Another one of our household favorites, the Sweet and Sour Chicken. This is one of my go-to weeknight meal ideas and my family love it every time! I promise it tastes just like your favorite carryout and even healthier too, with no preservatives, food coloring and all that stuffs. So follow me along! Just so you know, for sweet and sour sauce recipe, you can use it with pork, chicken, shrimp and even fish. That’s what I love about this sauce, you can pair it with any meat or seafoods.
Now let’s get to it!
Also, check out the photo below for the right consistency of the sauce. The secret to a perfectly made sweet and sour chicken, is the right amount of flavor and sauce consistency. It has to be thick.
Jump to Recipe
The sauce has to be thick like this, when it coats your spoon.
You don’t need to deep fry your chicken. Just enough oil to coat the bottom and flip it, to cook the other side. About 2-3 minutes, it depends on your stove. Just make sure your chicken is cook through.
The chicken should look like this. If you don’t have cornstarch and eggs or it’s not allowed in your diet, you can just use flour. It should still be crispy. Also, if you don’t like too much breading as well, flour is good enough too. I promise.
Saute your vegetables gently, don’t over saute them.
The sauce should coat your dish like this.
Tada! Just about right. Perfect flavor and consistency with no added unwanted ingredients like preservatives and food coloring that you get from your favorite take-outs.
Sweet and Sour Chicken
Delicious and crispy sweet and sour chicken with pineapples, red bell pepper and onions.
Ingredients
- 2 lbs chicken breasts cut into chunks
- 1 red bell pepper cut into chunks
- 1 red onion cut into chunks
- 1 cup pineapple chunks
- 2-3 tbsp canola oil for frying
- 1-2 stalks green onions for garnish (optional)
- 1/2 tsp sesame seeds for garnish (optional)
For Breading
- 1/2 cup cornstarch
- 2 eggs beaten
- 1/2 cup flour
For the sauce
- 1/2 cup sugar
- 1/4 cup brown sugar
- 1/2 cup apple cider vinegar you can use white vinegar to substitute
- 1/3 cup ketchup
- 4 tsp soy sauce
- 3 cloves garlic minced
Instructions
-
Make the sauce first.
How to make the sauce:
-
In a sauce pan, mix together the brown sugar, sugar, apple cider vinegar, soy sauce ketchup and garlic.
-
Heat them up on medium low and stir until it reach to thick consistency.
Breading the chicken:
-
Put the cornstarch in a Ziplok bag. Then add the chicken, get the pieces well coated.
-
Dip each pieces into the egg, then into the flour. Set it aside.
Making the Sweet and Sour Chicken
-
After you made the sauce and breaded the chicken, heat the oil in a pan on a medium high heat.
-
Cook the chicken pieces 2-3 minutes on each side, until cooked through and crispy. Chicken temp. is 165 F. When all the chicken pieces are cooked, take it out of the pan and set it aside.
-
Remove the oil from the pan except one tablespoon of oil for sauteing.
-
Add the bell peppers, onion and pineapple and cook for 1-2 minutes until crisp-tender.
-
Add the sauce in, stir and coat the pieces.
-
Add the chicken pieces back in and stir until the sauce is bubbling. The sauce should be thick.
-
Add some green onions and sesame seeds for garnish. Optional only.
-
Serve with steamed white rice.
Recipe Notes
The secret to a delicious and perfect sweet and sour chicken, is a great sauce recipe with just about the right consistency. So allow your sauce to thicken first before mixing it with the pineapples and vegetables as pictured above.
Thank you so much for reading and if you get the chance to try this recipe, please leave me a review. I would love to read some feedbacks. Thank you so much!
