Sweet and Sour Chicken. Crispy chicken lightly coated in a sticky sweet and sour sauce. Quick and easy to make at home and not deep fried. Perfect as a side for dinner.
I love sweet and sour chicken stir fry. It's one of my favourite things to eat with a bowl of plain white rice and some leafy greens.
This sweet and sour chicken recipe is something my family and I often order at the restaurants and they usually have it in chicken or pork.
This is very simple and as mentioned it's not deep fried like how they do it at the Chinese restaurants making it slightly healthier. The coating is also not as thick or heavily floured either. But if you want to really coat it up with lots of cornstarch and deep fry it, go for it! We only live once!
The chicken is shallow fried in oil and lightly coated in cornstarch making it slightly healthier as I know many of you want healthy Asian recipes.
Also, my sweet and sour chicken without pineapple doesn't contain pineapple juice either because let's be honest not all of us have canned pineapple readily available!
I also share many other Asian-style chicken recipes that you can find below as well as a vegan Sweet and Sour Battered Mushroom for all my plant based friends!
Other recipes you may like!
SWEET & SOUR BATTERED MUSHROOMS
SOY MAPLE GLAZED CHICKEN
JAPANESE CHICKEN KATSU
DAKBOKKEUMTANG KOREAN CHICKEN STEW
SOY CHICKEN WINGS
STEAMED SOY GINGER CHICKEN
SWEET SOY SAUCE CHICKEN
Watch how I made this!
For this recipe
You will need the following sweet and sour chicken ingredients:
5 chicken thighs, diced
1 tsp salt
½ tsp garlic powder
3 tbsp cornstarch
1 red bell pepper
1 tsp garlic
⅓ cup avocado oil
sweet and sour chicken sauce:
⅓ cup white vinegar
3 tbsp ketchup
⅓ cup water
3 tbsp cane sugar
1 tbsp cornstarch
Can I reheat sweet and sour chicken?
Yes you can definitely keep them for leftovers, however because the coating is light the chicken may not be as crispy. But it still tastes great!
Give it a try!
Well I hope you give my Sweet and Sour Chicken recipe a try! It always excites me when you guys make my recipes and I hope this is one you try.
Thanks for visiting my blog! If you enjoyed this recipe, please share it with your family and friends or on social media! Take a picture if you've made my recipe and tag me on Instagram @christieathome in your feed or stories so I can share your creation in my stories with credits to you!
Made this recipe and loved it?
If you could leave a star rating, I would greatly appreciate it 🙂 Thanks so much!
Take care,
Christie
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Sweet and Sour Chicken (30-min. Recipe)
Ingredients
- 6 chicken thighs diced
- 1 tsp salt
- ½ tsp garlic powder
- ¼ cup cornstarch
- 1 red bell pepper
- 1 tsp garlic
- ⅓ cup avocado oil (to deep fry, fill a medium size pot with 2-3 cups of oil)
- sesame seeds optional
- green onions optional, finely chopped
Sauce:
- ⅓ cup white vinegar
- 3 tbsp ketchup
- ⅓ cup water
- 3 tbsp cane sugar
- 1 tbsp cornstarch
Instructions
- In a small bowl, mix together your sauce ingredients. Set aside.
- Pat your diced chicken dry with a paper towel. This will prevent oil from splattering everywhere when you fry it.
- In a large mixing bowl, add your diced chicken thighs. Season with salt and garlic powder. Coat with cornstarch and mix well until all the pieces have been well coated.
- In a non-stick pan set over medium high heat, add avocado oil. If you want to deep fry it, use a small pot and add more oil as suggested in the Ingredients. Add in your chicken and fry on all sides until golden crispy brown and through (about 12 minutes)
- Remove the chicken and place on a paper towel to absorb excess oil.
- Pour the extra oil into a bowl to cool for compost later. Leave about 1 tbsp of oil in the pan.
- Over medium heat, add garlic and red bell peppers. Fry until the peppers are soft. Then add in your chicken and mix well.
- Lower heat to Low setting. Re-mix your sauce as the cornstarch would have set and pour the sauce over your chicken. Quickly mix well until all chicken pieces are well coated in the sauce.
- Garnish with sesame seeds and green onions (optional) Serve with white rice and enjoy!
NOTES
Ahh this is such a nostalgic dish! My mom would make it on occasion since she doesn't like to deep fry too much. I love how your version is a shallow-fry -- keeps it a bit healthier! 🙂 Have a fantastic weekend, Christie!
Mmmm, this looks absolutely delightful, Christie! I love that your version of sweet and sour chicken is not deep fried - that's so much better than the restaurant version. Yum!
I love what you used instead of pineapple juice to make the sauce... and those sesame seeds sprinkled on top make the chicken so tantalizing! 💕
OKAY I had no idea that ketchup went into sweet and sour chicken!! How cool hehe you really do learn something every day! BTW-- this looks beautiful!
We made this tonight & it was better than take out!! I shallow fried the chicken & just added some pineapple! Delicious Thanks Christie, we’ll be making it again!
This sweet and sour chicken is honestly AMAZING. We tried the shallow pan fry and I actually love it more than the typical deep fry! The flavor of the sauce is delicious and it was even better the next day. My favorite part was that I didn't need to go to the store to buy canned pineapple, I had everything on hand to make it! Highly recommend this recipe!!
Thank you so much for making my recipe Cam! I am so glad you enjoyed it and you liked the shallow frying technique! Happy to hear that the flavour was stronger the next day 🙂 That's always a good thing.
This recipe was super easy to follow and so delish!! My 3yo girl is a huge fan of this dish and I’m now able to save $15/week on take out 🙂 I made two batches, one original for my girl and one spicy for myself by adding siracha to sauce mix. It was heavenly 🙂 Thanks Christie for this recipe!
My friend! I’ve made the recipe and it came out spectacular! It was my first Asian food meal and I really enjoyed. The flavours, the ingredients and texture! Everything perfect! Thanks for sharing!
Thank you so much for making my recipe!! I am really glad to read that you enjoyed it my friend! Happy it worked out and that I could introduce you to more Asian flavours 🙂
Christie,
I just came to fetch this recipe as my girls like the sweet and sour chicken. Loved the fact it's not deeply fried.