the sesame oil brings an awesome flavor to the table. You’ll notice the recipe doesn’t call for any additional seasoning in the rice and broccoli other than soy sauce thanks to the sesame oil.

So, if you use another oil, you may want to incorporate some spices and definitely add some toasted sesame seeds as a topping. 

Can I skip the oil completely?

Yes, but you should prepare yourself for slightly less crisp and flavorful cauliflower rice. Similar to the sesame oil, though, you can help alleviate with extra spices or ingredients. Adding a bit of minced garlic and ginger goes a long way! 

Can I use fresh cauliflower and broccoli?

For sure. Like I suggest in my sticky sweet ground beef and broccoli recipe, you’ll want to steam the broccoli before adding to the pan in step 3 of the recipe. You could also pan roast it first like in my honey sriracha ground chicken and broccoli or air fry it for 8-10 minutes like in my air fryer chicken and broccoli or ground bison bowls.

Also, you could experiment with other veggies altogether. My sweet chili ground beef and brussels sprouts comes to mind.

You could also make a more classic fried rice using my air fryer cauliflower rice recipe.

Final Crispy Orange Beef Notes

I tend to keep my recipes as simple as possible to make them approachable for all the minimal cooks out there. You’re highly encouraged to get creative with additional ingredients. Make it your own!

If you do get creative with this crispy orange beef (or make it as-is), I want to hear about it. Let me know in a recipe review!

4.92 from 56 votes

Servings: 4 servings

Crispy Orange Beef and Broccoli

By Mason Woodruff

4-ingredient sweet and spicy beef paired with low carb fried cauliflower rice and broccoli. 

Prep: 10 minutes mins

Cook: 20 minutes mins

Total: 30 minutes mins

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Ingredients

Crispy Orange Beef

• ▢ 1 lb Lean Ground Beef, I used 96/4
• ▢ 1/4 C 68g Hoisin Sauce
• ▢ 1 medium Orange
• ▢ 1-2 Tbsp 15-30g Sriracha, to spice preference

Fried Cauliflower Rice and Broccoli

• ▢ 12 oz bag Frozen Cauliflower Rice
• ▢ 12 oz bag Frozen Broccoli Florets
• ▢ 1 Tbsp 15g Sesame Oil, divided
• ▢ 2 Tbsp 30g Soy Sauce
• ▢ 1-2 tsp Toasted Sesame Seeds, optional topping

Instructions 

• Microwave the cauliflower rice and broccoli unless you've thawed ahead of time or are using fresh. Be sure to drain any excess water from both. 

For the Ground Beef

• Add the ground beef to a large skillet over high heat. Cook until no pink remains and the beef starts to crisp. (If you use a fattier cut of beef, you may want to drain some of the fat to help it crisp up.)
• While the beef cooks, zest and orange and add the zest to a small bowl. Cut the remaining orange in half and squeeze the juice into the bowl with the zest. Add the hoisin and sriracha, stirring well. 
• Add the orange sauce to the beef when it's crisp and reduce the heat to low-medium, stirring occasionally.

For the Fried Cauliflower Rice and Broccoli

• In a separate pan, heat half sesame oil over high heat before adding the cauliflower rice.
• Leave the rice untouched for 4-6 minutes or until it begins to crisp and slightly char. 
• Push the rice to one half of the pan and add the remaining sesame oil and broccoli. Cook for another 4-6 minutes or until the broccoli is as crispy as you'd like. Add the soy sauce towards the end of cooking to both. 
• Add the rice and broccoli to a bowl or plate and top with beef and toasted sesame seeds. Enjoy! 

Notes

• Each serving has 5 Smart Points.
• 1 serving = 1/4th the entire recipe 
• Macros do not include the additional sesame seeds as a topping.
• Macros for crispy orange beef only (entire recipe): 743 calories, 97g protein, 42g carbs, and 18g fat
• If you need assistance figuring out the nutrition facts with different ingredients or portion sizes, use my guide to using a food scale for tracking macros.

Nutrition

Serving: 1Serving, Calories: 270kcal, Carbohydrates: 20g, Protein: 30g, Fat: 8g

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More Healthy Ground Beef Recipes You Might Like

My five spice ground beef and eggs is a new favorite around here. Or if you’re a fan of southwest flavors, my Tex-Mex ground beef and rice skillet and chipotle sweet potato nachos are must try recipes. And two of the most popular recipes on my blog happen to use ground beef. The 50-calorie cheeseburger bites and high protein taco soup are reader favorites I never get tired of.