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By popular demand, super easy Chinese-style gluten free orange chicken! If you've ever wished that Panda Express would make their orange chicken gluten free, this is the recipe for you.
Why this recipe works
To make Chinese-style chicken recipes, you've got two choices for preparing the chicken itself: bake it, or fry it. Sometimes I fry it (gluten free lemon chicken I'm looking at you), but more often I bake it.
Not only is baking the chicken neater (I love easy clean-up) and healthier (shallow frying, unlike deep frying, always means that the food will absorb a fair amount of the frying oil), but I can even prep the chicken the night before I intend to bake it.
In this recipe for gluten free orange chicken, instead of just baking the chicken and then flavoring it with sauce afterward, the sauce is made first. Just dip the chicken pieces in the cooled sauce, and then in the bread crumbs.
When you use Panko-style gluten free bread crumbs, the chicken is still super crispy. And dipping the chicken in the sauce before baking makes for the juiciest little bites of chicken you've ever had—without an ounce of fat added!
Ingredient substitutions
This recipe is already dairy free and egg free. Here are some suggestions for how to handle other potential changes:
Soy free
In place of tamari or gluten free soy sauce, try coconut aminos. It isn't quite as salty, but it has that nice rich, deep umami flavor that we get from soy sauce and tamari.
Orange juice
Instead of freshly-squeezed orange juice, you can use no-pulp prepared orange juice. Just be sure to use something that you like the taste of, since cooking it down will intensify its flavor. If your orange juice is too sour or bitter, your sauce will be even more so.
Honey
In cooking, unlike in baking, you can sometimes replace a liquid sugar like honey with granulated sugar. Try using the same amount, by weight.
Ginger
If you don't like or can't have ground ginger, you can just leave it out. The dish will have less depth of flavor.
No oven
Make the sauce as indicated, and then make these Gluten Free Air Fryer chicken nuggets in place of the chicken in this recipe.
Gluten Free Orange Chicken
Ingredients
For the sauce
- ¾ cup (6 fluid ounces) freshly squeezed orange juice, strained of pulp (from about 4 medium oranges)
- ¾ cup (6 fluid ounces) chicken stock
- 2 tablespoons (18 g) basic gum-free gluten free flour blend, (or try an equal amount sweet white rice flour)
- ¼ cup (2 fluid ounces) tamari, or gluten free soy sauce
- 2 tablespoons (1 fluid ounce) unseasoned rice vinegar, (or white balsamic or white wine vinegar)
- ½ teaspoon garlic powder
- ¼ teaspoon chili powder, optional
- ¼ teaspoon ground ginger
- 3 tablespoons (63 g) honey
For the chicken
- 1 ½ pounds skinless boneless chicken breast, cut into 1-inch cubes
- 1 ½ cups gluten free Panko-style bread crumbs, or gluten free corn flakes coarsely ground in a blender or food processor
For serving (optional)
- Cooked white or brown rice
- Chopped scallions
Instructions
- Preheat your oven to 350°F. Line a large rimmed baking sheet with parchment paper and set it aside.
Make the sauce
- In a medium-size, heavy-bottom saucepan, place the orange juice, chicken stock and flour, and whisk vigorously to combine, making sure the flour doesn’t clump at all.
- Add the tamari, rice vinegar, garlic powder, chili powder, ground ginger and honey, whisking to combine after each addition.
- Place the saucepan over medium-high heat and cook, whisking frequently, until the mixture begins to simmer. Continue to cook, still whisking frequently, until the mixture is reduced by about 1/4 and has begun to thicken (about 5 minutes).
- Remove the sauce from the heat and transfer it to a large heat-safe bowl. Allow the sauce to cool, whisking occasionally, until no longer hot to the touch.
- The sauce can also be made, cooled, sealed tightly and stored in the refrigerator for up to 5 days before proceeding with the recipe.
Prepare the chicken
- Place about 1/2 of the cooled sauce in a separate, medium-size bowl. Place the raw, cubed chicken next to it, and a bowl with the bread crumbs next to that.
- Dip the chicken pieces, one at a time, in the sauce on all sides, then in the bread crumbs on all sides, and place about 1/2-inch apart on the prepared baking sheet.
- Place the baking sheet in the center of the preheated oven and bake for about 15 minutes or until golden brown all over and opaque throughout.
- Remove from the oven and toss the cooked chicken pieces in the remaining sauce.
- Serve over rice, garnished with scallions.
Notes
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
What panko do you use for this recipe ?
Hi, Tammy, you can make your own panko style gluten free breadcrumbs with my recipe. My favorite store-bought one is the grocery store house brand Nature’s Promise, but also really like Target house brand, Good & Gather or Schar.
better than Panda Express and Asia mail I need gf
For this recipe, would it be a good idea to have the raw chicken in the sauce, cook it and then put it cooked and back in the sauce where the raw chicken was? Maybe separate the sauce before hand? Would it be 1/2 and 1/2 or 1/3 to 2/3?
Also, thank you so much for all your recipes and ideas. New to the gf world and have found your stuff amazing.
Hi, Toni, so glad you found me and thank you for the kind words! You could maybe cook the chicken in the sauce, but the sauce is quite thick, and isn’t meant to act as a marinade in that way so I think the sauce would bubble and splatter as the chicken was cooking. I would instead recommend making it as written, using part of the sauce to coat the raw chicken so the breadcrumbs stick, and then baking the chicken.
Wondering if I can make these in the air fryer?
I’m not sure that this recipe would work in the air fryer, Sarah. The coating is not that thick, so it might not hold up in the air fryer. You can try making the chicken the same way I describe in the air fryer chicken nuggets recipe and using the sauce from this recipe.
Holy hello! can’t believe I missed this — I LOVE Chinese. It is my #1 food that I go off the wagon for… thanks Nicole! :)
Dear Nicole…HOW do you make GF-style Panko?
Follow the link. the word GF panko breadcrumbs is blue. this means there is a link to the recipe for them.
Very Yummy! Tried it tonight. Hubby loved it. Daughter was not so sure. But she’s only little. Used gf cornflakes, never seen gf panko in Germany.
I make my own gluten free panko-style bread crumbs, Judith. :) Glad the recipe went over well. Little kids can be so tough to figure out. My own kids are 13, 12 and 10, and, well, they can still be tough!
LOVE this recipe! Mmmm ;-P
If you cannot eat corn, use crushed “chex” rice cereal, for low cost alternative to expensive GF Panko!
☮☯
Can these lovely bites of heaven be made up to the completed baking time section, then cooled and frozen? Then freeze the sauce as well in a batch cooking day. Thanks!
I don’t see why not, Michele!