Health-Bent Paleo Recipes that don't look or taste like dog food.
Chinese food, without the MSG.
Ingredients
- 1 lb. boneless, skinless chicken thighs (cut into bite size pieces)
- 3 T fat (coconut oil works well here)
- juice of 2 oranges*
- zest from 1 orange
- 1 t fresh ginger
- 3 T coconut aminos or wheat-free soy sauce
- 1 t chili garlic sauce or sriracha
- 3 green onions, chopped
Method
In a medium size sauce pot, add the orange juice, zest, ginger, coconut aminos and chili garlic sauce or sriracha. Set over medium heat and let simmer to reduce and thicken while the chicken cooks. In a saute pan, heat 3 T of the fat of your choice, over medium high heat. Add the chopped chicken thighs and cook until a nice brown crust has developed on the chicken pieces, about 6 minutes. Add the chicken to the sauce pot and stir to coat with the orange sauce. Serve topped with sliced green onions. *Taste your oranges. If they don’t taste orange-y, then neither will this dish. Use tangerines if you gotta or add a teaspoon of sweetener until you’re satisfied with the flavor.
Can I substitute the chicken thighs for breasts?
Thanks!
For sure!
What would be a good side for this dish? I was thinking of putting it on cauliflower rice, but my husband doesn’t like cauliflower…..
Libby – we’ve done the recipe twice and I do over a broccoli and carrots steamed or stirfried.
I have a large family (6 of us) and I was wondering how many servings this recipe made so I know how many times to double it. Thanks! I am really looking forward to making this one.
I didn’t have sriracha, so I used Thai red chili paste and it was boooommmmmb.com! I also sautéed red onion, red bell pepper, and carrots with the chicken, which I highly recommend. Great recipe!
made this for dinner tonight. threw in some cashews and served it over a bed of lightly steamed veggies….. freaking awesome!!!!
just wondering in the recipe what does the T stand for – tablespoon/teaspoon
Capital T is Tablespoon
There is a lingo on the bottom of the site
Had this for dinner tonight. Absolutely delicious. I used chicken breast and added in some California blend veggies after reading one of the comments saying she used stir fry veggies. There was plenty of sauce to go around and it was very, very, tasty.
Made four packages of Island Chicken, using Key Lime juice instead of Lemon, and then made the orange sauce for the orange chicken. It’s awesome. Just the right amount of sweet and heat. Those 8 packages are already in the freezer and the chicken tacos are simmering away in the crockpot to be served for dinner tonight, with enough for another dinner in the freezer. Love your site and have bookmarked it to explore further. Thanks so much. My kitchen smells wonderful and my husband is happy he doesn’t have to cook on those days I work 12 hour shifts.
Made this for dinner tonight along with some steamed sugar snap peas tossed with a little sesame oil & seeds. Fabulous! Definite winner. Thank you so much!
Hey odd question, what font do you use for your headings?
Thanks!
Doesn’t sriracha have sugar in it?
For those who asked about thickening the sauce, I used a little coconut flour and that did the trick. I imagine almond flour might have the same effect. Very tasty, thanks for sharing!
What about chicken breasts? Sounds like some have used it based on comments/
Made this twice already! Love it!
SO good! I mean SO SO good.
Did anybody substitute the siracha or chili garlic sauce with a different hot sauce? Both sauces in the recipe have sugar. Please share what you subbed with. Thanks.
I made this the other night and it was AMAZING. Blanca as another poster noted above, they used curry paste, which I think would work here too, though you’d have to play with the amount to get the right level of spicy. This one doesn’t appear to contain sugar: http://www.amazon.com/Thai-Kitchen-Curry-Paste-4-Ounce/dp/B000LKVSDM
I have made this twice now subbing chili garlic sauce for sriracha. Both times I’ve been thrilled with the results. Hubby & I like things spicy so I actually used almost two tablespoons of the chili garlic sauce. Serve it over steamed veggies & its killer! Next time I may double the sauce though. That way theres more for the veggies!
We made this tonight and it was great! I sautéed the chicken in a skillet until almost done and then took it out and poured the sauce in and stirred with a whisk in the skillet to get all the browned bits incorporated, kind of like making gravy. Then I cooked it down, stirring occasionally until it turned a darker color and was glossy and thick. This took 5-10 minutes. Then I added the chicken back and stirred together long enough for the chicken to rewarm. Served with steamed broccoli and carrots and sliced pineapple. Yum!
