Sweet and Sour Chicken Recipe
Tonight I was in the mood for Chinese and decided to make some sweet and sour chicken. This recipe is by far the best sweet and sour chicken I have ever tasted, nothing compares. I tried this at multiple buffets and none of them were even close to this good, maybe I should have given them this recipeJ? Sweet and sour chicken is deep-fried breaded white meat chicken, coated or served with sweet and sour sauce. If you don’t know anything about the sauce, don’t worry because this article includes an amazing recipe for sweet and sour sauce as well! What really makes this recipe stand out from others or the buffets are the fruits and vegetables that go in it. We are tossing a generous amount of pineapple, green peppers, tomatoes, and onions into this dish. If you try this and like it, stay on the look out for my sweet and sour pork recipe coming soon. Enjoy.
6 boneless skinless chicken breasts (cut into 1” cubes)
Flour
4 egg yolks
2 Tablespoons soy sauce
Oil
3 firm tomatoes (cut into 1 inch chunks)
2 onions (cut into 1 inch chunks)
1 green pepper (cut into 1 inch chunks)
1 can pineapple chunks (reserve juice for sauce)
Sweet and Sour Sauce-
½ cup vinegar
1/3 cup sugar
½ teaspoon salt
¼ cup orange juice
¼ cup pineapple juice
¼ cup ketchup
2 tablespoons cornstarch
Cooking Instructions:
Step 1: Mix egg yolks and soy sauce with a bit of water. Roll the chicken in flour, egg, and then flour again. Deep fry the chicken in batches for 2-3 minutes, and drain on paper towels.
Step 2: Stir fry pepper and onions for about 1 minute so they are still crisp and colored. Remove from pan and set aside.
Step 3: Make sweet and sour sauce by mixing vinegar, sugar, salt, orange juice, pineapple juice, and ketchup. Bring to a boil and simmer for 10 minutes. Mix 2 Tablespoons of cornstarch in 1/8 cup of juice and stir in until thickened.
Step 4: Add tomato and pineapple chunks to the sauce and heat thoroughly. Pour mixture gently over chicken. Pour your peppers and onions on and serve. (best served while chicken bits are crispy and vegetables are crunchy still)
Tags: cooking, recipes, food and drink, recipe
That looks absolutely delicious! I’ve never attempted to cook Chinese food, but I like they way you laid it out step by step (with photos!)
That looks so good. My husband will appreciate the inspiration you have given me to cool. Thanks.
Lynne- Thanks, I try and make it as easy as possible for everyone to make this great food. You should really try cooking chinese, alot of it tastes great.
Karen- Thank you. I’m glad to inspire you, this recipe is great. Stay tuned many more to come, I try and add new recipes whenever I can.
Bobby, that was the best chicken recipe ever. My wife is usually not a fan of the sweet and sour, but this was amazing. I cooked the chicken in the wok with olive oil for about 7 minutes on medium high, and it worked out great. Thanks so much. I will use the chicken with a orange sauce and a sesame sauce(my favorite). Thanks again and trying the pepper steak tomorrow night.
Ric- thanks for the comment. I’m glad you guys enjoyed the recipe. I liked this so much I use to make it once a week
. I hope you enjoy the Pepper Steak as well, let me know what you think.
[...] pasta with parsley oil looks delectable. I shall have to assuage my hunger with a rather yummy Sweet and Sour Chicken Recipe from Bobby at Free Online [...]
so delicious! am not really a fan of sweet and sour recipes, but i just might try this one!
thanks so much for sharing the recipes!
mharia- your welcome, and go for it, it’s really good!
OK, so i tried a sesame chicken recipe with a different batter, but the batter was nowhere near as good as yours. gonna try it with your chicken next, would be much better. http://www.recipezaar.com/129598
have a good sesame sauce recipe?
Ric- Whats funny is I made Sesame Chicken tonight and I just saw your comment. I usually use a different batter for my sesame chicken. The recipe is pretty close to the one your looking at.
They have very different textures. The batter for the sweet and sour chicken is crispy and the sesame chicken batter is much softer. What I love about my sesame chicken recipe is it’s marinaded in a chicken base/wine mixture and it makes the chicken really flavorful and juicy. I will be posting the recipe tommarrow and you can see if it appeals to you.
Hi there! I’d love to try this recipe but I wanted to know if there was a particular type of vinegar I should buy for it (eg. white wine, apple cider, sweet wine, etc…) I know that asian cooking uses a particular vinegar usually but I can’t remember which one!
Pemela – I just use regular white distilled vinegar, it works great for sweet and sour sauce!
DAMN GOOD RECIPIE
I love this recipe!! I make it all the time and it is a family favorite.
I was just wondering if you can make this ahead somehow and freeze it and cook it at a different time. Also would boneless chicken thighs work instead of chicken breast?
Rylensmom – On the freezing part I honestly have no idea, sorry. Give it a try… I would say the breaded chicken would freeze well. You could also probably freeze the sweet and sour sauce but I would do the pineapples, onions, tomatoes and green peppers fresh. Boneless chicken thighs would also work fine. I hope you enjoy the recipe!
