Sweet, tangy, and totally addictive, our homemade Orange Chicken is even better than your favorite Chinese takeout! Tender chicken gets coated in a mixture of arrowroot and rice flour then baked to crispy perfection and tossed in a perfectly sweet and tangy orange sauce.
Table of Contents
- This recipe is…
- Why You’ll Love This Baked Orange Chicken Recipe
- Orange Chicken Recipe Ingredients
- Orange Chicken Recipe Variations and Modifications
- How to Make Orange Chicken at Home
- Recipe Tips
- How to Serve
- How to Store and Reheat
- Frequently Asked Questions
- More Favorite Chicken Recipes
- Baked Gluten Free Orange Chicken Recipe
This recipe is…
I have been bursting to share this recipe with y’all! In fact, I think this baked gluten free orange chicken may be one of my favorite recipes we’ve EVER created! In my pre-gluten free days, I had a real love for Panda Express orange chicken and chow mein, and while we nailed a spaghetti squash chow mein a few years ago, it had been years since I’d gotten to eat anything close to that crispy orange chicken.
Even though we’ve successfully converted many takeout favorites before, like Mongolian Beef and Kung Pao Chicken, this baked gluten free orange chicken was a tall order. We knew we wanted a classic crispy orange chicken, but we wanted to avoid deep-frying it if we could, so we could avoid the mess and oil waste. I’m happy to say that we nailed it!
What makes orange chicken so good? We think it’s the craveable sauce made with fresh orange juice, a touch of sweetness, a punch of vinegar, and some red pepper flakes for heat. When the sauce caramelizes over chunks of tender, juicy coated chicken? It’s just magic.
For more Asian-inspired recipes, check out our honey sesame chicken, oven baked General Tso’s chicken, Instant Pot bourbon chicken, and our sheet pan sweet and sour chicken recipes too.
Why You’ll Love This Baked Orange Chicken Recipe
- Our homemade Orange Chicken is even better than takeout
- Baked — not fried! Which means less oil and less mess.
- A healthier bakes version of that sweet & tangy orange sauce you know and love from Panda Express
Orange Chicken Recipe Ingredients
There are three components to this dish homemade orange chicken recipe: the marinade, coating, and sauce. Find ingredient notes (including substitutions and swaps) below.
For the marinade:
- Egg White – to start, you’ll need 1 egg white
- Chicken thighs – you’ll need 1 ½ pounds boneless skinless chicken thighs, cut into 1-inch pieces
- Arrowroot Starch – to help the chicken to really crisp, you’ll need 3 tablespoons of arrowroot starch
- Coconut Aminos – 1 tablespoon of coconut aminos adds a bit of really delicious flavor here
- Apple Cider Vinegar – 1 teaspoon of apple cider vinegar brightens everything up!
- Sea Salt – to season, you’ll need a 1/2 teaspoon of sea salt
For the flour coating:
- Arrowroot Starch – you’ll need an additional ½ cup of arrowroot starch for the coating
- Rice flour – you’ll also use ½ cup white rice flour
- Salt – 1 teaspoon coarse sea salt seasons the coating mix
- Avocado oil – either avocado oil spray or about 1 tablespoon avocado oil will work here!
For the sauce:
- Arrowroot starch – to make this sweet and tangy sauce, you’ll use another tablespoon of arrowroot starch
- Sugar – you’ll need 2 tablespoons coconut sugar
- Orange juice – we call for ½ cup fresh orange juice, which is the juice from 2 medium-sized oranges
- Coconut aminos – you’ll use 1 tablespoon coconut aminos
- Vinegar – 1 teaspoon apple cider vinegar gives the sauce a little punch
- Red pepper flakes – ¼ teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes add some heat
A full ingredient list with exact amounts can be found in the recipe card below.
Orange Chicken Recipe Variations and Modifications
Make this recipe your own with a few easy tweaks:
- Cuts of chicken – we strongly recommend using chicken thighs for this recipe because they stay juicy (more on that below). But if you really prefer chicken breasts, or that’s all you have at home, you could swap them for the thighs.
- Kid-friendly – if you’re making this recipe for young kiddos, you may want to leave the red pepper flakes out of the sauce mix and serve them on the side for those who want a little heat.
How to Make Orange Chicken at Home
It’s easier than you think to make this healthy baked orange chicken recipe at home! Here’s what you’ll need to do.
Step 1: Preheat the oven to 425°F and line a rimmed baking sheet with parchment paper, then lightly spray (or brush) it with avocado oil.
In a large bowl, whisk together the egg white, arrowroot starch, coconut aminos, apple cider vinegar, and salt. Add the chicken to the marinade and toss to coat.
