Sweet and Sour Chicken.
A few weeks ago, Christina told me about a delicious sweet and sour chicken recipe on Tasty Kitchen that everyone was raving about. Turns out the recipe is from My Kitchen Cafe, and Melanie has a plethora of incredible chicken recipes that I can’t wait to try.
Mr. How Sweet is always asking for homemade chinese food, and I always drop the ball. Mine just never tastes as good as take-out.
Trust me when I say that this is the best sweet and sour chicken I have ever had in my life. Better than take-out. Better than Trader Joe’s. Better than everything.
Mr. How Sweet agrees – a week doesn’t go by where he isn’t begging me to make it again. I don’t mind making it, because we use skinless, boneless chicken – it is healthier than any take-out we would get.
I also don’t like to hear Mr. How Sweet whine. It makes my ears bleed.
Sweet and Sour Chicken
Ingredients
Chicken
- 3-4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
- 2 eggs, beaten
- 1 cup cornstarch
- salt & pepper
- 1/4 cup canola oil, I used olive oil
Sauce
- 3/4 cup sugar
- 4 tablespoons ketchup
- 1/2 cup vinegar, I used cider vinegar
- 1 tablespoon soy sauce
- 1 tablespoon garlic salt, I used garlic powder
Instructions
Chicken
- Preheat oven to 325.
- Cut boneless chicken breasts into chunks. Season with salt and pepper. Coat chicken in egg and then in cornstarch. Pan fry in oil until golden brown, but not cooked through. Place in a single layer in a baking dish.
Sauce
- Mix all ingredients together and pour over chicken. Bake chicken for 6o minutes, turning every 15 minutes. You can also make extra sauce – add all ingredients to a saucepan and simmer until thick.
Notes
Did you make this recipe?
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I appreciate you so much!
Mr. How Sweet loves this so much, that he wants a special compartment in his man purse just to store sweet and sour chicken.
I’ll get on that.
109 Comments on “Sweet and Sour Chicken.”
I’m a little late but wanted to know, it says “Cook the sauce on the stovetop at medium heat for 8-10 minutes until it simmers and thickens.” Is that only for the 2nd half you’d use on the side? Does the first half do all it’s thickening in the oven and therefore not need to go on the stovetop before covering the chicken?
Thanks!
Yes! You don’t need to cook it for the first.
Just made it and between 2 of us its been totally obliterated, no chance of leftover yumminess tomorrow but right now we are in heaven, admittedly a massively overfull podgy looking heaven, but its a very content place indeed. you are a star for bringing this one to my attention and it will become a regular im sure
THANK YOU :)
This looks super good!
Do you think I could use rice vinegar would work as well?
I would probably not use rice vinegar – apple cider vinegar is best for the sweet and sour flavor.
Made this the other night at about 10pm – I guess you could call it a late dinner. Anyway, turned out great! I had a little problem when I was pan frying because I couldn’t seem to get the cornstarch to stay on the chicken, any tips? Other than that, it went according to your recipe! Thanks again! I’m starting to actually enjoy cooking :)
Made this for dinner tonight.. was yumtastic!! :)
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I just made this for dinner… mmm
I want to marry this chicken.
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Whoa whoa whoa. I just made this and it was basically THE BEST CHICKEN I EVER ATE.
I added a bunch of sauteed veggies like broccoli, different colored bell peppers, green beans, carrots, celery, and water chestnuts.
Thank you for making my life awesome. As usual.
Alright….so…I have been drooling all over your blog for about a month now. Quite literally. Your concoctions look and sound amazing. So last night I decided to try one of your most basic recipes…sweet and sour chicken. Made some stir fry with that and some couscous on the side and VOILA!! You have proved yourself in my kitchen, lady. All I’ve got to say is “keep ’em comin.” Fantastic!
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is there a way around pan frying?
I’ve always been too intimidated to attempt homemade Chinese put this looks so easy, I can’t wait to try it! Thanks!
OMG!! You were right! This recipe is incredible! I stir fried some vegies and cooked up some chinese noodles and voila! We had a perfect chinese meal. Can’t believe that it was home made! Keep those recipes coming!
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This is incredible! I have food allergies, so it’s super difficult for me to eat at Chinese restaurants and this totally satisfied my two year craving for sweet and sour chicken! Awesome site, I can’t wait to try out some more recipes, Keep it up!
