Living a real food lifestyle often means having to say no to the convenience of packaged foods, since the vast majority contain less than “real” ingredients. Of course, it gets even more challenging, when you’re living a grain-free real food lifestyle.
Thankfully, there’s nothing that gets me more jazzed about cooking than a good challenge. And that’s how this easy and delicious recipe for Soy-Free Teriyaki Chicken came about – my love for taking favorite comfort foods and transforming them into healthy grain-free versions that everyone can enjoy whether they’re GF or not.
The secret to creating a delicious soy-free teriyaki sauce is using coconut aminos, which taste remarkably similar to soy sauce. The coconut aminos combined with all-natural sweeteners and a flavorful array of seasonings results in a thick, slightly sweet and tangy sauce perfect for topping slow-cooked chicken and veggies.
And since this is a slow cooker recipe, it really couldn’t be an easier! There’s just one extra small step after the chicken and veggies are done cooking, and that’s thickening the teriyaki sauce on the stovetop by whisking in just a touch of arrowroot powder. Then, generously spoon your delicious homemade teriyaki sauce over the chicken and veggies for a classic meal your whole family will enjoy down to the last bite.
Ingredients
- 2.5 lbs. boneless, skinless chicken thighs (I use ButcherBox)
- 3-4 green onions, plus more for topping
- 1/2 cup all-fruit apricot preserves
- 1/3 cup coconut aminos (I use this in place of soy sauce)
- 2 tablespoons honey
- 1 tablespoon rice vinegar
- 2 cloves garlic, minced
- 3/4 tsp sea salt
- 1/2 tsp ground ginger
- 1/2 tsp red pepper flakes
- 2 tsp arrowroot powder (used to thicken sauce)
- 4 cups fresh broccoli florets
- 2 cups julienne carrots
- 2 cups snap peas
Instructions
- Arrange the 3-4 stalks of green onion (a.k.a. scallions) along the bottom of a 6-quart slow cooker. Place the chicken on top of the green onions.
- In a small bowl, whisk together all of the teriyaki sauce ingredients EXCEPT the arrowroot powder, until well combined. Carefully spoon the sauce over the chicken.
- Cover and cook on high for 4-5 hours or on low 6-7 hours. During the last 1.5 to 2 hours of cook time, add the veggies. Cover and continue cooking until veggies are al dente (cook time for the veggies may vary, especially if you're cooking on the low setting).
- Use a slotted spoon to remove the veggies and chicken; transfer to a serving platter. Discard the green onion stalks.
- To make the Teriyaki Sauce: Pour the remaining liquid in the slow cooker through a fine-mesh strainer into a large measuring cup or bowl. Place 1 1/4 cups of the liquid into a small saucepan, discard the remainder.
- In a small prep bowl, add the 2 teaspoons of arrowroot powder and 2 tablespoons of water, mixing to create a slurry. Add the arrowroot mixture to the saucepan and whisk well to combine.
- Heat the teriyaki sauce over medium heat, whisking frequently until sauce thickens. Re-season to taste with additional sea salt and ginger, if necessary. Transfer teriyaki sauce to a serving bowl.
- Spoon the teriyaki sauce over the chicken and veggies. Then, top with a sprinkling of sliced fresh green onions, if desired. Enjoy!
Notes
This teriyaki chicken and veggies dish is delicious all on it's own, or serve it over a bowl of grain-free Herb-Seasoned Cauliflower Rice, if desired.
My new cookbook is here! With more than 100 irresistible recipes, Everyday Grain-Free Baking teaches you how easy it is to create grain-free, dairy-free versions of all your family’s favorite baked goods.
From breads, biscuits and muffins to savory snacks and decadent treats, you’ll find step-by-step instructions, beautiful color photographs and helpful tips & tidbits to make all of your GF baking adventures a delicious success!
This sounds delicious!
Thank you! Enjoy!
🙂
im going to puree up a small can of mandarin oranges with no sugar n leave out the honey for we very low carbers here. maybe put in a few drops of stevia glycerite if i think the sauce needs it. awesome looking easy recipe!
Enjoy! Hope your substitutions work out nicely. 🙂
This looks so yummy! I can’t wait to try it. I also love the way I can cook the vegetables in the same pot toward the end of the cooking time. So convenient. I’m also having a yummy ball cooking my way through your delicious book Kelly. Thanks again for all you do for us.
Much love,
Allison
You are so welcome and thank you so much for all your support on sharing about my cookbook. As a Southern Girl at heart too! I really appreciate your sweet support! It’s a joy getting to know you! Thanks for always leaving such encouraging comments! Blessings to you! 🙂
This sounds yummy! We are going to try this! The ingredient you use to replace the soy sauce, where can I find it? And if I use soy sauce, is the amount the same? Thanks for sharing!
Hi, Leanna. You can find coconut aminos at most whole food type stores or via online. If you click on the ingredient in the recipe listing, you’ll see the brand I use. But if you aren’t avoiding soy, then yes, you can use an equal amount of soy sauce for the recipe. 🙂
I made this recipe as written and it was delicious, Kelly! I don’t usually cook Asian style food at home, so this was a great addition to liven up our dinner menus.
Meant to say *thank you!*
You are so welcome. Glad you enjoyed this. It’s always fun to have a new recipe in the meal planning rotation! 🙂 Enjoy!
Made this for supper tonight. MMMMM! I love it. Husband loves it! Didn’t have coconut aminos, used liquid aminos, Didn’t have enough apricot jam, made up the difference with peach jam. Didn’t have snow peas, used mushrooms. Tripled the sauce. Didn’t have enough time to cook in slow cooker, cooked in a pottery pot in the oven at 350* …took roughly 2 hours.
