Healthy Sweet and Sour Chicken Recipe
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Healthy Sweet and Sour Chicken is a must try. Gluten free and made without pineapple, it’s hearty and absolutely delicious!
This sweet and sour chicken is so delicious, easy to make, and a healthier version of one of your favorite takeout meals.
This sweet and sour chicken recipe is made in under an hour with only 10 ingredients. It’s lower in sugar, high protein and loaded with veggies! We also sautéd the chicken in a pan rather than battering and frying it to keep it lower in calories.
Tyler’s Tips for Sweet and Sour Chicken
- Precut your veggies: You can cut your vegetables the day or night before to save time when it comes to dinner. You can even mix together the sauce!
- Pound your chicken with a meat mallet to make it super tender before cutting it into cubes.
Ingredients
Substitutions
Olive Oil: You can substitute olive oil with avocado or melted butter.
Chicken: You can substitute chicken breasts with chopped chicken tenders or boneless skinless chicken thighs.
Red Onion: White onion or yellow onion will also work in this recipe, but we prefer red onion for the flavor that it gives.
Bell Peppers: Orange or yellow bell peppers would also work in this recipe. We don’t recommend using green bell peppers because they are not as sweet. You could add in other veggies like sliced carrots or mushrooms. Or check out our Healthy Chicken Stir Fry.
Tomato Paste: We strongly recommend using tomato paste in this recipe. You can substitute with ketchup but the sauce consistency will not be the same.
Coconut Aminos: You can sub coconut aminos with soy sauce or Bragg’s Liquid Aminos. If using Bragg’s Liquid Aminos, use HALF the amount – Bragg’s is much saltier.
Honey: You can use maple syrup in place of honey, but it will give your sauce a slightly different flavor.
Orange Juice: You can substitute regular bottled orange juice with freshly squeezed orange juice, but we don’t recommend it. Orange juice from the store is much better and will thicken quicker than fresh. Make sure your orange juice has no added sugar! We also tested this recipe with pineapple juice and it was delicious.
Apple Cider Vinegar: Apple cider vinegar is pretty essential to this dish. Rice vinegar may work, but we can’t be sure without trying it. the vinegar is what gives this dish its ‘sour’ flavor.
Garlic: Fresh garlic will definitely give the best flavor, but you can substitute with 1 teaspoon garlic powder or granulated garlic if necessary.
Pineapple Chunks: Many sweet and sour chicken recipes have chunks of pineapple added to them. We decided to skip that for this recipe, but you can absolutely add in 1 cup of chopped fresh pineapple to the pan when you add your veggies!
How to Make Healthy Sweet & Sour Chicken
- In a pan, cook the chicken breasts in olive oil for 10-15 minutes until browned on all edges. Set the chicken aside once it is done cooking.
- Add veggies to the same pan and saute for 3-5 minutes until softened. Don’t overcook! Set the veggies aside once they are done cooking.
- Mix the sauce ingredients. Add to the pan over high heat and bring to a boil, stirring constantly. Once boiling, reduce to a simmer for about 2 minutes.
- The sauce should naturally thicken and start to pull away from the pan when you scrape it with a spatula. Be careful not to burn it!
- Add cooked chicken and the veggies back to the pan. Stir to coat with sauce and heat over low until warmed through. Serve over rice or as is. Enjoy!
Serving Suggestions:
Our favorite way to serve this recipe is over a bowl of cooked rice. Cauliflower rice is also a good option to keep this paleo friendly /low carb. (I’d recommend this Cauliflower Fried Rice!)
If you want more veggies, try our Balsamic Mushrooms or Peach Salad with Goat Cheese for something easy to make on the side.
We like to garnish with sesame seeds and/or chopped green onions for flavor.
Storage
Fridge: I keep these healthy sweet and sour chicken leftovers in the refrigerator for up to 4 days.
Reheating: You can reheat this chicken in a pan or in the microwave until warmed through. If reheating in the pan, you may need to add a little bit of orange juice or water to the sauce if it gets too thick.
Freezing: We have not tried freezing this sweet and sour chicken, but I think it would freeze fine! It might be a little watery when thawed.
Other healthy dinner recipes:
Looking for other easy meals? Check out these 40+ Healthy Dinner Recipes or grab our free healthy 30 minute dinners cookbook.
