Gluten-free Sweet Chicken is such an easy gluten-free dinner to make, with only 5 ingredients! If you’re looking for a go-to easy gluten-free chicken recipe, this is it! My husband loves leftovers of this for work lunches.
We love gluten-free chicken dinner recipes around here, and this gluten-free sweet chicken is definitely on my list of favorite weeknight meals. The chicken stays moist and the honey-sweetened sauce tastes great over the chicken and rice. While it bakes in the oven you have just enough time to get your table set and a side of veggies or salad ready and bake some gluten-free buttermilk biscuits or gluten-free cornbread.
I always serve this over rice – usually my baked brown rice recipe, but I used white rice this time. It’s definitely more visually appealing! I also usually serve this with a side of green beans but want to try this baked butternut squash recipe soon.
The original recipe for sweet chicken came from a friend and called for adding some sesame seeds and using this sauce over chicken wings as a party food.
I decided to use chicken tenders or chicken breasts to make this an easy main dish for a healthy and hearty dinner served over brown rice or Basmati rice. I’ve been making it this way for 15 years now, so this is definitely a tried and true favorite!
One thing I love is that you can serve it as whole breasts, tenders, or you can cut the chicken up after baking into bite-sized pieces and spoon additional sauce from the pan over the pieces. So good!
Notes on Ingredients for this gluten-free sweet chicken: (With only 5 ingredients, there isn’t much to say!)
- Soy sauce: Make sure you use a wheat-free soy sauce in this recipe. I always use San-J Tamari Gluten Free Soy Sauce which is certified gluten-free and readily available at my local supermarkets. You can also buy online at Amazon: regular and organic gluten-free soy sauce. You will not notice any difference in taste!
- Ketchup: I personally haven’t found a single ketchup brand in the US that has wheat in it. However, some are manufactured in shared facilities and you may want to inquire regarding their manufacturing process. I found this helpful post about gluten-free ketchup. I personally always use Heinz.
This is such an easy dinner to prepare since there are only 5 ingredients! I’ve got some shortcut tips to make it easy to clean-up too!
- Line the 9×13 pan with aluminum foil prior to adding the chicken and sauce. This way, when you are done with dinner and scoop out the leftovers, clean-up is as easy as throwing away the foil! Otherwise, you’ll be scrubbing this sticky sweet sauce off of your pan for a while!
- Make your sauce in a 4-cup measuring cup if you have one. This way you can measure the ingredients as you add them instead of dirtying a bunch of measuring cups, and also you can just whisk right in this size measuring cup just fine. I have this Pyrex glass 4-cup measuring cup.
If you need to take a meal to someone that just had a baby – this is a great one! It is mild, not spicy at all, and I haven’t met someone yet that hasn’t liked the flavor!
Several times now, I’ve made a pan of this and a pan of my gluten-free cornbread, and threw together a fruit salad to deliver to a new mom.
This is also a fabulous meal to make ahead and freeze (after cooking) into lunch-sized portions to take for work/school lunches. I’ve done this many times for my hubby and he appreciates just pulling one lunch container out of the freezer in the morning and then microwaving at work at lunchtime.
Looking for more chicken recipes? I make this gluten-free shredded chicken for tacos all the time. For busy weeknights, this gluten-free chicken tortilla soup is a hit. I look forward to trying this gluten-free cream of chicken soup as it looks like it would work well in so many casserole recipes!
I also have a whole round-up of easy gluten-free meals that you can check out!
Hopefully this will gluten-free chicken will be a big hit with your family too!
