Healthy Homemade General Tso Chicken in the Air Fryer

This Homemade General Tso Chicken recipe is a delicious way to have your favorite Chinese American dish right at home that’s super simple and very easy to recreate.

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I love making homemade general tso sauce, or other flavorful sauce mixtures such as sweet and sour, teriyaki, or others that you crave and love from your favorite Chinese restaurants, and when I say its so easy to make at home, it truly is! Not only easier, but WAY healthier too!

This general tso’s chicken recipe tastes so much like a restaurant version, it will for sure be added to your list of favorite recipes. My entire family devours this dish, and as much as I love leftovers, we never have any when I make this dish. LOL. 

Cooking this recipe in the air fryer is going to give you that golden brown, juicy chicken ready to be coated in the mouth watering sticky sauce you’re going to whip together…..no need to deep fry anything to get that delicious taste of your favorite Chinese food dish.

Your taste buds will be thanking you. 

If you prefer dark meat, feel free to use boneless chicken thighs!

Either option will work with the savory sauce in this homemade general tso chicken recipe. Just be sure to notate the change in nutritional information based on the ingredients you choose to use. 

Why you’ll love this General Tso’s Chicken recipe:

• Less than 30 minutes to make
• You get your Chinese takeout fix, but in a healthier version
• Less than 10g of carbs per serving!

Ingredients needed to make healthy general tso’s chicken:

• Chicken Breast – cubed. If you prefer to do this ahead of time, you can do so and put the cubed chicken in an airtight ziplock bag to store in the refrigerator until ready to use. If you need to do this more than 2 days in advance, freeze your cubed chicken in a freezer friendly bag
• Corn starch
• Salt and pepper to taste
• Ketchup – I always opt for sugar free ketchup 
• Soy Sauce – choose liquid aminos for a light soy sauce option
• Light Brown Sugar
• Ginger Paste – if you’re like me, you always forget where this is at the grocery store!! Hint – its in the produce section.
• Minced Garlic or Fresh Garlic Cloves
• Sesame seeds and green onions for garnishes
• Optional: Red Pepper or Chili Flakes for a spicy sauce

How to make Homemade General Tso Chicken, a Chinese-American classic:

Step 1:

Preheat air fryer to 400 degrees

Step 2:

In a large bowl toss cubed chicken, cornstarch, salt and pepper together and mix well until chicken is coated evenly

step 3:

After the air fryer has preheated, spray the air fryer basket or tray with a non-stick cooking spray and arrange the chicken spaced out evenly

step 4:

Cook the chicken for 5 minutes, flip, and cook for an additional 5 minutes

step 5:

While the chicken is cooking, gather all sauce ingredients and dump into a large nonstick skillet. Whisk until all ingredients are blended together

step 6:

Turn to high heat and bring sauce to a boil. Turn to simmer and let the sauce thicken while the chicken finishes cooking, this will take about 2-3 minutes

step 7:

Pour the sauce onto the cooked crispy chicken pieces until coated. To increase the heat level in this dish, add red pepper flakes or chili flakes that suit your preference. Top with sesame seeds and scallions and serve over rice with your favorite vegetable!

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A few add-on options to try with this general tso chicken recipe:

• Broccoli (steamed or roasted)
• Chopped peppers and onions (bite sized)
• Fresh pineapple – throw in a skillet to brown if you’d like
• Stir fry veggie mixture; you can buy a fresh mixture in produce section, or opt for a small frozen bag

There are so many more, but there’s a few ideas that are relatively quick and easy to throw together while the chicken is cooking. 

How to store the leftovers:

Store in an airtight container in the refrigerator. To reheat, cover the dish with a paper towel and reheat in the microwave. 

Meal prepping tips:

This is a great recipe to meal prep on a Sunday afternoon so you can be sure to stay on track during the week and have a quick and easy meal to reheat and enjoy! Here are my favorite meal prepping containers!

These containers are perfect because of the separator for the rice.

Separating the rice is not necessary, but I always try to separate so the rice doesn’t get hard and I can add a drop or two of water to it when reheating if needed.

Before I reheat, I always add a teaspoon (you can measure or eyeball it) of water to the rice to keep it moist. 

Simply measure out the rice according to your macros or goals, then add the veggies and sauce. This recipe is designed for 4oz. of chicken. When weighing for macro counting, I will typically weigh out 5oz. to count for the sauce that I am adding as an example. 

You can find this recipe and others by Yummymacrolife.com already preloaded on My Fitness Pal.

Simply seach Yummymacrolife – Homemade General Tso Chicken