Chinese Sweet & Sour Chicken
Chinese Sweet & Sour Chicken
Posted by liz at recipegoldmine
com May 26, 2001
Source: Posted by Cookin’ Dad 03-27-2001 09:33 pm
This is an excellent recipe for sweet & sour chicken
It uses a soy sauce-based sweet & sour sauce
I have also included a red sweet & sour sauce recipe at the bottom of the recipe if you & your family prefer that type
Please let me know how things go
2 large whole boneless chicken
breasts, cut into bite-size pieces
1/4 cup soy sauce
3/4 cup sugar
1/2 cup vinegar
1/4 cup water
5 tpss ginger (GRATED EXTRA-FINE)
1 tps garlic, minced (I used garlic press)
1 1/2 tpss freshly squeezed orange juice
1 1/2 tpss freshly squeezed lemon juice
1/4 cup green onion, sliced in approximately
1/4-inch segments
2 Tbsphot oil
2 Tbspcornstarch, mixed with water for thickening sauce
Chicken nugget breading
2 cups cornstarch (approximation)
2 eggs
1 cup water (approximation)
1 tablespoon oil (approximation)
Red Chinese Sweet & Sour Sauce
1/3 cup ketchup
3/4 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup white vinegar
1/4 cup chicken broth
2 tpss regular prepared mustard**
1 tablespoon ginger (minced as fine as possible)
1 tps garlic (minced as fine as possible)
About 3 Tbspgreen onions, green part only
About 1 tablespoon cornstarch mixed with little more than
1 tablespoon water for thickening sauce
About 2 Tbsphot oil (add to sauce after thickened)
** You can omit the mustard, but I personally prefer that subtle extra it adds
No matter what you decide, you’ll like this sauce
Several hrs before cooking time, cut salt chicken (I used a little less than 1 tps)
After you have salted chicken, drizzle a little water on breast chunks & mix
Follow that with about 2 Tbspcornstarch
Mix cornstarch in, gently massaging it into meat with your h&s
Set in refrigerator
A couple of hrs before cooking time mix sauce ingredients together
This includes everything EXCEPT green onion, hot oil & cornstarch
Make sure the ginger is VERY FINELY minced or you will sacrifice some of the flavor
This step may take extra time, but your effort will be rewarded – trust me, this sauce is yummy!!!! Set sauce aside to allow flavors to marry
Before you heat up oil (about 3 inches deep in deepest part of wok), mix eggs, water & oil together bowl
Place nuggets in mixture, then dip in pure cornstarch
Make sure you have a thin, solid coating with no bald spots
Heat oil while nuggets sit in cornstarch
Before frying, make sure oil is piping hot (important for allowing cornstarch to achieve its full functionality)
Drop first batch of nuggets in hot oil (should see just a little smoke just before nuggets are placed in oil)
Oil temp
for this recipe is important, because if oil is hot enough, nuggets will be slightly crispy in spite of having been fried for just 2 1/2 to 3 min! On the other h&,if the temp
is too low, your nuggets may have a slightly gooey exterior
If you have a thermometer, fry at 375 to 380 deg F
Remove first batch of nuggets which should be ready in no more than 3 min
Unless you are using golf ball-size nuggets (lol)
Drain well
My nuggets were super tender after frying them for not quite 3 min Allow a minute or two for oil temp
before frying your next, & possibly final, batch
Also, for optimum results with different sized nuggets in same batch, put larger size nuggets in BEFORE smaller size ones
After you are done frying & draining nuggets, pour oil out of wok & into safe container
Allow wok to cool for a minute or so before cleaning it & then heating sauce
When heating sauce, pour in cornstarch/water mixture within first minute or so
Stir &, when sauce starts to thicken, add hot oil & stir well before adding green onions
Lastly, dump chicken nuggets into wok & stir until all nuggets are coated with sauce
Serve over white rice
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