Try It Out | Sweet and Sour Chicken

Why get take out when you can make it yourself? I usually feel guilty and very thirst after takeout. Asian food is always something I don't think I am capable of recreating but it was about time I gave it a try. I'm very glad I did! Ok, as a fair warning, this will take a little bit longer but this way you can control the ingredients and sodium! So for the money saved and the health factor I would definitely choose this over take out.

Here is how it goes:

In looking at most of the recipes they threw in the vegetables last and they miraculously cooked in five minutes. Maybe if you have a wok easily accessible this would happen, but I was not confident that putting the vegetables in last would work. So my advice is to cook the peppers and onions ahead of time so they have time to caramelize. Then set them aside and add them in at the end. When you're done with cooking the onions and peppers they should look like this:

Now onto the chicken. The trick to delicious "take out style" chicken is corn starch. It gives it a light breading that can soak up the sauce. You can do this in a plastic bag or in a bowl that has a lid. Start with a few tablespoons of corn starch and add more if needed. Your chicken should have a light coating all around. (click the pictures for more detail.) I used around two pounds of chicken for this meal, but you can adapt as needed.

Corn Starch

Chicken with Corn Starch

Browned Chicken

Next step is making the sauce to coat all of this delicious food! I will tell you to be patient and let this sauce thicken. When you first add in all of the ingredients you will wonder how in the world will it end up to be a sticky sauce. Give it a few minutes to bubble, let the sugar caramelize and allow the corn starch do its job. I used Little Spice Jar's sauce recipe and made a few alterations. I used the juice from the pineapple in the recipe and added some ginger powder.

Sauce Ingredients

• 1/2 cup ketchup

• 1/2 cup granulated sugar

• 7 T. apple cider vinegar

• 1/4 cup pineapple juice

• 1and 1/2 t. garlic powder

• 2 T low sodium soy sauce

• 1/2 t. red pepper flakes

• 1/4 t. ginger powder

• 1 T. cornstarch

• 1 T. cold water

You will add all of these ingredients, except for the corn starch, into a sauce pan over medium heat. For the corn starch, you will want to make a slurry in a separate bowl of the corn starch and a little water. This will allow it to dissolve first so you don't have a clumpy sauce in the end. Add that in last and then let the sauce come to a soft boil. You'll see it start to thicken and that is when you can add it to the chicken and vegetables.

I let the sauce mix with the chicken and vegetables for about 10 minutes with the lid on so it had the chance to soak up and flavor the food.

Now all you need is some white rice and someone to eat this with because there is a lot of food to go around! You could easily adapt the protein for this meal and make it with meatballs, tofu, or beef.

Enjoy!

-Samantha

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