3-4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
vegetable oil
1/2 cup flour
1/4 cup cornstarch
1/2 cup cold water
1 tsp. salt
1 egg
1 can (20 oz.) pineapple chunks, in syrup
drained, reserve the syprup
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1/2 cup vinegar - white and red wine vinegar
1 tsp. soy sauce
1/8-1/4 tsp. garlic powder
1 tsp. ginger
1 cup chicken broth
2 T. cornstarch
2 T. cold water
1 green pepper cut into 3/4 inch pieces
1-2 carrots cut diagonally into very thin slices
1/2 onion, cut into chunks (optional)
Hot cooked rice - 2 cups
Maraschino Cherries (optional)
Orange Food Coloring 1-2 drops (optional)
Cut up your vegetables.
Green pepper into decent sized chunks, or whatever size you like.
Cut your carrot, 1 or 2 depending on size of carrots, into very thin slices but do it diagonally.
Cut up onion into good sized chunks, you don't want diced onion.
Then cut up your chicken. See below.
You can start cooking your rice when you start cooking your chicken.
1 cup rice with 2 cups cold water, cook for 20 minutes.
Cut boneless skinless chicken breasts into bite-sized pieces, about 3/4 inch size.
Heat up your oil to 360 degrees in a large frying pan, Dutch Oven, deep fryer.
Beat together the flour, 1/4 c. cornstarch, 1/2 c. cold water, 1 tsp. salt, and egg.
Mix with a hand mixer or whisk to get it smooth.
Stir the chicken pieces into the batter and get them well coated.
Add the battered chicken pieces one at a time into your oil.
Note: Even though it's a pain to add all those pieces one at a time, it helps them to keep from sticking together. If you do dump in several pieces at once into the oil, they will initially stick together, but as they cook more you can separate them using tongs.
Fry about 20 pieces at a time, or whatever you have room for in your frying pan, turning them a couple times until they are golden brown and crispy--about 5-7 minutes or so.
Drain them on paper towels and keep warm on a covered plate or in oven.
You can also cook them several hours, up to a day before, then reheat the pieces in the oven at 400 degrees about 7 min. before you serve with sauce.
Take the reserved pineapple syrup that you drained off the can of pineapple chunks. Add enough water to it to make 1 cup.
You will need 1/2 cup of vinegar. You can use all white vinegar, but I like it made with a mix of white vinegar and red wine vinegar. I think I use about 1/3 a cup of white vinegar and then add red wine vinegar to make the 1/2 cup.
Make some chicken broth from a bouillon cube - you should use about 1 cup of chicken broth.
In either a Dutch Oven or a large 3 qt. pot on top of stove you will make the sauce. I use a glass Corning 3 qt pot. Don't use a plain metal sauce pan as it will react with the vinegar, use glass or ceramic or teflon pan.
Heat the syrup and water mixture, the chicken broth, brown sugar, vinegar mixture, soy sauce, garlic powder, ginger, and throw in your veggies--the green pepper, carrots, and onion. Let this come to a boil and cook for about 5-6 minutes or so, long enough that your veggies are cooked a bit but are still crisp tender. (the onion won't stay crisp but the carrots will and green pepper will a bit too.) Add your pineapple chunks to the sauce and also the maraschino cherries if you are using them. Mix the 2 T. cornstarch with 2 T. cold water and add to the sauce. If you are using food coloring, add it. Cook boiling for 1 minute, stirring constantly.
To serve:
You have the option of mixing all your fried chicken pieces directly into the sweet and sour sauce at the very end, but the way I serve this is to keep the chicken separate. Put a mound of cooked white rice on the plate, place chicken pieces next to the rice or on top of the rice. Pour sauce over rice, or over chicken, or both. If you keep the chicken separate like this instead of adding it to the sauce directly, it can stay a bit crispy which adds to the texture of the meal.
Notes:
I have made this using the onion, but I am not sure it really adds much to the dish. However if you really like onions I would suggest adding them to the sauce at the very end so they hardly get cooked at all. Likewise, if you really want the green peppers to be super crispy, don't add them until the very last minute of the sauce cooking.
When I made this I used about 3 chicken breasts. If you use larger chicken breasts and do 4 of them, I am not totally sure if the amount of batter will be enough. If it's not, just make up some more batter.
If I use maraschino cherries in this I will also add a bit of the juice from the cherries into the sauce, just a splash.
Once I get all the sauce on top of the stove and cooking for a minute, I usually taste the sauce. If it seems to need a bit more bite, more sour, then add a touch of vinegar, or if it seems to need more sweet, add a touch more brown sugar.
I have not used the food coloring, but I think if you add it to the sauce, a drop or two, it will make this sauce look more like what they serve in Chinese restaurants.
If you can find frozen egg rolls at your grocery store, cook them while you are making this to serve with the meal. They are great dipped into your sweet and sour sauce.
This meal takes about 30 minutes to prepare from start to finish.