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YUM!!! I made this for dinner tonight – it was SO GOOD. My husband and I both agree that it is way better than any restaurant could offer!
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This recipe for Sweet & Sour Chicken is wonderful! I made it just for myself and I had to control myself not to eat the whole thing! Can’t wait ’til dinner tomorrow to finish it.
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If I do not use eggs will it still work?
I have to tell you how much me and my family loved this recipe!! I was a bit skeptical about the sweet and sour sauce but it was truly delicious. I used 5 chicken breasts and doubled the sauce and it turned our just perfect. This will be going into my saved recipes and I will definitely will make it again and again!!
Lovely recipe. I used olive oil and rice vinegar instead and it was perfection.
I looked at a repost of the same recipe and it isn’t clear if the egg or cornstarch comes first before frying. Please. Get back to me ASAP, thanks!
I usually don’t cook, but I made this today and it was easy and very good! :)
Just want to say thank you for this recipe, i have been trying to make a nice sweet and sour recipe for quiet some time and each time the end resulted in the meal been either to sweet or sour, I’m a culinary arts students and even recipes I got from lecturers did not meet the quality of this recipe, thank you so much!
Wow! This really, really was good and I never bother posting reviews for anything. I also used Boneless, Skinless Breasts, and for oil, Peanut. I changed up one thing in the sauce – I used Sugar In The Raw. I didn’t have to cook it the full hour, it was done quicker than that in my oven. I will definitely double the sauce next time, too, since we like ‘gravy’. Yum Yum.
Awesome recipe! Thanks for sharing, it was so easy to make and the best part is that it’s so much healthier than take-out food! Thank you! http://Www.everydaydadblog.wordpress.com
Although it might be obvious to anyone who is a cook, I am wondering where the Canola / Olive oil was added. To the dry mixture or to the wet? I added it to the wet. I’ll let you know how it turns out in a few minutes.
The oil is added to the pan to cook the chicken
This is a terrific and easy recipe. I also made extra sauce. The only thing I added was some chopped bell pepper. It only took about 35-40 minutes to bake and the chicken was tender. This will be a staple for sure.
I JUST WANT TO SAY , I JUST LOVE READING YOUR PAGES. ABOUT THE RECIPES YOU COOK IT’S LIKE YOU AND I FEEL THE SAME WAY ABOUT SOME OF YOUR FOOD . I WANT TO SAY PLEASE GET OUT OF MY HEAD I FEEL WHAT YOU MEAN WHEN I AM COOKING YOUR FOOD FOR MY FAMILY. KEEP UP THE GOOD WORK.
Why the single layer? I did one on top of each & still turned out delish :)
Can I sub in flour instead of cornstarch?
most likely yes, it just may not be as crispy!
I want this sauce on everything. Had to make myself stop eating it.
The only thing I modified was that I doubled the ingredients for the sauce, but only used 3/4 cup of vinegar. I was afraid of using too much. It came out fantastic.
Really looking forward to using this recipe again. I might try baking the chicken instead next time as i’m not a fan of frying a lot of things.
Thank you for sharing.
I love this simple recipe but superb and tasty yummy.
This was absolutely amazing! Wanted to surprise my hubby with Chinese food and went and made 6 lbs of chicken with homemade lo mein,it didn’t even last one night with my family! Super addictive thanks for an awesome dish!
Do you think it would be okay if I use flour instead of cornstarch, I don’t have the time to go to the store.
ran out of cornstarch and used flour. was still amazing
Lovely recipes n ideas but sometimes ingredient names r confusing so plz give d alternative names
Looks great!! Any suggestions(besides white rice) to go with this?
Hi.
The recipe says “Mix all ingredients together and pour over chicken. Bake chicken for 6o minutes, turning every 15 minutes. You can also make extra sauce – add all ingredients to a saucepan and simmer until thick”.
This is confusing.
It sounds like the recipe is calling for the chicken to be baked for 60 minutes and then add ALL ingredients (the chicken and sauce that have just been cooked) to a saucepan and simmer until thick.
So is this the case or is the sauce supposed to be simmered until thick and then poured over the chicken? That sounds like it would make more sense.
Thanks.
Its not confusing its saying if you need extra sauce to add all sauce ingredients to a pot to simmer until thickened
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Ever try this sauce with brown sugar? I’m curious. :-)
This was absolutely delicious!!! I made it with broccoli and used rice vinegar AMAZING! I definitely recommend making extra sauce. Way to go!
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