Sweet and Sour Chicken Recipe

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This Chinese recipe for sweet and sour chicken is made of crispy deep fried chicken, homemade sweet and sour sauce, pineapple and colorful bell peppers, chock full of umami flavors!

Sweet and sour chicken is a classic Chinese recipe made of

  • Fried chicken: diced cubes of chicken breast dipped in egg and in flour, then deep fried. I like to use chicken breast, deboned chicken thighs can also be used and if I need to make a large amount I’ll go for a turkey breast
  • Vegetables: briefly stir-fried garlic and colorful bell peppers, I added shiitake mushrooms in today’s recipe because I like them but it’s not done in the original recipe and therefore it is optional
  • For the pineapple, I always use canned sliced pineapple, so handy! Since it is already very soft I don’t cook it, I just cut the slices in chunks and add them to the finished recipe
  • The sauce: A syrupy sweet and sour sauce that will really bring the sweet and sour flare and all the umami to this recipe. The first time I made this sauce I tasted it, big mistake LOL! On its own it’s a weird tasting sauce, sweet indeed, sour indeed, my mouth twitched and I got to wonder whether I was going to use it, but once it’s added to the crispy chicken and sweet bell peppers it’s just perfect and really awesome, so trust me on this, just follow the instructions and don’t taste it!

I like to proceed this way:

  • Dicing the chicken and dipping it in a quick marinade
  • Sauteed the bell peppers, set aside
  • Making the sweet and sour sauce, set aside
  • And only then I take care of the fried chicken, the longest part in this recipe. Once the chicken chunks have been dipped into the egg and flour, they need to be fried immediately or they will form a sticky mass and you really don’t want that
  • Lastly re-heat the sweet and sour sauce, add the bell peppers, pineapple, crispy fried chicken, give a good toss, that’s it! Time to enjoy!

I hope you enjoy this recipe and if you do, please leave me a comment and let me know how it went!

  • 4 servings
  • Easy
  • 1 h 30

Recipe :

Ingredients:

Chicken:

1-pound (450 g.) Chicken breast, diced in 1-inch chunks

2 tbsp soy sauce

1/2 tsp baking soda

3 eggs

1 cup plain flour

Vegetables

2 tbsp. garlic, grated or chopped

2 large bell peppers, 1 red and 1 yellow, cut in 1-inch chunks

5 dried shiitake mushrooms, re-hydrated, stems removed, sliced (optional)

1 cup (or to taste) canned sliced pineapple, cut in small chunks

Sweet and sour sauce:

1/2 cup ketchup

1/2 cup tap water

1/2 cup rice wine vinegar (or apple cider vinegar)

1/2 cup brown sugar

2 scant tbsp. corn starch

1 1/2 tsp salt

A quart of vegetable oil for frying

Instructions:

Into a medium bowl, add the chicken, soy sauce, baking soda, toss to coat, cover with plastic wrap, set aside

Into a frying pan, heat two tbsp. of vegetable oil, add the garlic, stir fry until fragrant, add the bell peppers and shiitake mushrooms, stir fry until tender to your liking, remove from the pan and set aside

Let’s make the sweet and sour sauce, heat a small frying pan on medium/high, add all the ingredients, stir to dissolve the sugar and corn starch, cook until the sauce starts to thicken, the sauce must be syrupy but still slightly liquid, watch it carefully, remove from the pan to a small bowl to stop the cooking process and set aside

Now let’s take care of the chicken, set up your work station: whisk the 3 eggs into a medium bowl, add the flour to another medium bowl, have ready a plate or another bowl covered with a few paper towels, heat your vegetable oil to about 375°F (180°C) into a Dutch oven (to check the temperature I just dip a wooden spoon into the bottom of the pan, if it bubbles immediately, the temperature is right) or electric fryer

While the oil is heating, dip the chicken chunks into the eggs, then coat them well with flour, once the oil is at the right temperature, proceed to fry them in batches, fry the chicken until golden and crispy, remove to the readied plate or bowl

Re-heat the sweet and sour sauce briefly into a large frying pan, add the vegetables, pineapple chunks and fried chicken, toss to coat, it’s ready!

Serve immediately with some basmati or jasmine rice

Enjoy!

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