Gluten Free Orange Chicken recipe

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Amy Fothergill

Originally posted September 8, 2012; updated recipe

My family loves this gluten-free orange chicken. It was born out of a desire to make my daughter happy. When my daughter saw the traditional gluten-containing version while we were out for lunch one day, she looked on in envy. Surely, I believed—after years of adapting recipes for my gluten-free family—the same taste could be achieved without the offending wheat protein.

I found an orange chicken recipe on Food.com and made a few changes in the ingredients as well as the technique until I came up with the following. I served it to the family along with some brown rice and previously steamed green beans.

When my son gave my cooking a round of applause after eating it, I knew I must have done something right. I tried to put in a lot of details which should make it easy for you. Hopefully your family will be just as pleased!

Gluten-Free Orange Chicken

Yield: 3 to 4 servings

Chicken

  • 1/2 cup cornstarch
  • 1/2 teaspoon fine salt
  • 1/2 teaspoon ground white pepper
  • 1 1/2 pounds boneless skinless chicken thigh, cut into small pieces (I prefer chicken thigh to breast for this dish because it is very tender when simmered with the sauce)

2 – 3 tablespoons neutral vegetable oil, approximately (I use avocado)

  • 1 – 2 garlic cloves, minced

Orange Sauce

  • Zest from 1 navel orange or about a tablespoon
  • 1/3 – 1/2 cup orange juice (you can use bottled or juice the orange that you just zested)
  • 1/4 cup gluten-free soy sauce or coconut aminos
  • 1/4 cup rice vinegar
  • 1/4-1/3 cup brown sugar
  • 1 tablespoon or more cornstarch
  • water as needed
  • 1 – 2 chopped green onions, to garnish (white and green)

Optional: hot chili oil or crushed red chili peppers

  1. Mix cornstarch with salt and pepper. 
  2. Add chicken pieces to the cornstarch mixture right before frying and toss to coat.
  3. Heat oil in large pan over medium heat. Once hot, add chicken and cook until golden adding more oil if needed. Cook in two batches if necessary. Don’t crowd the pan.
  4. While chicken cooks mix sauce ingredients in a bowl or large measuring cup and set aside.
  5. Once chicken is browned, add all chicken back to pan and add garlic. Cook 1 to 2 minutes until fragrant.
  6. Add sauce to the pan, scraping out any bits from the sauce bowl like the sugar. Stir into chicken. 
  7. Simmer 5 to 10 minutes. Add green onion at the end and the optional hot chili oil/red pepper flakes. Stir and serve.