This gluten free orange chicken is full of citrus flavor and a rich homemade orange sauce over crisp-tender pan fried chicken pieces. An easy chicken dinner that will make you forget all about Panda Express!

A bowl of white rice topped with orange-glazed chicken and chopped green onions sits beside two spoons.

Why this recipe works

The chicken gets tossed with some beaten egg, then a thin coating of seasoned gluten free flour. It browns in just a little oil to seal in moisture, giving each piece a lightly crisp crust without deep frying.

Orange juice forms the base of the sauce, while fresh zest adds concentrated citrus flavor and aroma. Rice vinegar, gluten free soy sauce, ginger, and garlic balance the sweetness so the glaze tastes bright, savory, and complex.

Cornstarch thickens the sauce into a smooth, shiny glaze that clings to every piece of chicken. Preparing the chicken in batches keeps it from steaming in the pan, so it stays tender instead of turning rubbery.

Recipe ingredients

Here’s what you need to make this recipe. For full ingredient amounts, scroll to the recipe card below:

Raw chicken pieces, gluten free flour, cornstarch, sugar, soy sauce, orange juice, olive oil, garlic, ginger, an egg, salt, and pepper are arranged on a light surface.

Chicken: The heart of this dish, you’ll need skinless boneless chicken breasts sliced into 1-inch cubes. Trim any fat or cartilage from the chicken before slicing it. Pieces of roughly the same size will cook at about the same rate.
Egg: Helps the flour blend stick to the chicken pieces, and helps seal in moisture during cooking of the chicken to prevent it from drying out.
Dried seasonings: Salt, ground black pepper and red pepper flakes are all used to flavor the chicken itself, beyond just the sauce in the dish. Adding them to the flour blend helps prevent them from burning during cooking.
Gluten free flour blend: Sticks to the egg on the surface of the chicken pieces and then creates a crust during pan-cooking that seals in moisture and browns for a slightly crispy crust. Since we’re only cooking in a bit of oil, and not using gluten free breadcrumbs, the crust will be thin. If your flour blend contains xanthan gum, it will help the flour stick to the chicken. If your blend doesn’t contain any gum, you can whisk 1/4 teaspoon into the flour blend when you add the spices. If you’re using a flour blend that tends to have a bit of grit to it, like King Arthur Flour Measure for Measure gluten free flour, sift it first to remove as much grittiness so the chicken doesn’t have any unpleasant texture.
Cooking oil: Used to help transfer heat from the pan to the chicken, promotes browning in the pan, and keeps the low fat chicken breasts from sticking to the pan. You can use light olive oil, which is more refined than extra virgin olive oil and has a higher smoke point, or a neutral oil with a similar smoke point, like canola oil.
Orange juice and zest: Adds liquid to keep the sauce smooth, and most of the orange flavor. You can use all fresh-squeezed juice (you’d need about 4 medium-size navel oranges), or some fresh-squeezed and some good quality store-bought juice, like Minute Maid Pulp-Free. Even if you like pulp in your orange juice, the citrus pieces may burn in the pan when you prepare the sauce, and the sauce only tastes right when it’s smooth and shiny. The zest adds extra flavor and aroma from the essential oils in the skin.
Granulated sugar: Balances any tang or sour flavor in the orange juice, and helps create a shiny glaze to the sauce.
Cornstarch: Traps moisture from the orange juice and creates a shiny, thickened glaze that clings to the chicken.
Rice vinegar: Helps to balance the sweetness of the sauce and adds some depth to the orange sauce and helps it taste like it came from a restaurant.
Gluten free soy sauce: Adds deep, umami flavor to the sauce, some saltiness to balance the sweetness, and some color.
Fresh ginger: Adds a slightly spicy flavor to balance the sauce’s sweet and sour flavors. Fresh ginger adds more bright flavor than dried ginger, but you can use about 1/8 teaspoon (or a pinch ) of dried ginger in its place.
Fresh garlic: Aromatic fresh garlic adds depth of flavor to complement the sweet, sour, and umami flavors in the sauce. You can also use a scant 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder in its place, or more to taste.

Three bowls of white rice and orange-glazed chicken sit near orange slices, garlic, and ginger.

Expert tips

Don’t crowd the pan

When you cook chicken in a pan, it releases moisture into the pan. If you crowd the pan with pieces of meat too close to one another, they will release more moisture than can evaporate. Rather than pan cooking in oil, the chicken will partly steam-cook, which can lead to overcooked, rubbery chicken.

Add some fresh-squeezed juice

You’ll need at least one fresh orange for orange zest, try juicing it and straining out the pulp after zesting it. Then, make up the rest of the juice in prepared orange juice. Just be sure to buy the kind without any pulp for a smooth sauce, and that you like the taste of it, since cooking it will intensify the flavor.

A spoon rests in a bowl of white rice topped with orange-glazed chicken and chopped green chives, with orange slices in the background.

Ingredient substitutions

This recipe is already gluten free and dairy free. If you need to avoid soy and corn, too, here are some suggestions:

Soy free

In place of soy sauce or regular tamari (which is made from soy beans) use San J No Soy Tamari, which is soy free (made from fermented peas) and gluten free or coconut aminos. If you can find it, I’d recommend the no soy tamari instead of coconut aminos, which has a very muted flavor compared to soy sauce.

Corn free

In place of cornstarch, try arrowroot, tapioca starch, or superfine white rice flour. Be sure not to use anything gritty or the chicken will have an unwanted texture.

Orange-glazed chicken pieces and chopped green onions top white rice in a white bowl.

Storage instructions

If you’d like to make the sauce ahead of time, you can store it in a mason jar or other sealed glass container for up to 7 days. Some liquid may leak out of the liquid, but the sauce will reabsorb it when it’s heated again.

You can store any leftover orange chicken in a well-sealed container in the refrigerator for about 3 or 4 days. It will lose its crispiness, but should regain some of it when you reheat it in a large, flat skillet, so all of the chicken makes contact with the pan.

Gluten Free Orange Chicken

Why this recipe works

Recipe ingredients