Sauce
1 tbsp oil
1 tbsp minced garlic
1/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup orange juice
1/4 cup white distilled vinegar
2 tbsp soy sauce
1 tbsp water
1 tbsp cornstarch
Add oil and minced garlic to skillet and cook on medium to high heat until garlic is browned
Add in the sugar and brown sugar, stir until combined
Add in orange juice and let sugars dissolve, stir occasionally
Add in vinegar and soy sauce, stir to combine
Whisk together water and cornstarch in separate bowl and then add it to pan
Whisk together all of the ingredients until well combined
Let the sauce sit and simmer on low until desired consistency is reached **(Side note- If the sauce is thicker than you want, mix in some water, and if it is thinner than you want, mix in more of the cornstarch/water mixture)
Chicken
1 package of chicken breasts
Vegetable oil or frying oil of choice
1/4 cup GF flour (I used King Arthur)
1/2 cup cornstarch
2 eggs
Warm up your vegetable oil on a large pan on the stove over medium to high heat
Cut up chicken breasts into smaller chunks
Combine flour and cornstarch into a bowl together and mix until combined
Whisk together eggs in a separate bowl
Place the chicken chunks into the egg mixture, then pout them in the flour mixture and completely coat
Put the coated chicken into the frying oil and fry until until golden brown
The struggle is real when it comes to being gluten free and wanting Chinese food. I would say pretty much everything related to Chinese food is covered in gluten. This made me EXTREMELY sad when I was diagnosed because Panda Express was my jam! I was obsessed with their orange chicken, and over time that was something I really craved when I had to go GF. One day, I just figured I would make my own from scratch. This was no easy task though, and it took me a while to get the sauce to taste similar to Panda Express. I finally mastered it though and became obsessed! At one point I was eating this probably every other weekend because it is just that good.
It may seem daunting to make something like this from scratch, but I found that this recipe was about as simple as it can get. The sauce really takes no prep time at all and you simply just add each ingredient in one at a time. I found that this recipe is the perfect of balance of orange and sweet flavor. When you eat Panda Express's orange chicken, there isn't a powering orange flavor to it, and I noticed that a lot of recipes were. As for the chicken, that takes a little bit of prep work and can be messy, but I don't mind it. You definitely could skip this step and get pre-made chicken like Aldi's General Tso GF chicken.The time it takes to make this dish though is totally worth it, in my opinion.
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