Scrumptious Kelly! Thank you. 🙂
I love that you are not inhibited but adventurously took this recipe and made it work with what you have on hand. So glad you all enjoyed it and I so appreciate you taking the time to leave a kind note. 🙂 And I’m also happy that you can see my love for the Lord here and celebrate His goodness with me. It’s always a delight to meet another lover of Christ. Blessings to you, Kelly
Meant to add, I appreciate your unabashed witness for Christ and your heart to share your vision with all of us! …and I love those big smiles on your son’s and husband’s’ faces.
Kelly, this was delicious. I made it with chicken thighs but was wondering if I could follow the same recipe for a whole chicken? Would I need to make any changes? Is a rub needed? Thank you!
Hi, Jessica. I’m so glad you enjoyed this recipe. To answer your questions, I don’t know that I’d recommend using this recipe for a whole chicken. Instead, I would recommend using a combination of bone-in chicken of your choice (such as drumsticks, thighs or breasts) with the skin removed, as the skin will change the consistency of the sauce due to all of the added fat. If you use bone-in, skinless chicken you will most likely need to increase the cook time, depending on the cut of meat. I hope this helps. 🙂 Thank you!
I am so happy I found your Facebook! We are a peanut, soy and tree nut free home and it is so hard to find great recipes so your website is a blessing. Keep up the good work.
Hi, Darlene. Welcome to The Nourishing Home. I’m so happy you’re here! I do want to let you know that although my recipes are always gluten-free, soy-free and peanut-free, I do have many almond flour based baked good recipes I share since we’re not tree-nut free. But I do have many non-nut based baked good recipes too. So I do hope you’ll stick around and join us as a subscriber here for my free whole food meal plans: http://eepurl.com/LFIpf Thank you for taking the time to leave a kind note! Blessings, Kelly 🙂
I made this tonight, exactly as the recipe said, and it was delicious! However, I followed the directions to add the vegetables in the last 45 minutes, but I kept my crock pot in low. The veggies still weren’t cooked through after an hour. So I finished them by boiling the dish in a saucepan on the stove. It was still very yummy!
Hi, Kathryn. Thank you so much for taking the time to leave me a kind note. I just realized from your note that I didn’t do a good job at all explaining the timing for the veggies. It does depend on the cook temperature. Did you cook on the low setting or the high setting? 🙂
I used the high setting, and cooked the chicken for four hours then added the veggies at 5pm (still on high). By 6, the veggies were not done. So maybe add the veggies sooner?
Yes, I apologize for the instructions not being so hot – pun intended. LOL! I rewrote then to be clearer and yes, I’ve changed it to read 1.5-2 hrs. Thanks again for point this out. I always appreciate reader-friends helping me catch boo-boos! 🙂
Hi Kelly,
I love this recipe. I’m making it today along with cauliflower rice. 🙂 however, I’m prompted to write you for a different reason. As I scrolled down to view the recipe, an ad from planned parenthood popped up! I’ve been subscribing to your blog for years and know you to hold Christian values, so I wasn’t sure you were aware that they are advertising on your blog. If you are aware, may I respectfully ask you not to allow them to advertise on your blog please? Thanks!
Thank you so much, Kristin, for letting me know about the ad. I will share this with the ad network that handles the ads on my site. Just to clarify, how the ads work is that they are customized to each viewer based on your browser history so that the network can target ads that fit your browsing and shopping habits. So, of course, I may see a completely different ad when I visit my site than you do.
Of course, this isn’t super accurate in that I will sometimes see ads on my site that have nothing to do with my browsing history, as is the case in what happened to you with the PP ad.
So please know, I did not give permission directly for ads like this to be on my site. I do have specific filters I’ve asked for to be in place, but sometimes they don’t catch everything. Like this unfortunate ad and another one I’ve seen is McDonald’s ads that sometimes slip in too that I have to ask to have taken out of the mix.
Please know, I appreciate reader-friends like you letting me know when you see an inappropriate ad on my site because I can then communicate that to AdThrive (the network that handles advertising for many bloggers). I had no idea this organization even placed ads. So thank you again for taking the time to leave me a kind note of concern and also for your kind comments about this recipe! Many blessings to you, Kelly 🙂
Hi, Kristin. I wanted to follow up with you and thank you again for taking the time to leave a note about the PP ad. Apparently my ad network (AdThrive) was shocked to hear that this appeared as they do not allow any of these types of ads into their network. They did say however that some ad groupings will change the category of their ads so that they can “sneak” them in. It seems this is the case. They have alerted their ad groups again with their policies. AdThrive did ask that if you or any other reader sees an ad by PP or any other such organization to please take a screen shot of the ad and email it to me. They can then take specific action to know how these ads are slipping in. Also, you should clear your browser history and cache, that will help “reboot” so you don’t see ads like this on other pages hopefully. Thanks again for taking the time to leave a kind note! With blessings, Kelly
Hi Kelly, Thanks for following up. And thanks for investigating this. I’ll email you a few screen shots of the ad for AdThrive. And then I’ll clear my history and cache 🙂 I’m guessing it pops up because I’m pregnant and often visit pages about pregnancy.
Thanks again for everything!
Blessings, Kristin
Thank you so much for taking those screen shots. Please do email them to me at [email protected] that will be SO helpful. My gratitude again for you bringing this to my attention (and AdThrive’s) that these are sneaking through the filters. Congratulations on your pregnancy. May God bless you with a healthy delivery and little one! Thanks again! 🙂 Kelly