Just made this recipe and added some sliced habanero peppers which gave it a serious kick! If allowed to reduce, the sauce is amazing… thank you so much for sharing!
How much orange juice should u be using, 1/3 if a cup? Just wondering:)
Awesome recipe! Much more savory (and obviously much healthier) than Chinese take-out. My Louisiana-born hubby loved the sriracha heat & I’m a Florida girl so orange makes me happy
The sauce didn’t quite glaze up as expected, but after reading the other comments I’ll try it in a little pan not a sauce pot next time. Yes – definitely a next time. FYI: google tells me a medium orange is normally 1/4 cup, so 2 would be 1/2 cup by YMMV. Thanks ya’ll!!!!
Just made this for lunch, added some sweet red peppers in with the chicken and served with cauliflower ‘rice’. I cannot even describe the joy I experienced eating this. This beats any Chinese take out I ever had in my pre-paleo days. I know what I’m bringing to the next paleo potluck at the gym now
Thank you from the bottom of my heart (or stomach) for this amazing recipe!
This is SO much better than take-out deep fried over-sugared orange chicken! Another winner; you all never cease to amaze me. Even my non-paleo husband had this over cauliflower rice and had no complaints.
I should have read the other comments, as I also wanted more of a thick glaze with the sauce, and I was so sad to toss out the lovey shnibbles after cooking the chicken! Next time I’ll remove the chicken from the pan it cooked in, deglaze the pan with the sauce and cook it down, then add the chicken back in. That’s how you do your General Tso’s chicken, which I also love, so I’m sure I’ll get results that I will love even more, if that’s possible!
Made a double batch of this today, it fed 5 (3 adults 2 kids) just about right. I did 1/2 with the coconut oil, and 1/2 with bacon fat. Since I had to split it between 2 pans, I thought I’d experiment. I’d definitely go with the bacon fat all round next time, better flavour and it came together much more quickly.
Definitely delicious no matter what fat you use, though!
Also, I think a more accurate word than “Thicken” in the recipe might be “reduce”, as I interpret it. It seems to be causing a bit of confusion.
Made this tonight… Great dish sweet with heat. Having trouble finding chili garlic sauce tho and I noticed a few of your recepies call for it! I let my sauce sit for abit almost to the point of boiling, it reduced just fine! I used tropicana orange juice instead of squeezing the oranges, turned out great. Awesome recepies awesome site!! Keep it up.
Yum! Just had it for dinner tonight. I added arrowroot to make the sauce nice and thick. Thanks!!
this recipe looks great (and tastes great!) but just FYI, if you’re trying to go SUPER STRICT paleo, sriracha is sadly not going to make the cut. it is one of my “oh well eat it anyway” foods but, w/ ingredients like potassium sorbate, sodium bisulfite, and xantham gum it’s not really “paleo”.
This recipe was great! For any of you looking for a Whole 30 version, I substituted the chili garlic sauce with 3tsp of Red Curry Paste, a minced clove of garlic, and red pepper flakes! Turned out so good! I like my food on the spicier side so adjust the curry paste/red pepper flakes accordingly. Also, I served this with California blend vegetables. Next time I’ll add some cauliflower rice or make a double batch! It went quickly!
This recipe was great! For any of you looking for a Whole 30 version, I substituted the chili garlic sauce with 3tsp of Red Curry Paste, a minced clove of garlic, and red pepper flakes! Turned out so good! I like my food on the spicier side so adjust the curry paste/red pepper flakes accordingly. Also, I served this with California blend vegetables. Next time I’ll add some cauliflower rice or make a double batch! It went quickly! .
Wow! This was super easy and delicious! I used chicken breast because I am not wild about chicken thighs. I ended up doubling the sauce (because I served it over cauliflower rice and wanted the rice to soak up some of the yumminess). For the second batch of sauce, I added about 1/2 t of arrow root powder which thickened the sauce just right. I also threw in a some lightly steamed broccoli. Great fresh, clean flavor! Thank you!
Love this recipe! Even better is it’s a great palio recipe too. We use chicken breasts instead of thighs as it’s what we usually have in the fringe. I tend to marinate the chicken in the sauce first and substitute the chilli garlic paste with actual chilli and garlic.
Holy smokes. I don’t know how you did it, but this tastes BETTER than any Chinese food version I’ve ever had. Your website is a gift! Thank you for developing and sharing such deliciousness! Mmmmmm
Anyone know the nutrition facts on the recipe? I just made it & it was amazing but I was a little concerned about the carb count with the orange juice. Terrific recipe!