Sweet and Sour Chicken

Hey Everyone!  It's spring break!  Yay!!!!

Do you know what that means for you?  I get to do fun bloggy stuffy this week!  That means I get to do things to post on this blog!  Today, I want to share what I made for dinner for the family on Saturday.  

Yes, it was so much better than Chinese food!  I invited Eric over, like I always do when I cook and everyone raved about it!  Usually when I cook and everyone says its good I think they are just saying it because they didn't have to cook and they want to encourage me to keep cooking (how many of you do that?...I know I do sometimes!).  But Eric has brought it up again saying how good it was and that he wants me to cook it again.  This is definitely going to be cooked again.  They ate everything!

Okay so do you want to know why this is so good?  It is because it is actual chicken.  Okay you are probably thinking "Alyssa you are crazy, sweet and sour chicken is made out of chicken, duh".  But really its not the same, it seems healthier or at least less fake.

Warning: This takes approximately 1 hour and 45 mins to make so make sure you leave enough time to prepare.

I got this recipe from Joyously Domestic if you would like to check out her blog post.

I am going to say that this makes 5 normal size portions but if you have any boys or people that eat a lot, make more!  Eric begged me to make a whole extra portion for him.

Ingredients

Chicken

• 5 boneless chicken breasts
• Salt and pepper
• 1 cup cornstarch
• 3 eggs, beaten
• 1/3 cup canola oil

Sweet and Sour Sauce

I made two batches of this, one for the chicken and one for custard bowls for during the meal.  Almost everyone ate their entire portion at the table so both were gone!  The second portion I made while the chicken was cooking and warmed it up before serving so I will leave this part as one portion in case you do the same.

• 3/4 cup sugar
• 4 tablespoons ketchup (I know, ketchup...go figure!)
• 1/2 cup distilled white vinegar
• 1 tablespoon soy sauce
• Couple of shakes of garlic powder (I was too lazy to measure this out)

Preparing

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees

Chicken

Cut the chicken into cubes and shake salt and peper on them to taste.

Put the cornstarch and chicken into a gallon size ziploc bag and shake to coat the chicken.  

Put the chicken in a bowl and then coat with the eggs.

Now this is my least favorite part because it makes me cringe doing this so I don't have any pictures.  But, pour your oil into your frying pan and brown the chicken.  I did mine in two batches.

Sweet and Sour Sauce

I started this while the chicken was browning because it took me awhile but it is fine to start after.

Whisk all of the sauce ingredients together in a bowl.

Combine

Put the chicken into a 9x13 baking dish and then pour sauce over.  Mix.

Bake the chicken for 45 mins at 325 degrees while stirring every 15 mins.  Increase the temperature to 350 degrees and cook for another 15 mins.  My family was too impatient so we didn't do this last step and it turned out fine, but cook for another 15 mins stirring every 5 mins.

**Note:  I haven't tried this but I found another recipe that bakes at 350 for 15 mins, stir and then cook for another 15 mins stirring every 5 mins.  Let me know if you try it an it works

You are all done!  I was barely able to take a picture of my food because my dad need me to get something, but there weren't any leftovers so I couldn't snap a picture of the leftovers!  But here is my blurry picture of this delicious dinner!

I'm a picky eater and don't like things touching! Sorry for the blurry picture!

What is your favorite kind of Chinese food that you wish you could make at home?  This is mine and now I know how to make it!!

Enjoy,

Alyssa



P.S. I have linked to The Charm of Home, A Bowl Full of Lemons, A Diamond in the Stuff, Kathe with an E, The Blackberry Vine