Make a tasty dinner tonight with this Air Fryer Orange Chicken, easy to make gluten-free too!
If you enjoyed this Air Fryer Honey Garlic Chicken then you will love this Air Fryer Orange Chicken too. This recipe uses the same concept will a few additions to the sauce to give it a zesty orange flavor.
Tips for Making Air Fryer Orange Chicken:
If you are making this recipe in an Air Fryer, the chicken will be made in the air fryer while the sauce is made on the stovetop in a small saucepan.
If you are using a Ninja Foodi Multi-Cooker, the chicken can be made using the Air Crisp function and once the chicken is completely cooked the sauce can be made in the pot of the Ninja Foodi using the saute function.
Either way, it’ll turn out perfectly!
The first thing you want to do is to cube the chicken or cut into chunks and then coat it with cornstarch. At this point, just add enough to nicely coat the chicken.
This chicken takes about 20 minutes to cook in the air fryer until the internal temperature reaches at least 165*F. This cooking time though will vary as all air fryers put off a different amount of heat.
How do you make this recipe gluten-free?
The only swap needed to make this recipe gluten-free is to use gluten-free soy sauce. This can be found at your local grocery store or on Amazon.
If you want to lower the sodium you can substitute the soy sauce for coconut aminos which is also gluten-free.
The remaining ingredients are naturally gluten-free, but as always be sure to chicken all ingredients first.
This Air Fryer Orange Chicken can be served over rice or noodles if you prefer, cauliflower rice is a great low-carb option too.
Enjoy!
Air Fryer Orange Chicken
Ingredients
Chicken
- 6 Boneless Skinless Chicken Thighs
- Cornstarch or Potato Starch
- Grapeseed Oil Spray
Sauce
- 1/2 Cup Gluten Free or Regular Soy Sauce
- 1/4 Cup Water
- 2 Tbsp Rice Wine Vinegar
- 2 Tbsp Brown Sugar
- 1/4 Cup Granulated Sugar
- 2 Tbsp Orange Juice
- 1/4 Cup Lemon Juice
- 1 Clove Garlic Crushed
- 1 Tsp Ground Ginger
- 1/2 Tbsp Cornstarch
- Green Onions Optional
- Green Beans Optional
- Cooked Rice Optional
Instructions
- Cut the chicken into cubed chunks and toss it into a bowl with cornstarch or potato starch. Add just enough to coat the chicken.
- Coat the basket of the air fryer with grapeseed oil spray, add the chicken into the basket of the air fryer.
- Coat chicken with the grapeseed oil spray.
- Cook chicken in the air fryer at 390*F for 25 minutes or until the internal temperature reaches at least 165*F. Be sure to mix up the chicken about halfway through the cooking time.
- While the chicken is cooking use a small saucepan to prepare the sauce. If you are using a Ninja Foodi, you can wait until the chicken is done and prepare the sauce in the pot of the Ninja Foodi using the saute function.
- In the saucepan, combine the soy sauce, water, rice wine vinegar, brown sugar, granulated sugar, orange juice, lemon juice, garlic, and ginger.
- Let this come up to a low boil.
- Once boiling, lower heat and whisk in the cornstarch until thickened.
- Remove from heat and let sit for about 5 minutes.
- Once the chicken is done, place it in a bowl and combine it with the sauce, mixing and coating the chicken well.
- Serve over rice with sliced green onions or with green beans of your choice.
Nutrition
Very yummy recipe but soo sour! I think it’s supposed to be 1/4 cup orange juice and 2 TBSP lemon juice…not the other way around!
Nope, not flipped, that’s how it’s supposed to be but we’ve never had an issue with it being sour. This recipe is adapted from this one – https://www.allrecipes.com/recipe/61024/asian-orange-chicken/ for the air fryer. It could possibly be due to whichever brand of orange juice was used? If the sauce was too sour though for taste though, go down on the lemon juice as well. Let me know if you have any other questions.
The sauce never thickened. I doubled the cornstarch and it still did not thicken. What should I do next time?’
Was it fully boiling when you whisk it in? Did you try removing it from the heat? It should quickly thicken especially with double. So I’m stumped too. 🙂