Easy Sweet & Sour Chicken
Submitted by tammykae
Easy sweet and sour chicken velvets chunks of chicken with egg white, stir-fries them with bell pepper, carrot, and pineapple, then glazes with a light sherry-pineapple sauce.
YIELD
2 servingsPREP
20 minCOOK
25 minREADY
45 minThe sweet and sour chicken you get from a delivery carton tends to be battered to death and drowning in neon sauce. This homemade version goes lighter on both fronts. Velveted chicken (the Chinese technique of coating meat in egg white and cornstarch) stays tender and silky without a heavy breading, and the sauce is balanced around real pineapple juice rather than ketchup and red food coloring.
The flavors come together like a restaurant because the prep is done restaurant-style. Sauce is mixed and waiting in a bowl. Chicken is velveted and resting. Vegetables are cut, carrots parboiled just shy of tender. Once the wok is hot, everything goes in quick bursts and the whole cook takes five minutes at most.
Sherry, soy, vinegar, and pineapple juice with a pinch of sugar and cornstarch make the sauce. It thickens to a glossy glaze as soon as it hits the hot wok, coating every piece of chicken and vegetable.
Kitchen Tips
- Velvet the chicken at least 15 minutes before frying. The egg-white-cornstarch coating needs time to grip the meat.
- Fry the chicken in small batches, 4 or 5 pieces at a time. Crowding drops the oil temperature and the velvet coating turns greasy instead of crisp.
- Parboil carrots a minute or two less than you think. They finish cooking in the final stir-fry, and overcooked carrots turn mushy in the sauce.
- Have the sauce fully mixed before the wok gets hot. Once the chicken and vegetables are in, there is no time to stop and measure.
- Use peanut oil if you have it. High smoke point means crisper edges and less bitter burnt oil.
Variations
- Swap chicken for cubed firm tofu or shrimp using the same velveting method.
- Add snap peas, broccoli florets, or water chestnuts for more vegetable variety.
- Finish with a sprinkle of toasted sesame seeds and thinly sliced green onions for a restaurant-plate look.
Ingredients
Directions
Cut up the chicken into bite-sized chunks.
Combine ginger, egg white, about ½ teaspoons each salt and cornstarch, and about 1 teaspoon oil.
Add the chicken chunks and stir until the chicken is well-coated. Wash green pepper.
Discard seeds and stem. Cut into strips about 1 x ¼ inches.
Peel carrots. If they are thick, cut in half lengthwise. Cut diagonally into pieces about 1 inch long.
Cook the carrots in boiling water for 3 to 5 minutes, depending how crunchy you like your carrots.
Drain pineapple chunks, saving about ½ cup of the juice.
Prepare the sweet and sour sauce by mixing sherry, soy sauce, vinegar, sugar, reserved pineapple juice, about 1 tablespoon cornstarch, and about 1 teaspoon salt.
Stir well and set aside. Heat about 3 tablespoon of oil very hot in a wok or deep cast iron pan.
Peanut oil is best since it has a high smoking point. Stir-fry the chicken by putting a small batch (e. g., 5 pieces) of the cubed chicken in the wok and stirring continuously until golden brown.
Remove to a dish. Repeat until all the chicken has been cooked, adding small amounts of oil as it gets used up.
Heat about 1 tablespoon oil in an empty wok. Stir fry the parboiled carrots and the green pepper for 30 seconds.
Add the chicken and the pineapple chunks to the vegetables in the wok. Stir 1 minute or until well mixed and reheated.
Add sweet and sour sauce to wok. Stir until thickened. Serve with rice.
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