Thursday, October 16, 2008

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.

14 comments:

Melanie said...

I like your step-by-step pictures and am really glad you liked this recipe. It is a staple for us, as well!

Anonymous said...

That looks SOOO GOOD! And the veggies too! yum yum yum!!

Unknown said...

I have a slight addiction to sweet and sour. This recipe looks really good. I'll definitely remember it for a future dinner!

susan said...

oh my goodness!
i love this post!
i have most of the recipes on hand for this recipe so i will definately try it!!

Darius T. Williams said...

I'm loving this. I'm going to do a honey soy chicken tonight - should be quick and easy!

-DTW
www.everydaycookin.blogspot.com

Maria said...

I love the added veggies!!

Urban Cowgirl said...

Usually, Chinese food gives me wicked heartburn so we don't often have it which makes DH sad. Anyway, I made your recipe on Friday night and both of us loved, loved, loved it! Thank you for sharing! And, I got to eat Chinese-themed food without the heartburn. Thank you!

Colleen said...

@urban cowgirl- I am so glad you liked this dish! And a bonus that now you can eat some food that you couldn't before! Thanks for visiting my blog!

Cate said...

This looks GREAT! Like take out only better :)

Deborah said...

I am so glad you tried this and loved it. I have heard of a lot of people loving it! I love Melanie's blog - The Kitchen Cafe - and have made many great recipes from it.

ktmac32 said...

My husband is a big fan of sweet and sour chicken. Whenever he goes to Pei Wei he orders it. I made this for him last night (I added some canned pineapple chunks too) and he loved it! I thought I'd have left-overs since it's just us. I was wrong!

shorty said...

This was AMAZING!!! We don't love it too sweet so I doubled the soy and added some cayenne pepper. It was so so so so good!!! This is going to be a make again and again. It was really easy to throw together. I made Chinese green beans and fried rice and I have to tell you it was better than take out! Thanks so much
Shorty

Colleen said...

@ shorty - I am so glad you liked this! It's too funny that you just commented because I just made this two days ago!

sasicas said...

Cant wait to make this tomorrow night, I dont ever make Chinese food so Im going to surprise the husband with it :)