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Healthy Sheet Pan Sweet and Sour Chicken is soy free, baked to perfection on a sheet pan in 20-minutes. A quick and easy meal that’s a healthier version of take-out! Pair with brown or cauliflower rice for a complete meal.
I am a complete sucker for any kind of Asian take-out. For years, I traveled weekly as a consultant and Asian was on most nights my go to dinner on the road. Vietnamese, Thai, Japanese were among my favorites places to grab take-out.
Pei Wei too! I even worked in China for awhile, but none of the food there was nothing like the Chinese food we have here. Made with fresh ingredients (some a little too fresh) and much healthier!
For the most part, healthy eating on the road was no big deal as long as I stuck to healthier options on the menu. But I always noticed that the Asian restaurants I went to used a lot more veggies and fresh ingredients than most American style restaurants. I grew a real love for Asian cuisine because of that.
When I stopped traveling for work, I found myself craving those Asian flavors. The problem? There wasn’t any healthy Asian restaurants near where I live so no take-out for me! Then one day the guy noticed a bunch of pineapple taking up valuable real estate in my freezer (seriously it’s so small).
He jokingly said “you should make sweet and sour chicken.” Challenge accepted! But this isn’t just any sweet & sour chicken. This is a lightened up version that tastes just like the original, but healthier!
Sheet Pan Sweet & Sour Chicken
For the sauce, I used in coconut sugar to lighten the sugar content and apple cider vinegar and coconut aminos instead of soy sauce. Don’t worry! You won’t taste the apple cider vinegar at all.
It’s the mediator between the tangy soy and sweet sugar and you can use gluten free soy sauce, but I do love coconut aminos to keep recipes anti-inflammatory. Flavor balance perfection!
What’s better, this healthy sweet and sour chicken recipe is made on a single sheet pan. Bake for 20 minutes while you whip up the sauce then drizzle it over the sheet pan when it comes out of the oven to soak up all those sweet, tangy, juicy flavors.
Easy sweet and sour chicken! Easy to make, but even easier to clean up and devour!
Sheet Pan Sweet and Sour Chicken
Ingredients
For the Sheet Pan:
- 1 lb chicken breasts, diced
- 1/2 cup sliced white onion
- 1 green bell pepper, sliced
- 1 red bell pepper, sliced
- 1 yellow bell pepper, sliced
- 1/2 cup pineapple, fresh or thawed
- 1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
- 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
- 1/2 teaspoon ginger
- Salt and pepper to taste
For the Sauce:
- 1/8 cup coconut sugar, or sugar of choice
- 1 1/2 tablespoons coconut aminos, or low sodium soy sauce
- 2 tablespoons rice wine vinegar
- 1 tablespoon tapioca flour, or cornstarch
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 375 F. Prepare a baking sheet with parchment paper.
- Spread the sliced bell peppers and onions evenly across the sheet pan then add the diced chicken and pineaple throughout.
- Spray the extra virgin olive oil over the veggies and chicken. Then sprinkle the seasonings, salt and pepper.
- Bake at 375 F for 20-25 minutes until chicken is cooked through.
- While the recipe bakes, add the ingredients for the sauce to a small saucepan and bring to a boil while whisking together the ingredients. Once boiling reduce temperature to low then simmer until the sheet pan is done.
- Remove the sheet pan from the oven and immediately drizzle with the sauce. Garnish with sliced green onions and serve over brown rice or cauliflower rice.
Notes
- Nutrition data does not include brown or cauliflower rice.
- My Amazon shop has more products similar to those used for this recipe and that I recommend to my nutrition clients.
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
I notice you mentioned vinegar in the post, but I don’t see it in the ingredients, unless I’m missing it? Thanks!
It’s there. Thanks for catching that!
Oh, I see it now! I thought it would be in the sauce 😉 Thanks!
love that you lightened up the sugar. I always thinks asian takeout is too sweet, but i do love it! great idea for one pan!
I don’t understand why there’s so much sugar in everything? Food is naturally sweet!
Is the sauce missing an ingredient? It taste like vinegar
No, the sauce is not missing. The section in the recipe card that says “SAUCE” has all the ingredients underneath it. It should taste like coconut aminos. If it tastes like vinegar, then you may have missed adding the coconut aminos. You can always reduce the vinegar by 1 tablespoon or add more coconut aminos as some people are sensitive to vinegar flavor.
Yummo, what a good looking meal! Especially for busy weeknights.
Exactly!
He sounds so much like Vegas, it’s scary! I love this idea though. And my little Asain junkie will too!
That is scary!
Seriously, this is perfect for meal prep this week!!! I can’t wait to try this 🙂
Thanks! I hope you like it.
Yay! Sheet Pan dinners for the WIN! I love the easy clean-up most! 🙂
Me too! We’re so on the same page.
This looks so good! I don’t eet chicken, but could easily switch it out with tofu. Also, your dishes are always to awesome for photographs. Love the color contrasts you create!
Thank you! Definitely easy to swap the protein!
#tweeting #youKNOWIlovethis #riiiiiightupmyalley
Aww… thanks friend!