Sweet and Sour Chicken

Picture taken by my vegetarian husband

My husband travels a lot for work.  Lucky for him, he has a fantastic wife who manages pretty well while he is away.  He likes to think of it as a fantastic team work, he's out on the frontline and I am holding down the fort.

When we met, he was a vegetarian, but it was quickly remedied by a diabolical plan. He began to eat beef only.  So when he went out of town, that is when I always cooked chicken. Pork and chicken week was code for, "Fairb's out of town".

Well recently, he decided he was a vegetarian again.  This time to lose weight.  Oh dear, this
won't do, this won't do at all.  Lucky for him, I always cook plenty of veg,  but I will always have beautiful, gracious, humble, giving animals on the menu.  So good news for me, I don't have to wait until he goes out of town to cook chicken, because I'm not coddling to a stinking vegetarian, that's for sure!  So recently, while he was in town,  I made one of my favorite dishes, sweet and sour chicken.

Sweet and Sour Chicken

First, dice up 3 boneless skinless chicken breasts and marinated it for a few hours in;

1 egg

splash of soy sauce

splash of cooking rice wine

splash of pineapple juice

splash of ketcup

3 smashed garlic cloves

small quartered onion

Meanwhile,  thin sliced carrots, cut 1 red pepper and 1 onion.   Also cut up a fresh pineapple into chunks.  You are welcome to eat a few chunks, just don't get a canker!

Time to make the sauce. 

1/2 cup pineapple juice

1/2 cup ketchup

1/2 cup rice vinegar

1/2 cup water

1 cup sugar

Boil above ingredients together and thicken with a corn starch slurry (1 part corn starch 1 part water).  While it is boiling, slowly add the slurry and whisk, continue until it reaches the desired consistency. 

Now that the prep work is done, its time to get cooking.  Drain the chicken from its marinade and discard the onions and garlic.  Coat the chicken lightly with some flour.  

Get your wok or pan smoking hot, and add about 3 T vegetable or peanut oil in the pan. Add the chicken add stir fry till the chicken is cooked throughout.  Remove the chicken from the pan, and add more oil. Allow the pan to get smoking hot again.  Add the vegetables and pineapple and stir fry till tender crisp.  Add the chicken back in then add the warmed sauce.

Serve with rice.  This is a fantastic chicken dish.  Sorry Vegetarian Fairb.