Almost Paleo Spicy Orange Chicken

It seems like there are about a million ways out there to make Orange Chicken - some are healthy and some are not. Have you ever noticed how everyone has a favorite Chinese food place? It's the one, the only - but if you try theirs, you end up wondering what they were raving about. I think it's the same thing with dishes like this where there are a lot of variations out there. You have your favorite and the one everyone else swears by just doesn't stack up.

I have an orange chicken recipe that I really like. It uses orange marmalade, and since I'm trying to steer clear of processed foods right now I opted to try something different. I had to modify the original recipe, of course. What I took from it was using fresh squeezed orange juice in place of any kind of pre-made sauce, adding a bunch of seasonings and letting the sauce cook down. Le Sigh, the sauce wasn't reducing fast enough, the chicken was starting to get tough, and it was getting late - so I thickened it up with a little arrowroot powder. Voila! Dinner.

It's possible I made it a little too spicy, so it's possible I added a little more honey to counter the spice. If you don't like it spicy just leave out the red pepper flakes and you should be good to go. The original recipe called for chili sauce, and I didn't have any, so I used Frank's, and I'm still working on using up my bottle of Bragg's before I switch to coconut aminos, but aside from that the dish is paleo. For a non-paleo version you could serve it over brown rice.

Ingredients:
3-4 chicken breasts, cut into bite sized pieces
1-2 T. coconut oil
Juice from 2 oranges
1/4 cup liquid aminos
1/4 cup honey
1 tsp ginger
1 tsp onion powder
1 T. hot sauce
1/4 to 1/2 tsp red pepper flakes
10 dashes fish sauce (or to taste)
Optional: arrowroot powder and cold water
6-8 baby bella mushrooms, chopped

Directions:
Preheat coconut oil in a large pot. Add chicken and cook until starting to brown but not cooked through. Add remaining ingredients except mushrooms, stir well, reduce heat and simmer until sauce reduces to your liking. When chicken is cooked through, add mushrooms and continue cooking until they are soft (this won't take long).

If sauce doesn't reduce enough, combine a little arrowroot powder and cold water. Stir into sauce to thicken.

Serve over spaghetti squash, cauliflower rice or brown rice.