Delicious meal! I did omit the tomatoes, substituting red peppers and maraschino cherries for color. I wonder why we used only the egg yolks, and I now have 4 egg whites I must find a use for!! My husband just loved the dish, and we’ll use it again many times!!
I just made this recipe, it was simple and delicious, my kids loved it too which is great. Will definately make it a whole lot more times.
I’m sorry but I’m not understanding…
When you say add two Tablespoons of cornstarch to
1/8 of a cup of juice, I’m wondering, what juice?
Pineapple juice, or perhaps orange juice, I’m just not sure…
The recipe looks delicious…Can’t wait to give
it a try.
Thanks
i think it will taste nice i am doing it at school
I’ve just cooked your sweet & sour chicken, but with turkey as it’s far cheaper. I also forgot the tin of pineapple…the rest of the ingredients were used.
I don’t know why I’ve never tried sweet & sour before, but congratulations to you for the yummy photo that drew me into your recipe. I’ll be making this more often as a weekend treat…with pineapple! Far better than any takeaway I’ve ever tasted!
Just tried this recipe…it turned out to be a great family activity as well as my wife did the sauce, my daughter did step 3 and i did the frying of the chicken.
The photos help a lot..will definitely be trying your other recipes as well.
Thanks for sharing…
“Found” your web site through Google – made the sweet and sour chicken and got rave reviews – we were so tired of the dribble that was served at local Chinese places and this was THE BEST.
Bring on the Pork Sweet and Sour – we’ll be the first to try it!!
Thank You Thank You Thank you
PS – the left overs were spectacular!!!1
Bob – glad you enjoyed the recipe. The sweet and sour pork dish can be found here – http://blogchef.net/sweet-and-sour-pork-recipe/
AMAZING!!!!! Fed the parents AND the kids. Everyone loved it. I will make this again and again. Absolutely delicious!
I LOVED the sauce; however, the coating for the chicken came out a bit thick and the chicken turned out to be a little hard rather than crispy. Any suggestions on how to fix this?
Thanks!
Sarah – Yes, Just dip the chicken first in egg and then in flour once.
This looks PERFECT! I will be using this recipe along with your crab stuffed wontons!!!
Frankly I found many useful recipes at your site, I like it and I have add your side address as my bookmark.
Thanks a lot for all your recipe’s contents.
Excellent recipe, my family loved it!! I can’t wait to try some of the other recipes that you feature.
The question concerning mixing the cornstarch with the juice – it does not matter which juice you mix it with or if you use water. In fact, most of the time you do use water. The reason why you mix the cornstarch with a liquid is to pre-dissolve the cornstarch and then evenly mix it into a sauce or soup or whatever as a liquid mixture. You shouldn’t put dry cornstarch directly into your sauce or whatever your thickening. That is the correct way to use cornstarch as a thickener. Do you see what im saying? Just save some of one of the juices, either one, and mix in the cornstarch into that. Then, pour the cornstarch mixture into the sauce to thicken it as a liquid and not dry cornstarch. This is the way you should always use cornstarch to thicken a recipe.
Learning Chef – You can use either pineapple or orange juice or even water if you prefer. Also, the method you described is the method that is used in this recipe for mixing the cornstarch into the sauce.
Hi,
I am making this dinner for 24 people. It will
be my first time using a deep fryer. I will be making this with both chicken and shrimp.
Do I need a deep fryer or is it possible to use
a large frying pan?
For the recipe listed, how many people would this
serve, maybe 4-6? I must have an idea so that I can figure on the extra ingredients.
Leaving on 6/20/09, so I am pretty desperate.
Thanks for your help.
Leslie A Pollan – I would say your serving guess is accurate with 4-6. It is possible to use a large frying pan but I have to recommend a deep fryer because it would be alot easier for the amount you are doing but this can be fried in a pan. Good luck.
This recipe sounds freat! I am having a luau in 2 weeks at my home and I am going to use your recipe. Wish me luck! I’ll let you know how it turns out.
This recipe was soooo GOOD!! My family and I just loved it so much : ) Thanks for all your fabulous recipes Bobby! You Rock!
HI BOBBY I MUST THAT IS MY FRIST TIME COOKING SWEET AND SOUR CHICKEN,AND IS FOR MY CHURCH..THANK YOU FOR THIS ONE.I WILL LET YOU KNOW HOW IT WENT.
hi bobby it is me again,it was the best chicken they ever had.they all love it.thank in a million.
I had 70 people for a luau at my house and I made this recipe. It was unbelievable! It was delicious, it was colorful and it looked exactly like yours. Among other dishes, I made five recipes of this. Thanks so much for this great recipe. You will not find another one like it!
This recipe is excellent.Tried it,husband and I enjoyed every bit of it.You would not believe I did not buy it at the CHINESE restaurant.
excellent meal! just made a small addition of some apricot jelly…..fabulous!
ok,,so it’s me, again,,i just made your sweet and sour sauce,,lemme tell ya,,fantastic,,i feel like julia childs, lol,,i dont know what made me think of this but as a teenager i had a step aunt that made the best ever garlic salad dressing,,she would never give her receipe to anyone,,and actually took it to the grave w/her,,but do you happen to have a receipe for that? would sure appreciate it,,and u really need your own t.v. show.
