Sweet & Sour Chicken - A Chinese Classic

Sweet & Sour Chicken

This is a favorite of mine when I go to any of our local Chinese restaurants.  I always seem to order the "Sweet & Sour Chicken". I now can create this awesome dish at home when ever I want. Figured I would share it with some of you! Below, I have broken the sauce and chicken into separate sections. Hope it curbs your Chinese craving, Enjoy!

Sweet & Sour Chicken

• Sweet & Sour - Sauce

• Ingredients

• 1 (8 oz.) can pineapple chunks, drained (juice reserved)
• 1/4 C cornstarch + 1/4 C water - mixed 
• 1 1/2 C water
• 3/4 C white sugar
• 1/2 C distilled white vinegar
• 2 drops orange or red food color

Directions

1. In a saucepan, combine 1 1/2 cups water, sugar, vinegar, reserved pineapple juice, and orange food coloring. Heat to boiling. Turn off heat. Combine 1/4 cup cornstarch and 1/4 cup water; slowly stir into saucepan. Continue stirring until mixture thickens.

Sweet & Sour - Chicken

Ingredients

• 4-8 skinless, boneless chicken breast halves - cut into 1 inch cubes
• 2 1/4 C self-rising flour
• 2 Tbsp vegetable oil
• 2 Tbsp cornstarch
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/4 tsp ground white pepper
• 1 egg
• 1 1/2 C water
• 1 qt. vegetable oil for frying
• 
  
• Directions

1. Combine flour, 2 tablespoons oil, 2 tablespoons cornstarch, salt, white pepper, and egg. Add 1 1/2 cups water gradually to make a thick batter. Stir to blend thoroughly. Add chicken pieces, and stir until chicken is well coated. (NOTE: This will look like a thick pancake batter. As you coat the chicken, you will notice that some of the chicken does not appear to be covered. During the frying the batter will "puff" and cover the chicken, so don't worry too much about a little uncovered chicken pieces.)
2. Heat oil in skillet or wok to 360 degrees F (180 degrees C). Fry chicken pieces in hot oil 10 minutes, or until golden. Remove chicken, and drain on paper towels.
3. Serve with rice (fried or my personal favorite, white rice). Top rice with cooked chicken pieces and pour hot sweet and sour sauce over top.

(Tip: Use tongs to retrieve chicken from the batter and place into hot oil. This will prevent both battered and burned digets!) 

Chili Powder

Ever need an ingredient that you thought you had,  but at the last minute, find out you don't? It's a pretty common but unfortunate occurrence. This recently happened to me when I decided to make some simple hotdog chili and didn't have any chili powder. Fortunately, I have all if the things to make chili powder and thought I would share this easy recipe with everyone. You will never have to buy chili powder again if you have these pretty common ingredients.

Ingredients

1 tsp paprika 

2 tsp ground cumin

1 tsp cayenne pepper

1 tap oregano

2 tsp garlic powder