Sweet and Sour Chicken or Pork has always been my go to choice from a Cantonese Takeaway. Just the thought of it brings back many fond memories of childhood family takeout feasts. Also in my late teens getting off the bus 4 stops early to get an egg fried rice with sweet and sour on the top to eat on the way home in the early hours.
I’ve also been fortunate enough to travel in Asia and truly spoilt with the dishes over there.
Here’s my homemade version and it’s surprisingly easy to make at home. I shallow fry the chicken in about 2cm of oil. I use a saucepan to reduce the amount of oil needed, it also stops to oil spitting everywhere.
Ingredients
For four you need:
- 2 breasts chicken
- 1 onion, chopped
- 1 green pepper, chopped
- 1 small tin of pineapple chunks
- 2 tbsp tomato ketchup
- 1 tsp 5spice
- 1 tbsp honey
- 2 eggs
- 2 tbsp cornflour
Method
I tend to make the chicken in advance, it makes the whole cooking process less stressful.
To make the chicken
- Cut the chicken into bite sized cubes.
- In a bowl whisk the eggs and corn flour together and add about 2 tbsp of water to loosen it.
- Then add the chicken to the bowl and coat with the batter.
- Heat about 2cm of oil in a pan. Add a drop of batter, once it’s bubbling it’s ready.
- Fry the chicken in batches until golden and drain on kitchen towel.
- Then put to one side
To make the sauce
- Mix the ketchup, 5-spice, honey and 2tbsp of pineapple juice in a bowl. If you like a thinner sauce add more juice or water.
Cooking
- From here it takes 5 mins to cook, so get your rice on first. For the perfect rice follow my recipe here.
- Once the rice is on and reduced to a simmer heat a large frying pan on a medium heat with about 1 tbsp oil in the pan.
- Fry the onions and peppers in a pan for a couple of minutes, until the onions start to go translucent, then add the chicken and the pineapple.
- Once it’s all sizzling add the sauce and heat through.
Serve with sticky rice… and a cold beer.