Orange Chicken

Missing perfectly glazed orange chicken from your local takeout place? Yearn no more! We have a perfect, gluten-free substitution recipe, provided by our friends at the Gluten-Free Palate.

Ingredients

Sauce

• Zest from 1 orange
• 1 cup orange juice from 1 orange (use the orange you zested)
• ⅓ cup granulated sugar
• 2 tablespoons rice vinegar (or white vinegar)
• 3 tablespoons gluten-free soy sauce or tamari
• ½ teaspoon ground ginger
• ½ teaspoon garlic powder
• 1 tablespoon cornstarch
• 2 tablespoons water

Chicken 

• 4 skinless chicken breasts cut into 1-inch pieces
• 3 eggs, whisked
• ½ cup all-purpose gluten-free flour blend
• ½ cup cornstarch
• oil for frying, ideally one with high smoke point oil, like avocado oil

Instructions

Sauce

1. Add orange juice, sugar, vinegar, gluten-free soy sauce, ginger, and garlic powder to a large pot or wok, and heat over medium heat for 3-5 minutes.
2. In a small mixing bowl, whisk 1 tablespoon of cornstarch with 2 tablespoons of water to form a paste. Add the paste to orange sauce and whisk together.
3. Continue to cook for 5 minutes, until the sauce begins to thicken.
4. Once the sauce is thickened, remove from heat and add the orange zest. Stir until combined; set aside.

Chicken

1. Add the gluten-free flour and cornstarch to a shallow dish and stir to combine.
2. Whisk eggs in separate shallow dish.
3. Dip chicken pieces in egg mixture, coating all sides, and then in the flour mixture, coating all sides. Place on a separate plate. Repeat until all chicken is coated.
4. Heat 2 -3 inches of oil in a heavy-bottomed pot over medium-high heat. If it starts to smoke, turn the heat down.
5. Working in batches, add chicken pieces to the pan, but don’t overcrowd the pan.
6. Cook for 3-4 minutes, turning halfway through, until the chicken is brown on all sides and cooked through.
7. Place the cooked chicken on a paper-towel-lined plate and repeat until all chicken is cooked.
8. Once all the chicken is cooked, add the chicken to the large pot with the orange sauce and toss to coat.
9. Serve hot over rice.

Notes and Tips 

• Make the sauce first, so it’s ready to go when the chicken is done.
• Breast meat and thigh meat both works well in this recipe.
• You can use chicken strips or smaller pieces of chicken.
• If you don’t have cornstarch, you can use arrowroot starch or tapioca starch.
• The oil temperature should be around 350F.