Gluten Free Orange Chicken

An Artists Version of Orange Chicken

I love orange chicken and decided to try to make my own. Granted the normal recipe calls for several steps that do not work if your chicken is frozen. This is always fun, finding other ways to make something work, which is half the fun! My hubby is also gluten intolerant to the point it is not a pretty picture when he does eat pretty much anything with that ingredient hence the creative dance with food and typical recipes. 

I will warn you, I am not a professional chef! Given that measurements are not going to be exact. Exact and I are not always friends. We have a very strong love and hate relationship. I botch things up when I try to be exact, hence the toss this in or throw that...a splash of this and a dash of that. I am assuming you all know how to cook to a certain extent and are not afraid to be adventurous, at least that is my hope! 

Ingredients

1. Chicken: essential otherwise it would not be called Orange chicken...I used skinless and boneless thighs. It is less dry, and way more tender and my family has a huge dislike for breasts..that is of the feathered kind. 
2. Lemon Juice
3. Orange Juice
4. Gluten Free Soy Sauce: I buy mine at Fred Meyer's they have the best selection and the cost isn't too bad considering it is a specialty item.
5. Fresh Ginger Root
6. Fresh or as fresh as possible orange
7. Brown sugar: I use Cane and yes I am biased. But I enjoy the flavor and since my family does hail from the tropics it would seem sacrilegious to do beet. 
8. Sweet Rice Wine Vinegar: Love this stuff, enough said.
   

   
   

   
   

   
   

   
   

   
   

   
   

Ok now the fun part. 

Step 1. find a medium sauce pan; this is always an adventure as my kitchen is not the most organized. Measure out 1 1/2 cups of water into pan. Splash in some lemon juice, about 2 TB spoons full, here once again I do not measure exactly. The same for the orange juice, about a cup of brown sugar and a splash or two of soy sauce. 

Step 2. Grate some orange peel, about a tsp. and dump in your pan. 

Step 3. Peel the ginger root and cut off a 1/4 piece and dice into smallish pieces. 

Step 4. Dump that into your pot and turn on a medium flame or medium setting if your stove is electric. 

Your concoction should look something like this and smell heavenly as the heat begins to warm things up. 

Step 5. My chicken was frozen,  which was lovely so I put it in the sink to thaw while I was working on the sauce. Granted it will not thaw in the middle so I broke the pieces apart and cut them into small chunks.
Step 6. I also cut up about 4 small carrots into angled sticks, you know trying to look cool.
Step 7. Put chicken chunks into a dish, I used ceramic with a glass lid. Throw carrots on top.

Step 8. Pour sauce from pan into pan and cover with lid.
Step 9. Have your oven pre-heated to 300 degrees and put your chicken dish with the hope it will cook. I had about 2 hours before dinner so the low heat helps things simmer and become nice and tender. 

If all goes well your dish should look like this:


* If you like a thicker sauce then mix a Tablespoon of Corn Starch with the hot sauce after you pull it out of the oven. Quickly whisk in starch with a fork.

* You just made Gluten Free Orange Chicken! Give yourself a pat on the back and dig in! The flavors will be wonderful, tangy and full of flavor. The chicken will be fall apart tender and your carrots will burst with fresh sweetness in your mouth!