Sweet and Sour Chicken

I mentioned in my post about our trip to Kampala, how much we love Chinese food. There are three types of food on this earth — Chinese food, Mexican food, and everything else. 

I started collecting recipes for our favorite Chinese dishes before we ever had plans to move to Africa. I was thankful I had done this because we discovered the town we live in here has very little variety in food. You can get Central Asian food (Indian), and African food. There are a few places that serve African variations on American dishes that are quite good, but it isn’t the same.

I thought I’d share the recipe for one of my favorite Chinese dishes, Sweet and Sour Chicken (or Pork). It’s fairly simple to make and I’ve adapted it to be easier to fix than if you follow the recipe exactly. I’ll share that below. For now, the recipe as it appears in my book Enjoy Chinese Cuisine, by Judy Lew.

Sweet and Sour Chicken (or Pork)

• 2 Chicken breasts (or 1/2 pound pork cubes
• 1 teaspoon salt (I omit)
• 3 cups oil for deep frying

Batter:

• 1/2 cup flour
• 1/4 cup corn starch
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 3/4 cup cold water

Sweet and Sour Sauce:

• 3/4 cup water
• 2 Tablespoons corn starch
• 2 Tablespoons rice vinegar (I use regular vinegar and it works fine)
• 3 Tablespoons ketchup 
• 2/3 cup sugar

Garnish:

• 1 tomato wedged (I omit)
• 1 small green pepper, wedged
• 1/2 cup pineapple chunks
• 1 teaspoon sesame seeds (I omit)
• 1 small onion sliced
• 1 small carrot sliced

Dice the chicken or pork. Mix together the ingredients for the batter. Dredge the chicken or pork pieces through the batter, then fry them in the heated oil until crispy and done (about 4 minutes). Drain onto a paper towel.

Combine sauce ingredients in a small saucepan. Mix together until boiling and thick, stirring constantly. 

Arrange chicken and veggie pieces together in a bowl, sprinkle with sesame seeds and pour the sauce over it. Serve with rice.

When I fix it for us, I don’t make the batter or fry the chicken/pork. I sauté the meat until completely cooked, then add the veggies and sauté those until they are tender (add the carrot first, onion last). I don’t usually put pineapple chunks or tomatoes in ours because I don’t like the flavor.

The sauce is good enough to make and keep around for using on other things. I love its flavor! I have to triple the recipe for us but I don’t triple the sugar in the sauce and it still tastes fine.

I hope you try it and enjoy it! Let me know how it turns out!