And it's not radioactive......

First off, I'd like to thank Muneeba at An Edible Symphony for the blog award this week :) Since she has no questions attached, I'm not doing any...pffft....so there ;) And I'm not tagging anybody because you are all great and all deserve the awards too (borrowing a bit here from Wandering Coyote).

Now on to the food. When I came across Tammy's post for sweet and sour chicken a few weeks ago, I quickly added it to my calendar of dishes to try on a weekend since it needs to be baked for an hour.

I am a huge huge huge fan of sweet and sour pork. So much so, that every now and then I sneak across the street to the food court for that wonderfully radioactive red coloured pork. Unfortunately, the food court stuff tends to leave me feeling bloated and gross (probably some residual MSG in there), so if I can make it at home I'm all for it.

So Sunday night rolled around and my blackberry popped up in the morning with a reminder that today was sweet and sour chicken day. I set S to work frying the chicken for me while we enjoyed some mojitos with the neighbor and I chopped vegetables (narrowly missing my finger when the carrot got away from me).

This is the best sweet and sour chicken recipe I have ever had!! No day-glo colours, but amazing flavours! I did up the pineapple to a full can, and a full can of water chestnuts and I think it just made it better.


Sweet and Sour Chickenadapted from Brown Eyed Baker and Sassafras Cafe

for the chicken:
3-4 boneless chicken breasts, cut into bite-sized chunks
salt and pepper, to taste
1 cup corn starch
2 eggs, lightly beaten
1/4 cup canola or vegetable oilf

or the vegetables and fruit:
2 carrots, sliced into diagonal bite-sized pieces
1 yellow pepper, diced into bite-sized pieces
1 red pepper, diced into bite-sized pieces
1 can pineapple tidbits
1 can sliced water chestnuts, cut in half
1 tsp freshly grated ginger

for the sauce:
3/4 cup sugar
4 TBS ketchup
1/2 cup rice vinegar
1 TBS soy sauce
1/2 tsp garlic powder

Preheat oven to 325 degrees F.
Sprinkle salt and pepper over chicken pieces. Toss chicken with corn starch and coat with egg. Place coated chicken on a plate. Heat oil in a large pan over medium-high heat. In several batches, brown chicken on all sides in the hot oil, being careful not to crowd the pan. Remove browned chicken to a paper-lined plate to absorb any excess oil. Place browned chicken evenly in a greased 9x13-inch pan. Set aside.

Remove all but 2 TBS hot oil from the pan. While the pan is still hot, add the vegetables and fruit, sauteing for 2-3 minutes or until ginger is softened. Evenly layer the vegetable mixture over the chicken.Combine sauce ingredients in a small bowl and whisk until sugar is dissolved. Pour the sauce evenly over the chicken mixture and bake in the oven for 1 hour, stirring every 15 minutes.