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Two of the hallmarks of any classic teriyaki chicken recipe: sugar and soy sauce.
Just typing that made me feel like I just had a sugar crash, that’s how sensitive I am to sugar!
If you are looking for a clean eating version of teriyaki chicken that would omit those two ingredients (and omit flour for thickening the sauce), then this is the recipe for you!
You would never know I made substitutions to make this recipe, making this teriyaki chicken Paleo and gluten-free! In lieu of the traditional sugar and soy sauce that you would find in a teriyaki chicken recipe, I substituted honey and coconut aminos.
If you have never had coconut aminos before, it tastes just like soy sauce. It’s delicious!
I recommend serving this teriyaki chicken over rice, or over riced steamed cauliflower as I did in the images in this recipe.
Teriyaki Chicken
Ingredients
- Olive oil optional, for greasing the pan
- 6 boneless skinless chicken thighs
- 1 Tbsp arrowroot powder
- 1 Tbsp cold water
- 1/4 cup honey
- 1/4 cup rice vinegar
- 1/2 cup coconut aminos
- 2 to 3 cloves garlic minced
- 1/4 tsp ground black pepper
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 415 degrees. F.
- Grease a 9" X 11" baking dish with a small amount olive oil or first line the pan with aluminum foil before greasing, to prevent sticking.
- Lay chicken thighs in pan, thick side of the muscle laying face down.
- In a small saucepan, add arrowroot powder, water, honey, rice vinegar, coconut aminos, garlic, and ground black pepper. Whisk to combine.
- Heat saucepan over medium heat. Continue to stir until mixture thickens and bubbles. You may want to reduce the heat if needed.
- Pour about half of the mixture over the chicken thighs, reserving the rest of the sauce in the pan for later. Use a brush to thoroughly coat the chicken thighs with the sauce.
- Place in oven for 20 minutes. Remove chicken from over, turn over each thigh. Pour the remaining sauce over the thighs and brush to coat. Place back into oven for another 20 minutes or until cooked through.
- Once chicken is cooked through, move thighs to a plate. (If you lined the pan with foil, carefully remove it, keeping the sauce in the pan.)
- Using a fat separator, skim the fat off the sauce. Or, if you do not have a fat separator, tilt the pan and carefully spoon the fat off the sauce. If you would like your sauce to be thicker, whisk in more arrowroot powder, 1/2 tsp at a time, until it reaches your desired consistency. Make sure you give time between adding arrowroot so you can give it a chance to thicken before adding more.
- Place chicken back into the pan. Use two forks to shred the chicken into bite-sized pieces.
- Serve over rice or riced steamed cauliflower.
Have you tried Tamari? I don’t have diet restrictions but often it’s gluten free and I use it instead of soy in all recipes because it tastes SO much better! Just wondered if this might work in the recipe or any time you need a gluten-free soy sauce sub in a recipe. It sounds DELICIOUS!!