Chinese Food Heaven

I was cooking for a while yesterday, but man, was dinner good. Is that braggy? I don't mean it to be braggy. Ok, that's a lie. Yes I do.

We had Sweet and Sour Chicken, Fried Rice, white rice, and Egg Drop Soup (super easy and fast).

It was the best Chinese I have had in a really long time and I would completely recommend each of the links. Of course I didn't make the Chicken or Fried Rice exactly as written. When has that ever happened? Which does occasionally make for "exciting" meals incidentally. This time it worked out.

Here's my interpretation of Sweet and Sour Chicken, the most complicated of the recipes, but SO worth it.

Oh, and if you want to mix it up a bit, the breaded chicken is really good on it's own and would make great nuggets to dip in ketchup and the Sweet and Sour Sauce would still be really good over non-breaded chicken.

If you're wanting to premake things a bit, the sauce can be made before hand and just reheated. Also, it took me a while to fry all the batches of chicken. The comments in the original recipe said that you can fry the chicken earlier in the day and then reheat it in the oven at 350 if you don't have time to do it right before dinner.

Breaded Sweet and Sour Chicken

Ingredients:

8 skinless, boneless chicken breasts, cut into 1 inch cubes

1 recipe Batter (below)

1 recipe Sweet and Sour Sauce (below)

1 8oz can pineapple chunks, drained, juice reserved for Sauce!

2 green bell peppers, cut into 1 inch pieces

1 quart vegetable oil for frying

Sweet and Sour Sauce

1 1/2 cups water

3/4 cup sugar

1/2 cup white vinegar

reserved pineapple juice from can

2 drops orange food coloring or 1 drop red and 2 yellow

1/4 cup cornstarch

1/4 cup water

In a saucepan, combine the first 5 items and bring to a boil. Turn off heat. Combine the cornstarch and 1/4 c water in a cup first (otherwise lump city!) and then slowly stir into the saucepan. Stir until mixture thickens.

Batter

2 1/4 cups self rising flour or 2 1/4 c all purpose and 3 tsp baking powder and 1/2 tsp salt

2 Tbsp vegetable oil

2 Tbsp cornstarch

1/2 tsp salt

1/4 tsp pepper

1 egg

1 1/2 cups water

Combine everything except water in a large bowl. Add water gradually to make a thick batter. Add chicken pieces and stir until chicken is well coated.

Directions:

1. Heat oil in skillet or wok to 360 degrees F. My burner was on medium-high. Fry battered chicken pieces in hot oil until golden. Don't overcrowd the pan! It took me 4 batches. Remove chicken. I like to drain it on a cooling rack over a cookie sheet in a warm oven. Throw a few paper towels in between to help with cleanup. This is also a great way to reheat breaded things- the bottoms totally don't get soggy.
2. Dump the leftover oil, leaving a little bit still in the pan, and quickly stir-fry the bell peppers and pineapple.
3. I served this over white rice, put the chicken down then topped it with the sauce then peppers and pineapple.

Serves 8