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Easy 5-Ingredient Sweet Chicken {Gluten-free}


 The original recipe for sweet chicken came from a friend and called for adding some sesame seeds and using this sauce over chicken wings as a party food. 

I decided to use chicken tenders or chicken breasts to make this an easy main dish for a healthy and hearty dinner served over brown rice or Basmati rice. I’ve been making it this way for 15 years now, so this is definitely a tried and true favorite!

One thing I love is that you can serve it as whole breasts, tenders, or you can cut the chicken up after baking into bite-sized pieces and spoon additional sauce from the pan over the pieces. So good!

Doesn’t that look so good dished up and ready to dig in? For those that like green onions, you can sprinkle some chopped green onions on top when serving.

Another idea would be to sprinkle sesame seeds on top if you’d like.


Notes on Ingredients for this gluten-free sweet chicken: (With only 5 ingredients, there isn’t much to say!)

  • Chicken: I prefer using boneless, skinless chicken tenders most of the time, but used to always use boneless, skinless chicken breasts. You can also use chicken thighs.
  • Soy sauce: Make sure you use a wheat-free soy sauce in this recipe. I always use San-J Tamari Gluten Free Soy Sauce which is certified gluten-free and readily available at my local supermarkets. You can also buy online at Amazon: regular and organic gluten-free soy sauce. You will not notice any difference in taste! 
  • Ketchup: I personally haven’t found a single ketchup brand in the US that has wheat in it. However, some are manufactured in shared facilities and you may want to inquire regarding their manufacturing process. I found this helpful post about gluten-free ketchup. I personally always use Heinz.
  • Garlic: I recommend fresh minced garlic, but you can also use minced garlic you buy in a jar.

This is such an easy dinner to prepare since there are only 5 ingredients! I’ve got some shortcut tips to make it easy to clean-up too!

Line the 9×13 pan with aluminum foil prior to adding the chicken and sauce.  This way, when you are done with dinner and scoop out the leftovers, clean-up is as easy as throwing away the foil! Otherwise, you’ll be scrubbing this sticky sweet sauce off of your pan for a while!

Make your sauce in a 4-cup measuring cup if you have one. This way you can measure the ingredients as you add them instead of dirtying a bunch of measuring cups, and also you can just whisk right in this size measuring cup just fine. I have this Pyrex glass 4-cup measuring cup.

Pan of gluten-free Sweet Chicken

If you need to take a meal to someone that just had a baby – this is a great one! It is mild, not spicy at all, and I haven’t met someone yet that hasn’t liked the flavor!


Several times now, I’ve made a pan of this and a pan of my gluten-free cornbread, and threw together a fruit salad to deliver to a new mom.

This is also a fabulous meal to make ahead and freeze (after cooking) into lunch-sized portions to take for work/school lunches.  I’ve done this many times for my hubby and he appreciates just pulling one lunch container out of the freezer in the morning and then microwaving at work at lunchtime.

YIELD: 9 SERVINGS

Gluten-free Sweet Chicken

Easy Gluten-free Sweet Chicken served over rice
4.5 Stars (277 Reviews)

This sweet chicken is an easy gluten-free chicken dinner that's easy to prepare and easy to clean up. I serve over baked brown rice, with a side of green beans and fresh baked gluten-free biscuits or cornbread.

PREP TIME10 minutes
COOK TIME25 minutes
TOTAL TIME35 minutes

Ingredients

  • 3 lbs. chicken breasts or chicken tenders
  • 1 cup honey
  • 1/2 cup ketchup*
  • 1/2 cup gluten-free soy sauce
  • 2 cloves garlic, minced

Instructions

Line 9x13 baking pan (I use glass) with aluminum foil for easy clean-up.

Lay thawed chicken breasts or chicken tenders in pan.

In a 4-cup measuring cup or a medium sized bowl, whisk together all other ingredients. Pour over chicken in pan.

Bake at 375° for 45 minutes (breasts) or 25-30 minutes (tenders). Cooking time will vary depending on size of chicken pieces, so make sure you keep checking on it.

Serve with rice.

Notes

While I've never come across a ketchup that contains gluten here in the US, please always double-check. See blog post for more information.





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