30 short minutes, my friends, and you’ll be eating the keto orange chicken of your takeout dreams!
I love low carb chicken recipes that taste truly breaded, and these scrumptious bites of chicken soak up the zesty, ooey, gooey sauce in a way that puts other low carb recipes to shame.
Served over some cauliflower rice – perfection!
This is one of the best keto Chinese food recipes and it’ll be on your weekly list of low carb dinners for the foreseeable future, so, stock up on soy sauce. Let’s dive in!!
Looking for more keto dinners? Check out my chicken curry, egg roll in a bowl, or my keto ramen.
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What I Love About This Low Carb Orange Chicken Recipe
This recipe is so insanely easy but tastes like a million bucks! Plus,
- Inexpensive ingredients
- Ready in half an hour!
- Takeout taste, without the fast-food cost or carbs!
Keto Orange Chicken Recipe Notes
Ready to whip up some keto orange chicken?
This recipe uses simple ingredients, simple tools, and only a half-hour of your time. Here are a few notes to keep you on the straight path!
Ingredient Notes
This low carb orange chicken recipe uses a few ingredients that may be new to you, but don’t let that stop you! You’ll find this recipe is very quick and easy!
Chicken thighs – I use chicken thighs in this dish because they’re so super flavorful and tender. If you need to, sub out chicken breast or tenders – this dish is flexible.
Pork Rinds – Have you used these crispy pork skins? Once an odd food many people turned their nose up at, pork rinds are a new keto star, perfect for a low carb snack or as a breading in all sorts of recipes!
You’ll never go back to bread crumbs! You do need quite a few for this recipe (9 cups whole!) but no worries, they’re inexpensive.
Soy Sauce – You’ll need this salty sauce to give much of the necessary flavor in our sauce. Gluten-free? Use tamari or coconut aminos instead!
Erythritol – Orange chicken sauce is sweet, so we’ll use this zero carb keto sweetener to achieve that. I use the regular granulated version in this recipe, but you could use the golden brown version as well.
Orange extract – we’re using extract to give a strong orange flavor to our sauce without all of the carbs that come from orange juice. Find it in the baking aisle at the grocery store.
Tools to Make
This recipe is great for any chef – beginner to advanced. These are all basic tools and have easy subs! You’re already winning!
- Rimmed baking sheet – You won’t have a ton of liquid from the chicken but, just in case, I’d use a rimmed baking sheet. If you don’t have one, a regular cookie sheet would probably be ok, or even a casserole dish in a pinch.
- Saucepan – Literally any size, guys, although, a medium pan would be best! Just get a heavy bottom pan to let your sauce ingredients get nice and… well, saucy!
- Rolling pin – even this is flexible! You just need something to smash your pork rinds into “crumbs” for your breading. Other crushing options include: a cocktail shaker, bottom of a pan, wine bottle, or a (very) clean shoe.
Storing Tips
I simply cannot imagine leftovers of this, I really can’t.
But, if that SOMEHOW occurs, I have a few tips. My strongest recommendation would be to keep the chicken and sauce separate until serving if you think you’ll have leftovers.
Reheat in the oven on a parchment paper-lined tray.
Can You Freeze This?
Yes, you can! Again, I’d store the chicken and sauce separately, if possible, and then reheat individually and combine.
Serving Recommendations
This low carb orange chicken simply begs to be served over rice! To keep carbs low, use a low carb rice like cauliflower rice, broccoli rice, or cauliflower fried rice. They are wonderful side dishes for this Asian dish, and soak up the sauce to perfection!
A great app for this meal? Keto egg rolls!
Recipe Variations
Looking to switch things up a bit? Here are a few ways to accommodate your ingredients, taste buds, or cooking preferences:
- Not feeling the pork rinds? Check out my low carb popcorn chicken recipe, and use that cooking method and breading to prep your chicken while you make the sauce. The popcorn chicken recipes if for deep-fried low carb fried chicken.
- Skip the coating altogether and turn this into a low carb chicken stir fry tossed in a sweet sauce. You can also try the sauce for my keto beef and broccoli for another stir fry variation.
- Make the sauce spicy by adding some sriracha or your favorite dried chiles.
- Serve this chicken over salad, like an orange chicken Chinese chicken salad, or add more veggies for a Thai chicken salad!
- Swap the orange flavor. Can’t find orange extract? Or would you prefer the flavor of other keto fruits? You do you! This sauce works wonderfully with lemon extract instead, ala lemon chicken marinade
More Keto Chicken Recipes
You can never have enough chicken recipes… here are a few more of our family faves:
- Asian Chicken Marinade
- Chicken Curry Soup
- Avocado Chicken Salad
- Curry Chicken Salad
- Buffalo Chicken Salad
Keto Orange Chicken
Print Recipe Pin RecipeIngredients
Chicken:
- 2 Pounds Chicken Thighs boneless skinless. Cut into small pieces
- 3 Cups Pork Rinds crushed (see first instruction for crushing. About 3 cups of whole pork rinds = 1 cup of crushed)
- 3 Eggs whisked
Sauce:
- 1 Tablespoon Mild Tasting Oil (see notes below)
- 1 1/2 Tablespoons Ginger minced
- 2 Clove Garlic minced
- 1/2 Teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
- 1 Teaspoon Xanthan Gum
- 2 Tablespoon Rice Wine
- 1 Teaspoon Sesame Oil
- 3 Tablespoons Soy Sauce
- 1 Cup Swerve or Lakanto (see sweetener notes below)
- 10 Tablespoons White Vinegar
- 1 Orange zested
- 1 Teaspoon Orange Extract
Instructions
Chicken:
- Preheat oven to 400 F and prepare a rimmed baking sheet.
- Place pork rinds in a large resealable bag and seal. Hit the bag with a rolling pin until the pork rinds are the size of small breadcrumbs.
- Add pork rinds (3 cups) to a large shallow bowl. In a second large shallow bowl, add the whisked eggs (3).
- Dip each piece of the chicken (2 Pounds) in the egg, then in the pork rinds. Place on the prepared baking sheet. Continue until you've done this for all the chicken.
- Bake in preheated oven for 20 - 25 minutes (internal temp of chicken should reach 165 F, test on the largest piece.). While chicken is baking, make the sauce...
Sauce:
- In a medium saucepan, combine vegetable oil (1 tablespoon), minced ginger (1 1/2 tablespoon), minced garlic (3 cloves), and red pepper flakes (1/2 teaspoon) over medium heat. Cook until fragrant, about 1-2 minutes.
- Add remaining sauce ingredients (except orange extract), and bring sauce to a boil. Cook until the sauce has thickened (coats the back of a spoon) and has reduced by about 1/3.
- Remove from heat and stir in the orange extract.
- Taste and adjust the sauce to your liking.
Assembly:
- Once the chicken is done, pour the sauce over the chicken. (Only coat what you'll be eating right away to keep the rest of the chicken crispy).
- Serve over cauliflower rice, and enjoy!
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Lindsey's Tips
- Lakanto, Swerve, or Erythritol. I stick to Lakanto and Swerve which are a 1:1 swap with traditional sugar. If using a different brand of Erythritol, keep in mind it's 70% as sweet as sugar, so you may need to add more to taste.
- Mild Tasting Oil. You want an oil with a high smoke point and mild flavor -- think avocado, vegetable, safflower, sunflower, peanut. Skip EVOO, coconut, or sesame oil.
- Xanthan Gum is necessary for binding the ingredients of this recipe together, you CAN'T SKIP OR SUB!
- Nutritional information is based on 1 serving, if you divide this recipe into 4 servings:
