Gluten Free Chinese Orange CHICKEN Fried & Instant Pot Directions

Fried & Instant Pot Directions. For the Instant Pot chicken I add the thighs in whole. Yal'L if you don't have an Instant Pot you gotta get one! It was a bit intimidating at first. After burning my hand from the steam ONCE, and ONLY once, I watched a few YouTube videos and was off to the races! Now I LOVE this little one pot wonder!!!

Ingredients:

2 tablespoons arrowroot
1 teaspoon Hot Roasted Garlic spice or McCormick Garlic Pepper 
4 egg whites, beaten until frothy
1 pound chicken breasts or thighs, cut into bite sized pieces

ORANGE SAUCE:

2 teaspoons arrowroot or (corn starch if you tolerate corn ingredients)
1 cup orange juice
Zest of 1 orange
2 tablespoons gluten free soy sauce or coconut aminos

Just a dash of sesame oil. This can be overpowering so I use sparingly.

1 tablespoon honey
1 tablespoon rice vinegar
1 teaspoon fresh grated ginger
2 teaspoons Hot Roasted Garlic seasoning blend (I love Ava Janes Kitchen) or McCormick Garlic Pepper 
Grapeseed or Avocado oil, for cooking

DIRECTIONS:

Whisk the arrowroot, Hot Roasted Garlic, and egg whites in a large bowl. Add the chicken, toss to coat, and let stand for 10 minutes.

For the sauce, mix the arrowroot with 2 teaspoons cold water until smooth. Set aside.
Add the remaining ingredients to a small saucepan and bring to a boil. I did add 1 teaspoon of organic brown sugar but that's optional. Reduce to a simmer and simmer for 5 minutes. Add the arrowroot mixture, whisk and simmer for about a minute. Turn off heat.

To cook the chicken, add 2 inches of oil to a heavy, deep skillet. When hot, add the chicken and cook until golden brown, turning when necessary. Remove, drain on paper towels, and continue until all chicken is cooked.

Toss the chicken in the sauce and serve with rice or desired accompaniments.

For rice I add a few teaspoons of butter to pot, add some chopped garlic, teaspoon of turmeric. Add 1 cup rice and brown a few minutes. Add 2 cups of Pacific gfree chicken broth. Bring to boil, turn down and simmer 15 min.

Instant Pot Directions: (with this method I cooked the thighs whole)

1. Marinate Chicken: Place 2 lbs chicken thighs in a mixing bowl. Add ¼ tsp (1.6g) salt, honey, ½ tsp (1.5ml) sesame oil, and 2 tbsp (30ml) gluten free soy sauce and and 6g orange zest to the chicken. Mix well and marinate for at least 25 minutes.
2. Sauté Onions and Garlic: Heat up Instant Pot using Sauté More function. Wait until it says HOT (~8 mins). Drizzle the inner pot with 1 tbsp (15ml) grapeseed oil. Add onions & ginger, then sauté until soften (~2 mins). Add chopped garlic cloves, then sauté for another 30 seconds.
3. Deglaze Instant Pot: Pour in 1 tbsp Shaoxing wine (or dry sherry wine/water, I used Marsala Wine because that’s what I had), then completely deglaze the bottom of the pot.
4. Pressure Cook Orange Chicken: Add ½ cup (125ml) Pacific gfree chicken stock, ⅓ cup (90ml) orange juice, Mix well. Add marinated chicken in Instant Pot. Pressure Cook at High Pressure for 6 minutes + 10 minutes Natural Release.
5. Thicken & Season: Set aside the chicken. Bring the liquid mixture back to a boil using the Sauté button. Taste and season with salt if needed. Depending on your sweetness level, add roughly 2 tbsp (30g) honey to sweeten the orange sauce. Personally I didn’t add more sweetness. It was perfect for us! Mix 2.5 tbsp (22.5g) arrowroot with 3 tbsp (45ml) cold water in a small mixing bowl. Add the arrowroot mixture one third at a time to thicken the orange sauce until desired thickness.
6. Optional - Broil in Oven: In an oven tray, generously coat the chicken with the orange sauce. Place oven tray under the broiler for 5 – 7 minutes until the chicken skin is browned.   Or you could grill them on a propane grill to crisp them up.
7. Serve: Drizzle more yummy orange sauce on the chicken, then serve Instant Pot Orange Chicken with your favorite side dishes.  I made Turmeric  rice in my Instapot and served over. All I do is use one cup rice, one cup Pacific chicken stock, teaspoon of Turmeric, pinch of salt and cook on the Rice setting in my Instapot.  Perfect rice! 

 Enjoy!

Gluten Free Lady