Step 2:
In a small bowl, whisk together the arrowroot starch, white rice flour, and sea salt.
Step 3: Remove the chicken from the marinade, then dredge in the flour mixture, shake off the excess flour, and lay the chicken on the baking sheet.
Lightly spray or brush the chicken with avocado oil. Bake the chicken for 15 minutes. After 15 minutes, flip the chicken, then bake for an additional 15 minutes, until browned and crisp.
Step 4: While the chicken is baking, whisk together the water, orange juice, coconut sugar, coconut aminos, apple cider vinegar, and red pepper flakes in a saucepan over medium heat.
Bring to a boil, then whisk together 1 tablespoon arrowroot starch with 2 tablespoons water. Pour the arrowroot mixture into the sauce, then bring to a boil. Once the sauce has thickened, remove from heat.
Step 5: Toss the chicken with the orange sauce, then garnish with white sesame seeds. Serve over white rice or cauliflower rice and enjoy!
Recipe Tips
Use half rice flour + half arrowroot starch – this is the key to crispy chicken, y’all! Don’t go all arrowroot OR all rice flour. Use half and half!
Use chicken thighs – while the chicken breast has its place, this recipe is all about chicken thighs! Trust us on this one.
Flip the chicken halfway through – you’ll bake the chicken for 15 minutes, then flip it, and bake it for another 15 minutes. This is key in helping the chicken to get nice and crispy on all sides!
Don’t overlap the chicken – when laying the chicken on the sheet pan to bake, be sure that none of the pieces are overlapping. In fact, if you need to use more than one sheet pan in order to not overlap, do that!
How to Serve
We love this gluten free orange chicken alongside white or brown rice (or cauliflower rice for low carb) and a green veggie like broccoli or green beans. If you’d like a veggie, some simple steamed broccoli or snow peas work great here!
How to Store and Reheat
While this recipe really is best right out of the oven, it’ll store just fine too! We recommend storing the chicken separate from the sauce, though, to keep it from getting soggy in the refrigerator. When you’re ready to enjoy, either microwave the chicken, or lay it back out on a sheet pan to crisp up in a 350°F oven until warmed through, toss it with the orange sauce, and then enjoy!
Frequently Asked Questions
Because it’s made up of fresh orange juice, coconut sugar, coconut aminos, apple cider vinegar, and red pepper flakes, the orange chicken sauce is equal parts tangy, sweet, and salty, with just a hint of (optional) spice.
If you’re wondering “Is orange chicken better with thighs or breasts?,” the answer is a resounding THIGHS! Always thighs. When it comes to Asian-Inspired dishes, we say that chicken thighs (vs. breasts) are best. Because they have a higher fat content than chicken breasts, they have the magical ability to get nice and crispy on the outside while still staying juicy and delicious on the inside!
Typically, the only way to get really crispy orange chicken is to fry it, BUT, after some trial and error, we were able to get BAKED gluten free orange chicken that was crisp on the outside and still tender inside. Because we cracked the code, we say that baked orange chicken is best! Here’s what makes this recipe work:
A coating of half arrowroot starch and half rice flour: we found that regular gluten free flour was too dense to produce a crispy texture, but the combination of arrowroot and rice flour created a light and crispy coating.
Boneless, skinless chicken thighs: since the chicken needs to bake at a high temperature for a fairly long amount of time to get the coating crisp, we recommend using chicken thighs to avoid drying out the chicken.
Avocado oil spray: While you can brush the chicken with avocado oil if you’re in a pinch, avocado oil spray is really key in this recipe for making sure that the chicken is evenly coated.
If you’ve wondered “What is Panda Express orange chicken made from?,” you’re not alone. The iconic Chinese-American dish has been a cult favorite for decades! Our version isn’t a strict copycat Panda Express orange chicken recipe. But we think it’s even better…and it’s definitely healthier! Instead of frying the chicken and using a laundry list of ingredients to make the sauce, our version has all the sweet-tangy orange chicken flavors you love without all the oil, fat, and gluten.
More Favorite Chicken Recipes
If you tried this recipe for Orange Chicken, or any other recipe on the Fed & Fit website, please leave a 🌟 star rating and let us know how it went in the 📝 comments below!
