It all started when my husband said, “you know what sounds good? Orange Chicken!”. It did sound good. We were running around making donut deliveries and just getting home after a long day.
Take out sounded splendid.
But I’ll be honest with you, my husband and I have some lofty financial goals this year and ordering takeout was not what my account needed.
I remembered that I had 2 blood oranges at home and some chicken breast. I did, in fact, have all the ingredients for orange chicken. And it was delicious.
Helpful Hint: I keep certain things in the freezer to help future-me out. These include: chopped carrots, chopped onion, a bag of peas, and roasted garlic, just to name a few things.
This meal could have taken forever. Instead, I used what I had in the freezer to cut down on meal prep time. It also helps when your family helps you out. You can easily have another family member cut veggies or start the rice while you’re doing something else.
Gluten Free Orange Chicken And Fried Rice
4
servings20
minutes20
minutesI love orange chicken, but hate the price of takeout. This recipe is easy to make but it takes a lot of chopping. My advice is that if you know that you're going to make this dish, prep everything ahead of time to cut down on prep time.
Ingredients
- Chicken
1 pound chicken
1 cup tapioca flour
Avocado oil or olive oil for the pan
- Fried Rice
1/2 cup peas
1/2 cup chopped carrot
2 slices of bacon or ham
1 cup rice
- Orange Sauce
2/3 c coconut aminos
2 tsp garlic
2 tsp ginger
2 oranges - zested and juiced
1/2 to 1 tbsp of arrowroot powder
1 tsp sesame oil
Directions
- Start by putting the rice on to cook - make sure to keep an eye on this while you cook the chicken. While that's cooking chop and prep the chicken. You will want to cut into bite sized pieces.
- Put tapioca flour in a shallow bowl. Coat the chicken with the tapioca flour, shaking off an excess flour.
- Heat a high walled skillet. Put 1/2 an inch of olive oil or avocado oil. In batches, put the chicken in the pan, making sure not to crowd the chicken. Make sure that the pan is hot, on a medium high heat. Once the chicken has browned on one side, flip it. This will only take a few minutes. Place the chicken on a cooling rack to ensure that the chicken stays crispy. Continue until all the chicken is cooked.
- Now the rice should be done. Put the veggies for the rice in a skillet. Cook the veggies for a minute until they are warm and soft. If you want to add egg to your fried rice, scramble and egg in a bowl. Move the veggies to the edges of your pan, forming a clear space in the middle. Put the egg in the clear space. Scramble the egg. One the egg is cooked add the cooked rice. Mix well. You can add a tbsp of coconut aminos if you feel it needs it
- Make the sauce by combining all the ingredients for the sauce. Make sure to zest the oranges first before juicing. To use the arrowroot, add a little bit at a time to the sauce, wisk well until combined. The pan you cooked your chicken in should be cool now, clean it quickly making sure that it doesn't have oil left over from cooking the chicken.
- Put the sauce in the pan and turn it on low to medium heat, until it starts to bubble. Stir the sauce as it heats. Once it starts bubbling, add the chicken back into the pan and turn the pan off. Make sure you coat the chicken in the sauce.
