Sweet and Sour Chicken

Sweet and Sour Chicken is made with plant based chicken and covered in a wonderful sauce that is seriously finger licking good. It tastes like you are going to eat from your favorite take out place, but you can easily make it at home.

If there is one thing that tastes great it is a Sweet and Sour Sauce and I love it all the time with cauliflower like in my Sweet and Sour Cauliflower.

This Sweet and Sour Chicken recipe is different and apart from that, because I don’t use any pineapple juice or ketcap manis.

Instead I use brown sugar to keep everything entirely simple.

Reasons to make Sweet and Sour Chicken

It tastes like your favorite takeout food which you can make so easily and budget friendly at home.

The texture is on point crispy and so delicious like you probably know from Popcorn Chicken.

You can serve Sweet and Sour Chicken up plain or with rice which makes it a more complete meal. Sprinkle with some scallions and sesame seeds if you want to.

You will love all the components in the Sweet and Sour Chicken sauce. It is a well balanced and aromatic sauce that tastes always wonderful.

What you need for this Sweet and Sour Chicken recipe

Plant based chicken – this is our chicken and makes such a great meaty, flavorful texture. If you do chicken you can use equal parts of it.

I use the oil in the coating and for frying. In my gusto a high temperature oil is great. like peanut, avocado or canola oil.

Garlic powder and chili flakes are great in our coating and add lots of flavors here.

For the sauce to really let all the wonderful sweet and sour flavors shine in and out, I use the following: Ketchup, vinegar, brown sugar, and soy sauce. And you wouldn’t believe how such easy ingredients make such a wonderful and complex sauce.

How to make Sweet and Sour Chicken

Coating the chicken

You can use a freezer or Ziploc bag. Also you can simply use a bowl and add in oil, chicken, cornstarch, garlic powder, chili flakes, and a generous pinch of salt and pepper. In the Ziploc bag, make sure to close it and shake everything back and fourth until fully coated.

Fry the chicken

Heat oil in a pan and wait until hot. Then add in chicken and deep fry it for around 4 minutes until golden, crunchy and amazing. Remove from pan and set aside.

Make sauce

In the same pan combine ketchup, vinegar, brown sugar, soy sauce and cook for 2 minutes. Create a slurry from 2 tsp cornstarch and 1 Tbs water and give into the sauce until it thickens up. This takes about 1 minute more cooking on low heat.

Mix with chicken and serve

Add chicken back and cook for 2 minutes more until fully covered in sauce. Serve the Sweet and Sour Chicken hot.

Leftovers and freezing

Leftovers are great for around 4 days. You can reheat them on the stove or even microwave. For freezing, store in individual freezer bags and you can freeze Sweet and Sour Chicken for 3 months. Keep in mind freezer containers are also great and remember to thaw completely before reheating.

Tips and tricks

For the chicken pieces, chop them the same size so they can fry evenly.

You can make everything ahead, prepare the night before.

Also the sauce can be prepared up 3 days before, so all what’s left is to add the cornstarch slurry.

For serving: serve with rice as I mentioned above, chop up some scallions and finally sprinkle with some sesame. It is the classic combination. this is truly always so delicious.

Other Chicken Recipes to try

These are all plant based and so delicious.

• Chicken Riggies
• Chicken Noodle Casserole
• Chicken Spaghetti
• Tuscan Chicken Pasta
• Chicken Salad
• Butter Chicken

Any remakes of the Sweet and Sour Chicken? Share them on Instagram or Facebook.

Enjoy, Florian.