Sweet and Sour Chicken

Wow, this chicken was GOOD. I have been on a quest to find a delicious and easy sesame and/or sweet and sour chicken recipe for awhile now. The recipes I have tried have been sort of mediocre - either a lot of work for not a lot of flavor, or not the flavor I was looking for in the first place.

But THIS was worth it. I saw this post on Taste and Tell and the fact that it was baked for an hour intrigued me right away. The recipes I have used for similar dishes have all stopped with the saute portion and I knew that the baking would make it crisper and give it a deeper flavor.

Needless to say, this recipe for sweet and sour chicken is going in my recipe file as my "staple". I halved everything (as usual) for us and it fed us perfectly with no leftovers! I made the full amount of the amount of sauce, poured half over the chicken before baking, and saved half to thicken into a sauce.

I actually was able to prep it all the way through browning the chicken and pouring the sauce over it in the baking dish about 2 hours in advance. So when I got in from the gym I was able to just pop it in the oven. I also chopped up a broccoli crown, a red pepper, and two green onions and sauteed them in a bit of sesame oil; then served everything over white rice.

Sweet and Sour Chicken
from My Kitchen Cafe via Taste and Tell
Makes 4 servings

Chicken:
3-4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
Salt and pepper
1 cup cornstarch
2 eggs, beaten
1/4 cup canola oil

Cut boneless chicken breasts into chunks. Season with salt and pepper. Dip chicken in cornstarch and then in egg. Fry in a little oil until brown but not cooked through. Place in a single layer in a baking dish. Mix sauce ingredients (below) together and pour over chicken.

Sauce:
¾ cup sugar
4 tablespoons ketchup
½ cup vinegar
1 tablespoon soy sauce
1 teaspoon garlic salt

Bake for one hour at 325 degrees. Turn chicken every 15 minutes. If you like extra sauce, make another batch of sauce and bring it to a boil on the stovetop. Stir constantly and let cook over medium heat until thickened and reduced - about 6-8 minutes.