Gluten-free Sweet Chicken Recipe:
This sweet chicken is an easy gluten-free chicken dinner that's easy to prepare and easy to clean up. I serve over baked brown rice, with a side of green beans and fresh baked gluten-free biscuits or cornbread. Line 9x13 baking pan (I use glass) with aluminum foil for easy clean-up. Lay thawed chicken breasts or chicken tenders in pan. In a 4-cup measuring cup or a medium sized bowl, whisk together all other ingredients. Pour over chicken in pan. Bake at 375° for 45 minutes (breasts) or 25-30 minutes (tenders). Cooking time will vary depending on size of chicken pieces, so make sure you keep checking on it. Serve with rice. While I've never come across a ketchup that contains gluten here in the US, please always double-check. See blog post for more information. As an Amazon Associate and member of other affiliate programs, I earn from qualifying purchases.Gluten-free Sweet Chicken
Ingredients
Instructions
Notes
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Originally posted January 7, 2013 with a really bad photo! 😉 It was one of the first recipes on this blog! Updated May 2019 with better photos. Old photo:
Pin this to your gluten-free dinners board:
I hope you and your family enjoy this easy gluten-free chicken dinner recipe as much as mine does!
Rachel says
I think this recipe will be on our dinner table tonight!
Rachel says
It was a hit! Thanks!
Michelle @ My Gluten-free Kitchen.com says
So glad you tried it and it was a hit! Thanks for letting me know Rachel!
Rachel says
5 stars!
melody says
It’s in the oven now! 🙂
Katie Eagy says
This has quickly become a family favorite! Plus, it’s simple and I always have the ingredients on hand. Thanks, Michelle!
Michelle @ My Gluten-free Kitchen.com says
Yay! It is so nice to have some easy, go-to meals that use ingredients on hand! Thanks for commenting and rating it, Katie!
Terry Roat says
How do I do it without soy? Any ideas that effects my system worse than gluten
Cara says
A little late, but coconut aminos has been a great substitute for my family.
Alison says
Hi! We’ve tried this recipe loads of times and our whole family loves it. We add a tsp or tbsp of chilli paste to it for an added kick and serve it with rice and oriental veggies. Sort of gives an oriental spin on it. Love your site and lots of your recipes. So thanks!! Wondering if you’ve ever done this particular recipe in a slow cooker? Thanks again!!
Kit says
I had all of the ingredients on hand. Used Sriracha ketchup. This was a hit with my family. They requested that I make this again. Thank you!
Brittany says
This is delicious! I found this while searching for something to take to work during the week… I made a batch of it and half of it is already gone because my family gobbled it up! Love it!
Angela says
I made this, but used half the honey because i don’t like my dishes to be too sweet. We enjoyed it, it was good, but I would like to avoid using Ketchup (I try to avoid all processed foods). What would you suggest I replace ketchup with?
Patricia says
There’s gluten free ketchup in Sprouts.
Nancy says
I made the dish for dinner tonight. I followed the recipe and my sauce what very thin and not sticky. Your thoughts? Thanks
Sherrie says
I recently went gluten free and was delighted to find this dish. I am super excited to try it. After noticing that you mentioned delivering this dish to a new mother I would like to just point out that, in the event that the mother is serving this to her a baby, it is important for new mothers to know that a baby less than 1 year of age cannot digest honey. I mention this only out of concern as not all new mothers are aware of this. Please, know that my comments do not come from a negative place. Thanks for sharing this dish with me! I look forward to trying it!
Michelle Robinson says
We recently omitted gluten and dairy from our diet. We miss chinese food so much. This recipe was perfect and hit our “chinese tooth” LOL! We topped it with hot pepper flakes and paired it with an egg and veggie fried rice. Turned out amazing!
Thanks for gifting us with this recipe.
Joefine says
I have been searching for a gluten free recipe for my son. I am glad to have came across your blog. Thanks for this awesome recipes.
Tina says
Very good! I wanted something else to spice up my, rather bland chicken… This did the trick. Yummy, will make again!
*I’ve replaced the honey with maple syrup and it was awesome!
Ashley Romano says
Can u add shrimp as well?
Michelle Palin ~ My Gluten-free Kitchen says
I haven’t ever tried that so let me know if you do!
Ashley Romano says
Love this recipe we have it once a week now!!! So yummy