Рецепт Chinese Fakeout: Baked Sweet and Sour Chicken
The inside of our garage upright freezer was starting to resemble Antarctica, so it was time to do some defrosting and rearranging. I found a package of chicken breasts that was hidden behind a big chunk of ice. I rummaged through my pantry and discovered a can of pineapple chunks. I always have red bell peppers in the fridge.
My husband says that I cook by what I am craving. Yep, that's very true. I like Chinese food every once in a while, but there aren't very good Chinese restaurants close by. That's my my craving radar kicked in-- Sweet and Sour Chicken!
I don't want to mislead anyone into believing there isn't any frying involved, because, well... there is! The cut up chicken is coated with egg and then tossed with seasoned flour-- then in a seasoned cornstarch mixture. The chicken is then fried in oil just long enough to brown, but not cook all the way through.
NOTE: I found that the sauce didn't quite thicken, to
my liking. No worries. I carefully drained out the thin sauce into a
- sauce pan and added a slurry of cornstarch and water (about 1 heaping
- tablespoon and enough water to whisk until there were no lumps and it
- was smooth). That did the trick, and I poured it all over the chicken
and it was perfect.
I served this with rice and then we sat down to enjoy dinner, about an hour and a half, after I began prepping and cooking. This isn't exactly a fast meal to put on the table, but it's pretty straight-forward to make.
TASTING NOTES: This is, seriously, the best homemade sweet and sour chicken that I've ever tasted. Even my husband praised how much he loved this dish. If there is anything I would change (and I've noted this on the recipe card) is to cut back a wee bit on the red wine vinegar. The sauce had a bit of a tart bite to it, but it was still very good. Before anyone asks, let me try and guess some questions that might come my way. Can you use dark meat? I would suppose you could, but I've always had white meat with my sweet and sour chicken at Chinese restaurants. Can you use a different type of vinegar, like white wine or rice vinegar? It's worth a try, but I'll stick with red wine vinegar for the flavor and the color. I used only red bell pepper, because I like the sweetness and color of them. Feel free to use a combination or green bell peppers-- whatever floats your boat. Next time, I think I'll cut the bell peppers a bit chunkier.
RECIPE SOURCE: "Carlsbad Cravings"
Just today, my husband mentioned how much he liked this dish. So, I'll take that as reassurance that I'll definitely make this again. When I do, I'll take more step-by-step photos and update this post. It's pretty easy to make, really.
Enjoy!