Sweet and Sour chicken

 Sweet and sour chicken. This recipe is based on the one from
The Thousand recipe Chinese cookbook by Gloria Blay Miller. ISBN 0-517-20160-7

This is the best sweet and sour that I have had -- significantly better than most restaurant sweet and sours.

 

Sauce:

1) 3/4ths cup water

2) 1/2 cup sugar

3) 1/2 cup vinegar (I use rice wine vinegar, can also use apple cider vinegar)

4)  1 tablespoon cornstarch

5) 1-2 tablespoons soy sauce

6) 1/4 cup water

7) (optional) either 1/2 teaspoon red food coloring or 2 tablespoons tomato sauce (for color)

Boil 3/4th cup water and add sugar. Stir until dissolved, then add vinegar and bring back to boil. 

While boiling, blend cornstarch, soy sauce, and 1/4 cup cold water.

Dump blended mixture into sugar/vinegar/water mixture and reduce temp to low. 

Main part of sweet and sour:

1) 1-2lbs chicken, cubed

2) other stir fry veggies

    a) pineapple

    b) pepper

    c) onion

    d) carrot

    e) garlic+ginger

3) 2 eggs

4) a bunch of corn starch 

5) lots of veg. oil

chop everything. Then, stir fry all vegetables, leaving the chicken until the end. Put veggies in a separate bowl (put in a warming oven if you have an oven safe bowl). 

Fill wok with a few inches of oil to deep fat fry the chicken and heat to aprox 350-400 degrees -- just prior to the smoke point.

Dunk chicken cube into egg, then corn starch, then the oil. Cook until it floats or is golden brown. Then remove from oil and put into bowl with other veggies. Repeat until all chicken is cooked. 

Bring sauce back to a broil and mix into the chicken and veggies.

Serve with rice. This goes quite well with beer. 

Enjoy!