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Sweet Sour Chicken
The pork version has always been my comfort food, but sweet and sour chicken is just as good. Make the sauce even tastier with the addition of grated garlic and ginger, and a little hoisin sauce.
Course
Main Course
Cuisine
Chinese
Prep Time
10
minutes
minutes
Cook Time
15
minutes
minutes
Marinating time
1
hour
hour
Total Time
1
hour
hour
25
minutes
minutes
Servings
4
people
Author
Connie Veneracion
Ingredients
To marinate the chicken
8
chicken thigh fillets
2
teaspoons
salt
½
teaspoon
ground pepper
2
teaspoons
Chinese five-spice powder
To cook the chicken
cooking oil
¼
cup
tapioca starch
or potato or corn starch (please, not all-purpose flour!)
The garnish
1
bell pepper
deseeded and diced
1
stalk celery
thinly sliced
1
cup
fresh pineapple chunks
For the sweet sour sauce
¼
cup
white sugar
2
tablespoons
mirin
3
tablespoons
rice vinegar
1
teaspoon
salt
½
teaspoon
grated garlic
½
teaspoon
grated ginger
1
tablespoon
hoisin sauce
Instructions
Marinate the chicken
Wipe the chicken thigh fillets dry and cut into bite-size pieces.
Place the chicken in a bowl and mix in the salt, pepper and five-spice powder.
Cover the bowl and leave the chicken to marinate in the fridge for at least an hour.
Fry the chicken
In a frying pan or wok, heat enough cooking oil to reach a depth of at least two inches.
Toss the chicken in starch.
Fry the chicken, in batches if your pan is on the small side, until golden and crisp.
Move the cooked chicken to a strainer or rack.
Stir fry the vegetables
Pour off the oil leaving only a teaspoonful.
Stir fry bell pepper and celery for 30 seconds (see notes after the recipe).
Scoop out the vegetables and transfer to a plate.
Make the sauce
In the same pan, heat the sugar, mirin, rice vinegar and salt until syrupy.
Stir in the garlic, ginger and hoisin sauce.
Continue cooking the sauce until thick.
Assemble the sweet sour chicken
Add the chicken, vegetables and pineapple chunks to the sauce.
Cook, tossing, until everything is heated through.
Serve the sweet sour chicken with rice.