Healthy Sweet and Sour Chicken
Ingredients
Chicken & Veggies:
- 1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
- 1½ lbs boneless skinless chicken breasts cut into ½ inch cubes
- 1 cup diced red onion
- 2 ½ cups chopped red bell peppers
- 2 cups broccoli florets
Sauce:
- 2 tablespoons tomato paste
- ¼ cup coconut aminos
- 1 tablespoon honey
- 2 tablespoons apple cider vinegar
- ½ cup orange juice
- 1 tablespoon minced garlic
Instructions
- In a large sauté pan, heat olive oil over medium high heat.
- Add the chicken to the pan. Cook the cubed chicken breast for 10 minutes or until golden brown. Make sure to stir the chicken on all sides so it evenly browns.
- While the chicken cooks, whisk together the tomato paste, coconut aminos, honey, apple cider vinegar, orange juice, and minced garlic to form a sauce.
- When chicken is finished cooking, remove the chicken from the pan and set aside in a bowl.
- Add onions, bell peppers, and broccoli to the pan. Stir together and sauté for 5 minutes until they begin to soften. Don’t overcook the vegetables, we don’t want them to be mushy!
- Once the vegetables have cooked, remove from the pan and set aside in the same bowl you reserved your chicken in.
- Add the sauce to the pan. Bring to a boil, stirring constantly. Once boiling, lower the heat to medium and let the sauce simmer for 5 minutes. The sauce should naturally thicken and start to pull away from the pan when you scrape it with a spatula. Once the sauce has thickened, add the cooked chicken + vegetables to the pan. Stir to coat with sauce. Cook over low heat for two minutes until warmed through. If the sauce is too thick, add a tablespoon of orange juice.
- Serve over rice or cauliflower rice and enjoy!
Video
Nutrition Facts
Important Note: This is not an authentic sweet & sour chicken recipe. My goal is always to share recipes that are a bit healthier and made with affordable, accessible ingredients so everyone can enjoy them regardless of their food allergies or dietary restrictions. If you are looking for an authentic sweet and sour chicken recipe – check out this recipe!
Delicious recipe! We eat a lot of your meals regularly! Thank you!
We tried this recipe last night and it was a HUGE hit in our house. Served it with coconut rice and everyone loved it. It was super delicious and very easy to make. Thanks for a great recipe!
This meal was healthy and absolutely delicious!! It satisfied everyone from picky adult, to the gluten free one, the one on the diet, and even the 6 year old. A win for the whole family!!
Rice isn’t whole30 approved.
Which is why it says multiple times throughout the post ‘Serve over rice, cauliflower rice or as is!’
Easy and simple to make! Definitely a keeper.
Could I sub chicken thighs for the breasts?
All of our recipes have a box where we list all the substitutions. It’s a green box so it’s easier to find in the post. This is written in it: You can substitute chicken breasts with chopped chicken tenders or boneless skinless chicken thighs.
As per usual, Liz knocked it out of the park with this recipe! It tastes AMAZING and will be on regular rotation for lunches/dinners! It’s filling, satisfies the Chinese itch, and is so easy make. Her easy step by step directions both on the blog post AND in the recipe card make this an easy to follow recipe that’s both delicious and filling.
I’m so glad you liked it, Ashley! Thank you so much!
Just found your website via Pinterest and loving it! We tried this recipe tonight and love the ingredients, but we couldn’t really get the suave to thicken up! Maybe we didn’t boil long enough on high heat? Any tips? Thanks!
Hi Lexi – Probably wasn’t boiling for long enough! It needs to be at a rolling boil for the sauce to thicken
This recipe is so good and so easy!
Thank you so much!!
This was really great! I love that I had all the ingredients on hand. Thanks for another delicious and clean recipe!
Thanks, Lindsay! Glad you liked them!
Nice, easy recipe as I come off of whole30!
So happy to hear you enjoyed it!
This recipe was super easy and delicious! Way better than takeout in my opinion. Two thumbs up from this picky family if 5!
I’m so happy to hear you and your family liked it, Dianna!
This recipe was so good ! I served over cauliflower rice . I have to be honest , when I read ketchup in the sauce I almost didn’t make it as just sounded strange but so glad I made it .
So happy to hear this, Liz! Thank you!!
This was really delicious and will definitely make it again! 5”thanks a lot for all the work you put into providing those recipes!
(Side note – i found i had to add a tad bit of water while cooking the broccoli and cover the pan to ensure they were cooked. I might pre cook them in the future.)
Thank you so much, Lili! so glad you liked them!
Cooked this up for a family dinner. It was a big hit and definitely a keeper! Thankful for great recipes like this that are clean!
So happy you and your family liked it, Meg! Thank you!