Baked Gluten Free Orange Chicken
Ingredients
For the marinade:
- 1 egg white
- 3 tablespoons arrowroot starch
- 1 tablespoon coconut aminos
- 1 teaspoon apple cider vinegar
- ½ teaspoon coarse sea salt
- 1 ½ pounds boneless, skinless chicken thighs, cut into 1-inch pieces
For the flour coating:
- ½ cup arrowroot starch
- ½ cup white rice flour
- 1 teaspoon coarse sea salt
- Avocado oil spray, or about 1 tablespoon avocado oil
For the sauce:
- ½ cup water
- ½ cup fresh orange juice, about 2 oranges
- 2 tablespoons coconut sugar
- 1 tablespoon coconut aminos
- 1 teaspoon apple cider vinegar
- ¼ teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
- 1 tablespoon arrowroot starch
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 425 F and line a rimmed baking sheet with parchment paper, then lightly spray it with the avocado oil spray, or brush it with half of the avocado oil.
- In a large bowl, whisk together the egg white, arrowroot starch, coconut aminos, apple cider vinegar, and salt. Add the chicken to the marinade and toss to coat.
- In a small bowl, whisk together the arrowroot starch, white rice flour, and sea salt.
- Remove the chicken from the marinade then dredge in the flour mixture, then shake off the excess flour and lay the chicken on the baking sheet. Lightly spray the chicken with avocado oil, or brush it with the remaining oil, then bake for 15 minutes. After 15 minutes, flip the chicken then bake for an additional 15 minutes, until browned and crisp.
- While the chicken is baking, whisk together the water, orange juice, coconut sugar, coconut aminos, apple cider vinegar, and red pepper flakes in a saucepan over medium heat. Bring to a boil, then whisk together 1 tablespoon arrowroot starch with 2 tablespoons water. Pour the arrowroot mixture into the sauce, then bring to a boil. Once the sauce has thickened, remove from heat.
- Toss the chicken with the orange sauce then garnish with white sesame seeds. Serve over white rice or cauliflower rice and enjoy!
Nutrition
This was a great recipe. The chicken was nice and crispy. I just need to make it little more orange tasting. I will add a little orange zest to the sauce next time. Spring onions chopped on top was really good too.
Absolutely delicious! My daughter loved Panda Chicken’s Orange Chicken before she was diagnosed with Celiac’s Disease. She gave this a strong thumbs up! Thank you!
Do you think. you could do some prep and freezer this? e.g. after breading the chicken (but before baking), place onto a baking sheet into the freezer. Freeze until frozen, then place into a freezer bag and store until you want to bake and make the sauce?.
If you’re going to freeze it I’d go ahead and bake it all the way through, then reheat it from frozen in a 400 F oven for about 15 minutes!
This was SO delicious!!!!! I cannot even believe how good it turned out and it was a lot more foolproof than other paleo orange chicken recipes I’ve tried. I doubled the sauce (my favorite part) and just used regular orange juice from the carton and it came out great.
Oh my! This is SO good. So much better than take-out! It’s the most clean tasting version of orange chicken with just the right amount of crispy crust and sticky orange sauce. I was trying to have half leftover for another night for the two of us but….I think I got carried away. This is definitely going into the rotation!
Anyone made this without the egg? Any tips for not using the egg or a replacement?
I’ve used butter or oil in place of egg in some recipes. Not sure if it would be appropriate here but possibly?
That might work! Just expect that the batter may not adhere as well. I think something like Bob’s Red Mill egg replacer may be your safest bet here.
I used only arrowroot (didn’t have any rice flour), and also used an air fryer and it turned out great! For the air fryer, cooked at 400° for 12 minutes. It didn’t take two batches. Thanks for the great recipe!
So glad you enjoyed it, and thanks for letting us know the air fryer times!
Is coconut sugar required or can I replace it with white or brown sugar?
You can replace with either one!
I made this tonight and we both enjoyed it so much! I followed the recipe strictly and everything was perfect. Thank you so much for the trial and error that probably went into this recipe for the rest of us to enjoy! 🙂
This was perfect. Next time I make it I will reduce the water in the sauce to give it a stronger orange flavor. But honestly, I’ve never had a crispier more perfect orange chicken. Thanks girl!
Yeah! So glad you liked it Amie!
…or just add juice from an additional orange for a stronger orange flavor??
Can this be made into Orange Beef? What type of beef would be best?
I’d suggest using sirloin or flank steak, thinly sliced so it isn’t tough. My only concern would be drying out the beef!
I would also like to know if you can cook this in the air fryer, please and thank you!
We haven’t tested it in an air fryer so can’t give instructions, but I definitely think it would work!
Is rice flour key or can almond or coconut flour be used as subs?
You can try almond flour but the rice flour definitely creates the crispiest crust!
Hi! Would it be possible to cook these in an air fryer? Or are there too many?
This is LEGIT
So glad you liked it Kalila!