Sweet and Sour Chicken

Sweet and Sour Chicken - made October 20, 2012 from Made It. Ate It. Loved It.

I feel like I've been cooking so much I almost don't recognize myself.  I haven't eaten a Lean Cuisine in weeks.  Who am I?  What's happening to me?  (Ohhhhkaaaayyyyy, got that melodrama out of my system.)

The truth of the matter is I've now become an expert at hunting out easy-for-me-to-make recipes.  Yes, pinterest gets all the credit for that one.  And Costco for the packs of chicken breasts still stocked in my freezer that I need to do something with (I'll be clucking soon with all the chicken I'm eating).  This is another instance where the picture caught my eye first and impelled me to try out the recipe.

The sauce is super simple to make.  Mix that up first and have it ready to go.  The most time-consuming part of this recipe is cutting up the chicken, breading it and frying it.  I had some leftover panko crumbs so I dipped the chicken pieces in cornstarch first, then the egg then the panko crumbs.  Did that until I ran out of panko crumbs but I still had chicken so the last half of the chicken chunks only got the cornstarch-egg treatment.

If you make the recipe with just 2 chicken breasts, the sauce makes the right amount.  I made it with 4 chicken breasts and ended up with too little sauce.  So I actually had to make another batch of sauce and pour it over the baked chicken afterwards.  I did modify the directions slightly to what worked better for me.

Chicken Breading:
2 chicken breasts
salt and pepper
1/2 - 3/4 cup cornstarch, more as needed
1 egg, beaten
1 cup panko crumbs, optional
1/3 cup canola oil

1. Rinse chicken, trim off fat or extras and then cut into 1 inch cubes. season with salt and pepper. 
2. Dip chicken into cornstarch and coat all the way, then into beaten egg then panko crumbs if using. Heat oil in large skillet. Cook chicken until browned. Drain over paper towels. Place in baking dish.

Sauce:
3/4 cup sugar
4 Tablespoons ketchup

1/2 cup white distilled vinegar

1 Tablespoon soy sauce
1 teaspoon garlic salt
1 teaspoon cornstarch dissolved in 1 tablespoon water

1. Whisk sugar, ketchup, vinegar, soy sauce and garlic salt until smooth. Heat in small saucepan.  
2. Add cornstarch-water mixture and boil until sauce thickens slightly.  Pour evenly over chicken. 
3. Turn chicken so the sauce gets on both sides and then put in the oven at 350 degrees for 15 minutes. Turn chicken and then cook for 15 more minutes.