by I did it! I finally found an amazing sweet and sour chicken recipe!
There are few things in this world that I love more than sweet and sour chicken. I’ve tried a few different recipes, but they just don’t taste good. I came to the realization last time I tried that the bottled sauces were disgusting, and maybe I just needed to suck it up and do everything completely from scratch.
So I dug around and found this recipe and jumped in head first.
Everything was incredibly simple, right up until the point where I had to fry the chicken. I tried, mind you! I’m not sure what it is about frying food, but I’m miserable at it. Which is probably a good thing as it means we don’t eat much fried food around here…
Anyway, Aaron came to my rescue and fried the chicken for me, and then I put everything together.
It was A-MA-ZING! And that’s probably an understatement!
This is definitely a keeper recipe, I wish I had known before how simply it was to make sweet and sour sauce. I could have saved myself from dozens of terrible attempts with bottled sauces!
Unfortunately, I had printed out a stack of recipes, and I didn’t mark down where they came from, so I can’t credit the original source. If it’s you, please tell me!!
- 1 (8 ounce) can pineapple chunks, drained (juice reserved)
- ¼ cup cornstarch
- 1¾ cups water, divided
- ¾ cup white sugar
- ½ cup distilled white vinegar
- 2 drops orange food color
- 8 skinless, boneless chicken breast halves - cut into 1 inch cubes
- 2¼ cups self-rising flour
- 2 tablespoons vegetable oil
- 2 tablespoons cornstarch
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ¼ teaspoon ground white pepper
- 1 egg
- 1½ cups water
- 1 quart vegetable oil for frying
- 2 green bell pepper, cut into 1 inch pieces
- In a saucepan, combine 1½ cups water, sugar, vinegar, reserved pineapple juice, and orange food coloring. Heat to boiling. Turn off heat. Combine ¼ cup cornstarch and ¼ cup water; slowly stir into saucepan. Continue stirring until mixture thickens.
- Combine flour, 2 tablespoons oil, 2 tablespoons cornstarch, salt, white pepper, and egg. Add 1½ cups water gradually to make a thick batter. Stir to blend thoroughly. Add chicken pieces, and stir until chicken is well coated.
- Heat oil in skillet or wok to 360 degrees F (180 degrees C). Fry chicken pieces in hot oil 10 minutes, or until golden. Remove chicken, and drain on paper towels.
- When ready to serve, layer green peppers, pineapple chunks, and cooked chicken pieces on a platter. Pour hot sweet and sour sauce over top.
