Get dinner on the table in 30 minutes with this Easy Sweet and Sour Chicken. A fresh and healthy version with less calories, but tastes amazing with a homemade sweet and sour sauce. No need for Chinese takeaway anymore!
Sweet and Sour Chicken
Recently, my son’s kindergarten teacher asked me if I cooked sweet and sour chicken at home. At first blush, I thought she was asking me (you know, the only Asian mother at a very traditional Swiss school) for a recipe.
But it transpired that the cook had prepared sweet and sour chicken for the childrens’ lunch earlier that day, and my son was the only child who happily ate his meal, plus an extra portion. I am most proud of my son when I hear that he has eaten well!
Sweet and Sour Chicken Recipe
But to answer the teacher’s question, I do in fact make sweet and sour chicken at home. A lot. I know it might not be the healthiest of meals, but it is one of the tastiest ways I know of eating a lot of vegetables.
This is actually a recipe I turn to often when I have odd bits of leftover vegetables in the fridge which need using up.
If I am not making my favourite Thai curry or Japanese curry with those vegetables, a sweet and sour sauce is something I can always whip up quickly using ingredients already in the fridge and pantry.
While I love the Chinese restaurant version of sweet and sour chicken where the chicken is first deep-fried in a crispy batter, I find this to be a bit time-consuming at home, especially on a busy weeknight.
A quicker – and healthier – alternative is to simply sauté the chicken pieces.
Sweet and Sour Sauce
Use the recipe below for sweet and sour sauce to serve alongside any protein of your choice.
You could most certainly substitute the chicken for pork or fish, or leave it out entirely for a vegetarian meal.
I happen to love this sweet and sour sauce with thick slices of firm tofu cooked in the sauce.
What to Serve with Sweet and Sour Sauce
It goes without saying that you can also use whatever vegetables you like. Crunchy vegetables work best in this recipe, such as:
- capsicums (bell peppers)
- green beans
- courgettes (zucchini)
- carrots
- celery
But as this is a recipe I frequently use to empty the vegetable drawers in the fridge, it also tastes great with:
- broccoli
- cauliflower
- cucumber
- bean sprouts
I sometimes also add frozen peas if I think the dish needs a bit of colour. But what I always, always, try to add is pineapple; fresh is always better, but I admit to keeping small tins of diced pineapple in the pantry just for this recipe.
We love to serve sweet and sour chicken with steamed Jasmine rice, which means making a lot of sauce to drizzle over the rice. But, as always, you can customise the dish to your liking and make less sauce.
There’s no need to order Chinese takeaway anymore!
Easy Sweet and Sour Chicken
- Prep Time: 10 mins
- Cook Time: 30 mins
- Total Time: 40 minutes
- Yield: Serves 3-4
- Category: Dinner
- Method: Stove
- Cuisine: Chinese
Get dinner on the table in 30 minutes with this Easy Sweet and Sour Chicken. A fresh and healthy version with less calories, but tastes amazing with a homemade sweet and sour sauce. No need for Chinese takeaway anymore!
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RateIngredients
For the Chicken
- 1–2 tablespoons vegetable oil
- 4 small chicken breast fillets, cut into large cubes
For the Sweet and Sour Sauce
- 1 brown onion, cut into large cubes
- 1 large carrot, peeled and sliced thickly on the diagonal
- 1/2 cup (125 ml) white wine vinegar or apple cider vinegar
- 2 tablespoons soy sauce
- 4 tablespoons sugar
- 4 tablespoons ketchup (tomato sauce)
- 2 cups (500 ml) vegetable or chicken stock
- 1 red capsicum (bell pepper), cut into large cubes
- 1 green capsicum (bell pepper), cut into large cubes
- 8 oz (230 g) pineapple (fresh or tinned), cut into large chunks
- 2–3 tablespoons cornflour (cornstarch) mixed in a little water (or pineapple juice if you are using tinned pineapple)
- coriander (cilantro), finely chopped
To Serve
Instructions
- Heat the oil in the saucepan over a medium-hight heat.
- Sauté the chicken until they have browned well allover. You may need to do this in batches.
- Remove the chicken to a plate and set aside.
- Cook the onion and carrots until the onions start to soften.
- Add the vinegar, soy sauce, sugar, ketchup, and stock.
- Bring to a gentle simmer.
- Return the chicken to the pan, together with the capsicums (bell peppers), and pineapple.
- Simmer gently for about 5-10 minutes, or until the vegetables have softened slightly. I like to have the vegetables still somewhat crisp.
- Taste for seasoning. You might want to add more sugar to sweeten the sauce, or perhaps more vinegar to make it more sour.
- Quickly mix in a bit of the cornflour mixture until the sauce has thickened to your liking. You may not need to add all of it.
- Garnish with chopped coriander (cilantro) and serve with steamed Jasmine rice.
Kitchen Notes
VEGETARIAN
For a vegetarian version, simply omit the chicken and use vegetable stock. This dish is also delicious with thick slices of tofu stirred through the sauce.
VARIATIONS
You can substitute the chicken for thinly sliced pork in this recipe.
Crunchy vegetables work best in this recipe, but you can use whatever you like. Some suggestions include:
* green beans
* courgettes (zucchini)
* celery
* broccoli
* cauliflower
* bean sprouts
* cucumber
CONVERSIONS
To convert from cups to grams, and vice-versa, please see this handy Conversion Chart for Basic Ingredients.
Nutrition
- Serving Size: Serves 3 to 4
- Calories: 448
- Sugar: 37.2g
- Sodium: 659.8mg
- Fat: 5.9g
- Carbohydrates: 73.9g
- Fiber: 3.5g
- Protein: 24.9g
- Cholesterol: 69.2mg
Update
This recipe was first published on 10 November 2017. It has been updated with more comprehensive recipe notes.
My husband loves sweet and sour chicken. I need to make it for him.
I hope he will enjoy this recipe!
I need to get sweet and sour chicken on my meal planning menu in the near future. Thanks for the recipe!
You’re welcome!
Well, you can’t beat sweet and sour or easy. Love the addition of all of the vegetables.
★★★★★
We’re big on vegetables in our family 🙂 And this is a great recipe to make for the family.
I haven’t made sweet and sour chicken in a long time, It’s time to dust off the skillet. I love the colors, thanks for sharing your recipe:)
★★★★★
It’s one of my favourite dishes. Sometimes we go for periods where I haven’t made it in a while, but I always come back to this recipe 🙂
I can feel this warming my tummy already!
★★★★★
It’s definitely comfort food for me 🙂
This sounds so good and I love how versatile it is!
Thank you! It is indeed a very versatile recipe 🙂
Looks yummy!!
Sweet and sour is one of my favorite sauces!
I love how colorful this recipe is!
★★★★★
This recipe sounds so amazing !!!photos look so gorgeous and mouth-watering!!Thank you!!
Is good food and this looks like one of the BEST!!
★★★★★
I tried this recipe and it turned out PERFECT. Kids loved it! because I mentioned there was lots of ketchup :))..consistency, flavor ..
That’s wonderful to hear! My kids love this dish too 🙂 If I mentioned there was ketchup, maybe they would like it even more 😉
I tried this recipe some years ago and remembered that we all loved it. I saw pineapple at the supermarket today and instantly thought of this recipe again. It tasted even better than I remembered!
★★★★★