Sweet & Sour Chicken

 

I think this is my all time favorite meal.  I love it!!!  I am very thankful that Steven and the kids also love it.  We enjoyed it for Steven's Birthday lunch!   *Note...There are usually tomatoes in my sauce recipe.  I didn't have any on hand today.*  

Sweet & Sour Chicken
3-4 large chicken breasts, cut up
vegetable oil

Chicken Marinade
1 egg, slightly beaten
1 T. cornstarch
2 tsp. soy sauce
1 tsp. salt
Dash of pepper 

Chicken Batter
1/2 c. flour
1/2 c. water
1/4 c. cornstarch
1 T. vegetable oil
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. baking soda 

Sweet & Sour Sauce
1 1/4 c. sugar
1 c. chicken broth
3/4 c. white vinegar
1 T. vegetable oil
2 tsp. soy sauce
1/2 tsp. salt
1 clove garlic, finely chopped
1/4 c. corn starch
1/4 c. cold water
1 can (8 1/4oz.) pineapple chunks, drained
2 tomatoes
1 green pepper

Cut chicken into 1" pieces.  Mix chicken marinade ingredients in glass or plastic bowl; stir in chicken.  Cover and refrigerate 20 minutes.

Cut each tomato into 8 wedges.  Cut green pepper into 1" pieces.  You can do this while the chicken is marinading. 

Heat vegetable oil (1 1/2") in wok to 350.  Mix chicken batter ingredients.  Stir chicken into batter until well coated.  Fry about 15 pieces at a time until light brown, turning frequently, 3 minutes.  Drain on paper towel.  Increase oil temp. to 375.  Fry chicken all at one time until golden brown about 1 minutes.  Drain on paper towel.

Mix all of the ingredients in the sweet & sour sauce recipe (except for the cornstarch, water, pineapple, tomatoes and green pepper) in a 2 quart sauce pan.  Heat to boil.  Mix the cornstarch and water together; stir into sauce.  Cook and stir until thickened, about 10 seconds.  Stir in pineapple, tomatoes and green pepper.  Heat to boiling.

We like to serve the sauce separate from the chicken so if someone likes the chicken plain they can still enjoy their meal.  We serve this with rice and egg rolls.  

This is a recipe taken from LeeAnn Chin's Chinese Cookbook, the blue cover.