This gluten-free orange chicken recipe tastes like Chinese take-out yet is made at home with simple, clean ingredients readily available in your pantry.
Prep Time20 minutesmins
Cook Time10 minutesmins
Total Time30 minutesmins
Course: Dinner
Cuisine: Asian
Keyword: chinese chicken recipe, gluten-free orange chicken, honey orange chicken
Heat oil in a non-stick pan over medium-high heat.
Combine cornstarch with salt and pepper in a medium bowl. Coat each piece of chicken in cornstarch mixture. Shake off excess cornstarch from each chicken piece and place into hot oil.
Allow chicken to cook for 2 minutes before turning to cook the additional sides. Continue to cook mixture until chicken is evenly browned on all sides and chicken is cooked through, about 8-10 minutes.
While chicken is cooking, combine all sauce ingredients in a small bowl. Set aside.
Once chicken is cooked, lower heat to medium and add sauce. Sauce will bubble and thicken. Continue to cook for 1 minute until sauce is thickened and each piece of chicken is coated. Remove from heat.
Serve orange chicken over rice and topped with sesame seeds and/or chopped green onions (optional).
Notes
You can have fun with this chicken by trying different variations: (1) Instead of orange juice and zest, use the juice and zest of 1 lemon instead, or (2) Swap brown sugar for 2 Tbsp of apricot preservesIf sauce is too thick, add more water (1/4 cup at a time), and continue to cook mixture over medium-high heat until sauce is to desired thickness. Sometimes the sauce can get too thick if there's too much cornstarch.Like it spicy? Add more red pepper flakes. Don't want the spice? Omit the red pepper flakes.