Applebee's Spicy Asian Grilled Chicken
This grilled chicken is high in histamine because of the soy sauce and red pepper pastes.
Most of this is cooked to order, which is the best case for histamine. Even so, a restaurant kitchen preps ahead and holds things warm through a service, so freshness varies more than it would at home. The rating above comes from the chain's published ingredients. If a dish is borderline for you, asking how it is prepared tells you more than the menu does.
This is grilled chicken breast coated in a sauce built on soy sauce, red pepper pastes, mirin, garlic, and sesame oil.
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Soy sauce and pepper pastes — soy sauce and the red pepper bean paste are fermented, and fermentation is what drives their histamine high; the red pepper paste lands moderate on top of that.
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Mirin — mirin is a fermented rice wine that also acts as a DAO blocker, meaning it can make it harder for your body to break histamine down.
The chicken itself is fine, so a plainly grilled chicken option without the sauce is the lower-histamine route.
This rating comes from Applebee's own published ingredient statement, read on August 11, 2026. Restaurant recipes vary by location and change over time, so always check the current listing: source 1, source 2. How we rate foods →
Applebee's Spicy Asian Grilled Chicken and Applebee's are trademarks of their respective owners. This page is an independent histamine reference and is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by the brand.
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For educational purposes only. Not medical advice. Consult a healthcare professional for personal guidance.
References
- SIGHI Food Compatibility List — SIGHI (2026)
- Histamine and histamine intolerance — Maintz & Novak (2007)
- Histamine Intolerance: The Current State of the Art — Comas-Basté et al. (2020)
- Low-Histamine Diets: Is the Exclusion of Foods Justified by Their Histamine Content? — Sánchez-Pérez et al. (2021)
- Histamine Intolerance: Symptoms, Diagnosis, and Beyond — Jochum (2024)
- Guideline on management of suspected adverse reactions to ingested histamine — Reese et al. (2021)