Bobby,
This looks great! I have tried other recipes before and the sauce gets absorbed by the breading on the chicken really quickly. The breading breaks down and the plate starts looking a bit messy. Maybe it was the breading I used, I will give your recipe a try this evening. Yum.
Julie – I don’t think that will happen with this recipe, the breading is pretty thick. However, it would be wise to wait until you are ready to serve the chicken to mix it with the sauce.
This is a really good recipe. I only had crushed pineapples instead of chucks so i just added them to the sauce with the juice. My sauce ended up not needed any thickening. But really good and so easy. It really tasted like sweet and sour chicken! Thank you for posting this recipe as it satisfied a sudden pregnancy craving with things that I had just around my kitchen and saved my husband a last minute trip out! I will make this again!!!
This is the same Teresa that posted on 12/15/10. I made this recipe once again tonight and have not stopped saying “Wow!” There were only a few things I did different this time. I used peanut oil instead of canola oil to fry the chicken in which, I think, made it even better. I also used pineapple tidbits instead of chunks and my husband preferred it. I would like to know, Bobby, if the vinegar you use is rice vinegar or just plain old white vinegar. Thank you so much for coming up with this recipe. We don’t have to go to Nashville from Bowling Green, KY to P.F. Chang’s to get it anymore. I am still saying Wow.
Teresa – I also enjoying using peanut oil, and the vinegar I use is white vinegar but theres nothing wrong with experimenting with different types of vinegar.
I made this for the first time today. It didn’t turn out too well since the pineapple flavor was too strong and the sauce came out thick.
HOWEVER!
I am not saying this recipe is bad. I didn’t have tomatoes/green peppers/onions handy at the moment. Would that be why the sauce came out so thick and ended up so heavy with the pineapple flavor?
Also, I don’t have a deep fryer but still want to do many of the fried recipes on this site. Is it possible to somehow produce the same results using a wok or pot?
Thanks. I look forward to making many more of the recipes on this site.
Alty- sounds to me like you added a little too much pineapple juice or did not add enough of another ingredient in the sauce.
As for cooking the chicken without a deep fryer. Just add about an inch of oil to a wok or pan, and fry the chicken pieces. Always be careful with hot oil in a pan though, it can be very dangerous.
After reading that I checked my notes again and it turns out I did indeed write it down improperly. I wrote 1/3c of vinegar instead of 1/2c. Perhaps that’s why.
Thanks for the info about frying something without a deep fryer.
I’ll be trying this recipe again soon and hopefully that will turn out better. Thanks again.
STILL THE BEST RECIPE EVER!!!!
can i add other vegetables to it or will it be to much? i was thinking like mushrooms,red pepper?
kamila – You can add whatever veggies you want to this recipe.
Hello, I made this exact recipe the other night with my partner, and despite the mess we made we loved the dish but with a few different ingredients. I added carrots. The only problem I had with the recipe is the sauce, two tablespoons of cornstarch was too much and it made the sauce way to thick. Not too waste any of the ingredients, we decided to fix it by adding more of everything and it turned out perfect.
For future reference 4 tbsp of cornstarch is enough to thicken three times more of the rest of the ingredients (ie. 1andhalf c of vinegar, 1c sugar,3/4c of pineapple juice, etc..).
Next time we’re going to make more chicken then vegetables, as the rest of his family loved it! Best served with rice.
Hi!
I’m going to try cooking this for a VERY picky eater who loves Sweet and Sour chicken. I know for a fact there’s no chance he’ll eat it if I include the fruits and veggies. Do you think this recipe will still taste like regular sweet & sour chicken without your additions?
Thanks! I love your website.
Jessica
Hi Bobby, thak you so much for the recipi i have been wanting to make this dish for years only never came around to do in have eaten it several times on the other side of the world, hwever this recipi is exactly the same taste as the dish i loved during my vacation. thax again.
Thank you for this perfect recipe, I have tried it and it is very very perfect, I love it
This was delicious!!!! My family loved it. It wasn’t greasy like most sweet & sour chicken. I will definately make this again!!! I will look for more recipes from Bobby. This was really easy to make and fast. Love it!
I cooked this recipe last night. Im a rookie when it comes to cooking and this was a no-fail recipe! The photos definetly did help and it was delicious! My family isnt a fan of tomatoes so we substituted them for yellow pepper. 10-10. Although next time I will definetly serve over rice, the flavor is delicious but a white rice would compiment it nicely, as the flavours are very sweet.
Thank you so much for the Sweet and Sour Chicken receipe. It is awesome !! I had never made any of this from scratch but tried it and it was a big hit with my family. They said it was better than the Chinese place. Thanks again.
I’m so glad I stubbled across you website – Made this last night and I can’t believe my fussy husband and children LOVED IT…..thank you for making everything look so easy.
How many servings does this recipe serve, and do we NEED the pineapple juice?
Stacie- this will probably serve about 6. You could try leaving out the pineapple juice but I am not sure how it will turn out. If you try it please let everyone know the results.
Just delicious!!!!