In my college days, I loved eating Chinese food. Once I switched to a wellness lifestyle and realized what was in most restaurant foods, I stopped eating regular Chinese food, but wanted to recreate some of the same flavors with real food ingredients.
This quest led me to create my Parsnip Noodle Lo Mein and Cauliflower Fried Rice.
One of my favorite pre real food conversion dishes was sweet and sour chicken. Most restaurant versions are more like MSG and high fructose corn syrup chicken, so I wanted to make a version that was naturally sweet and sour.
Also, like most of my recipes, I wanted it to be simple to make and not create a lot of dishes. I also wanted it to be quick enough to make that I could make it on a jujutsu night without it taking forever.
This recipe was the result and it was enthusiastically approved by all five children, my husband, and the grandparents so it is sure to be a favorite in your home too. Instead of MSG and corn syrup, it uses honey, vinegar, coconut aminos, and citrus juices with natural herbs and spices.
I’ve included the basic spices I used, but feel free to add more or less to suit your preference.
This can be served over white rice or cauliflower rice. I’ve also found that it is good over zucchini noodles (made with a spiral slicer) or just roasted zucchini slices. I’ve also eaten it over wilted spinach to get some extra greens and it was delicious.
Sweet and Sour Chicken Recipe
Ingredients
- 1 lb chicken breasts or thighs
- 2 TBSP coconut oil or butter
- 1 tsp garlic powder
- 1 tsp sea salt or Himalayan salt
- 1 tsp pepper
- 1 tsp turmeric
- 1 tsp paprika
- 1 TBSP lemon juice
- 1 TBSP coconut aminos
- 1 TBSP apple cider vinegar
- 1 TBSP fish sauce
- 1 TBSP tomato paste
- ¼ cup orange spread
- ¼ cup honey or maple syrup
- 1 red or orange bell pepper diced (optional)
- 2 TBSP sesame seeds
- 2 TBSP green onions chopped
Instructions
- Cut the chicken into bite size pieces.
- Heat the butter or coconut oil in a large skillet over medium heat.
- Add the chicken, garlic powder, salt, pepper, turmeric, and paprika and cook for 5-7 minutes or until the chicken is mostly cooked.
- Add the lemon juice, coconut aminos, fish sauce, and apple cider vinegar and cook an additional 4-5 minutes until the chicken is cooked in the center.
- Meanwhile, dice the bell pepper if using.
- Drain off any extra liquid and return to heat.
- Add the tomato paste, orange spread, honey, and diced bell pepper and cook on medium/high for another 3-5 minutes or until the sauce starts to thicken and chicken starts to brown slightly.
- Remove from heat and serve over cauliflower rice or white rice and top with sesame seeds and green onions.
- Enjoy 🙂
Notes
Nutrition
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Ever recreated a recipe from a favorite restaurant? How did it go?
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Hi, I loved this recipe! I was out of tomato paste so I omitted it. I also didn’t have orange paste so I juiced 3 oranges and added it toward the end of cooking and let it reduce a bit. I loved having all the juices left in the dish. It was so good! I will be making this often. Thanks for the great recipe.
Im sorry if I’ve missed this somewhere , but how many people will this serve?
4-6 🙂
Hi. I am curious to know exactly what coconut aminos are? Never heard of them before or even seen them at any store.
I love those recipe on sweet and sour chicken, i will give it a try.
Hi! I love your blog. I just wanted to say, honey should not be heated past 95 degrees!
Please remember that very few people use MSG at home. None of my chinese/asian family and friends cook with MSG (even the hidden kinds like soup-stock powders).
I’d love to give this a try, and I have everything on the ingredient list, except the coconut aminos… What are those for? Flavor or health reasons? Also if they are for flavor, what type of flavor is it and could I use something else in it’s place? Thanks! And by the way, I’ve tried quite a few of your recipes and they have all been hits with my family!
I added a link to them. They are used in place of soy sauce to avoid the wheat and soy but soy sauce can be used.
I bought the meal planner and cannot get logged on. Tried changing password 4 times. Does anyone know how to contact wellness mama?
Email me at [email protected] and include the email address you used to sign up.
Just wondering if the recipes listed on your app will be updated when you post new recipes to your site?
Eventually, but not right away.
This looks great! I gotta try this. Just have a couple questions.
Have you ever had orange peel chicken? I’d love to remake that recipe too.
Why not brown rice?