Healthy Sweet and Sour Chicken
Skip the takeout and try this Healthy Sweet and Sour Chicken recipe instead. This easy homemade version will not only cut the calories in sweet and sour chicken it is also gluten free!
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Healthy dinner recipes are always useful. Besides this sweet and sour chicken, other popular chicken recipes are this creamy Chicken Broccoli Bake, or if you like a little more spice in your life try this tasty Arroz Con Pollo. Check out my Dinner category for lots of healthy dinner ideas.
IN THIS POST: Everything you need to make Gluten Free Sweet and Sour Chicken
What you need for this recipe:
This gluten free sweet and sour chicken uses standard pantry and grocery staples which is nice. Healthy swaps are arrowroot starch for flour, coconut sugar instead of white sugar, and a sugar-free variety of ketchup. Ketchup is surprisingly high in sugar.
- chicken breasts
- arrowroot starch
- eggs
- coconut oil
- onion
- bell pepper
For the healthy sweet and sour sauce:
- coconut sugar
- ketchup
- vinegar
- faux soy sauce or soy sauce
- garlic powder
This gluten free sweet and sour sauce has a perfect balance.
Step by Step
First, to make the batter for sweet and sour chicken toss the pieces of chicken in a bag with the arrowroot powder and shake well to coat each piece.
Next, set yourself up a breading station with a bowl of whisked eggs and a clean plate.
Dip the chicken pieces in the egg and transfer them to the clean plate. They get flash cooked in a hot skillet with coconut oil.
Did you know coconut oil is very stable at high heat? Coconut oil is excellent for this type of cooking.
After the pieces are cooked, transfer your chicken to a casserole dish.
Finally, layer with some chopped veggies, and cover with your sauce.
Some prefer their sweet and sour chicken with pineapple but this recipe is without pineapple. This is where you would toss in a few pieces before baking if pineapple is your thing.
This gets popped into the oven to get all delicious. 😉
In the meantime, you can make rice to serve alongside it.
TIP! Have you tried my fool-proof method for cooking brown rice? I swear by it.
If you want something really special to serve this chicken with you must try this pineapple rice recipe. It is the perfect side dish!
My homemade version is a hit with my picky fella and delivery to our house is few and far between. 😉
More gluten free chicken recipes:
- Chicken Bean Soup
- Coronation Chicken Salad
- Chicken Cauliflower Casserole
- Sopa de Lima – Mexican Chicken Lime Soup
- Easy Chicken Taco Salad
- Chicken Wild Rice Soup
**This recipe was originally posted on February 25, 2015, updated on April 1, 2020, and updated again on August 30, 2021, with recipe notes, writing, and photos.**
If you’ve tried my sweet sour chicken, please rate the recipe and let me know how it turned out by leaving me a comment below. I’m always interested in feedback!
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Healthy Sweet and Sour Chicken
Ingredients
- 2 chicken breasts *cut into bite sized pieces
- ½ cup arrowroot starch
- 2 eggs beaten
- 2-3 tbsp. coconut oil
- ½ medium onion , diced
- ½ bell pepper , diced
- ¾ cup coconut sugar
- ¼ cup ketchup
- ½ cup vinegar
- 1 tbsp. faux soy sauce or soy sauce or coconut aminos
- 1 tsp. garlic powder
Instructions
- Preheat your oven to 325 and lightly grease a 9×9 casserole dish.
- Add arrowroot starch to a large Ziploc bag and set aside. Season your chicken pieces with sea salt and pepper, then place in the Ziploc. Close the bag and shake it well to coat all of the pieces.
- Set up a breading station with the eggs beaten in a bowl and a clean plate.
- Cover each piece of chicken with the egg and place it on the clean plate. Once they are all coated, heat a skillet with 2 tbsp. of coconut oil over medium high.
- Place chicken pieces in a single layer in the hot skillet (do 2 batches if necessary and adding more coconut oil if needed) and cook on each side for 30 seconds, flipping only once. (it will finish cooking in the oven)
- Transfer the cooked chicken to the prepared casserole dish and cover it with the chopped peppers and onions.
- In a medium-sized bowl stir together the coconut sugar, ketchup, vinegar, faux soy sauce, and garlic powder.
- Pour half of the mixture over your chicken and veggies and pop into the oven for 40 minutes, stirring once at the halfway point.
- Transfer the remaining sauce to a small saucepan and keep it aside until the chicken is ready, then heat it up to pour over each bowl as desired.
- Serve over brown rice, which cooks perfectly while your chicken is in the oven.
Notes
- serve with brown rice – this method is my favorite!
- if you don’t have time to make the soy-free soy sauce coconut aminos is an excellent gluten free substitution.
Is there a substitute for “arrowroot” starch/powder. It’s another ingredient to buy that I
don’t use/haven’t used in the past.
I don’t use it often either and generally just but at the bulk store in small quantities. I haven’t tested these but cornstarch or tapioca starch should probably work just as good at a 1:1 ratio. Let me know if you try these! Thanks Lily. 🙂
Hi Sharon…I’m very inexperienced in the kitchen, but I just made this for my family today. It was so simple and they loved it!
Thanks so much for the great comment 🙂 That made my day. I am so happy you and the family enjoyed the dish!
I can’t have Chinese food from restaurants because of the nut issue. So I haven’t eaten Chinese food in foreverrrrr! Definitely going to try this sometime.
Damn those nuts! Takeout food is full of weird ingredients anyway, right? Just so good, though. 😉