When it comes to Chinese recipes, there are a few very popular–and basic–cooking methods, and one of it is definitely sweet and sour.
I love sweet and sour flavors and have shared quite a few recipes, such as sweet and sour pork, sweet and sour fish, and sweet and sour fish balls. Sweet and sour sauce goes extremely well with plain white rice; it also “opens up” your appetite…(get sweet and sour chicken recipe after the jump)
Today, I am sharing my sweet and sour chicken recipe with you. Sweet and sour chicken is a simple recipe that is friendly to most people regardless of your national origin and religion. The key to a great sweet and sour chicken is that you don’t want your chicken to soak and swim in the sweet and sour sauce like what most Chinese restaurants do. The sauce should lightly coat the fried chicken cubes so they don’t turn soggy. Another secret is the use of baking soda in the frying batter, which does a great job in giving the battered fried chicken an extra crunch. Try it and let me know how your sweet and sour chicken turns out!
Ingredients:
8 oz. boneless and skinless chicken breast (cut into bite-size cubes)
1 tablespoon shaoxing wine (optional)
1 green bell pepper (seeds removed and cut into squares)
1 stalk scallion (cut into 2-inch lengths)
2 cloves garlic (finely chopped)
Oil for frying
Batter:
4 tablespoons all-purpose flour
4 tablespoons corn starch
1/2 cup water
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
Sweet and Sour Sauce:
3 tablespoons ketchup
3 tablespoons chili sauce (Lingam hot sauce)
1 teaspoon plum sauce
1/2 teaspoon Lea and Perrins Worcestershire sauce
1/4 teaspoon Chinese rice vinegar
1/2 teaspoon oyster sauce
3 tablespoons water
1/2 teaspoon corn starch
3 dashes white pepper powder
2 tablespoons oil
Method:
Cut the chicken breast meat into bite-size cubes and marinate with 1 tablespoon of wine for 10 minutes. Mix the batter in a bowl and add the chicken cubes into the batter. Mix the sweet and sour sauce in a small bowl and set aside.
Heat up cooking oil in a wok and deep fry the chicken cubes. (Shake off the extra batter before frying). Transfer the chicken out on a plate lined with paper towels to soak up the excess oil. Transfer the cooking oil out and leave only 2 tablespoons oil in the wok.
Add garlic and saute the garlic until light brown and then follow by the green bell peppers. Stir-fry until you smell the aroma. Add the sweet and sour sauce into the wok and bring it to boil. Toss in the chicken, add the chopped scallions, do a few quick stirs, dish out and serve immediately with steamed white rice.
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I love sweet and sour anything too :)
Saw some of your recipes in InSing.com liow.
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Where are my chopsticks? It’s breakfast time here but your pictures give me appetite! I love sweat and sour flavors. Thank you sharing…
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Rasa Malaysia replied:
This is a light dish but still, may not be light enough to make breakfast :) But enjoy!
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Quynh-Vy replied:
Thank you thank you and thank you
It’s the the best chinese dish I’ve ever made in my life
So simple and fast
I added onion (cut into cubes, and quartered mushrooms) at the same time with bell pepper.
it tastes delicious
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Rasa Malaysia replied:
Great that you love the recipe. Love the onion idea. Must add it in the future. :)
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Love sweet and sour chicken, one of my favourite.
Bookmarking to make them.
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Rasa Malaysia replied:
Enjoy this recipe :)
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That’s a wonderful recipe! A great alternative to Sweet and Sour Pork, not saying I don’t like, just it’s good to have another meat for a change. Your blog is really excellent !!!
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Rasa Malaysia replied:
Thanks. I think sweet and sour is 1 of the most versatile way of cooking. You can swap any kind of meat or protein to your liking.
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Oh, I thought the cornstarch was for the crunch, and the soda for the browning… Well anyway, the dish look fantastic– all that’s missing for me is a steaming bowl of rice and I’m set! :)
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Rasa Malaysia replied:
Manggy – crunch is not exactly the right word to use but I don’t know how else to describe it better. There is a word in my native language to describe it. Anyway, baking soda releases carbon dioxide gas into the batter and thus making the fried chicken cubes extra “crunchy” and “airy.”
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Wow this looks so delicious! I’ve always wondered how to make sweet and sour chicken. I’m going to try this over the weekend.
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Rasa Malaysia replied:
You will enjoy this dish. Don’t forget the rice :)
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Such wicked dishes make me crave bowls of fluffy rice.
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Rasa Malaysia replied:
Keh pui keh pui..add rice add rice :P
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something traditional yet it’s new! :) sweet and sour chicken definitely sounds and looks appetizing!
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Rasa Malaysia replied:
Thank you!
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The batter recipe for your Sweet and Sour Chicken differs from that listed in your Sweet and Sour Pork and your Orange Chicken recipes (both of which use the same batter). Can you explain why? I’ve made both your Sweet and Sour Pork and Orange Chicken with very good results (my kids love it… thank you!).
cheers.
–rus.
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Rasa Malaysia replied:
Rus – yes, it’s slightly different. I opted out the egg, but it works the same way and achieve the same results. Just different measurements, etc. Either recipe is fine.
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Looks delicious! Love the idea of less sauce on the chicken.
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Perfect with rice. yum yum!
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i always use malt extract to make the sauce thick and sticky.
taught by my dad.
i guess your alternative here is either the plum sauce or the corn starch?
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Rasa Malaysia replied:
I have never use malt extract to thicken sauce. The corn starch thickens the sauce.
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hey i’d tried making the sweet n sour chicken and the tofu dishes. absolutely amazing! i love them… its so much better to cook oneself when one craves some good ol msian dishes instead of eating out which is expensive overseas and sometimes come out tasting weird!
thank you for ur great recipes! i will try out more of them with time :)
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Rasa Malaysia replied:
Thanks for trying the recipes. I am glad you enjoyed this sweet and sour chicken and other tofu dishes. Please continue to provide feedback and comments on other dishes you try :)
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Thanks so much for this one! I’ve been wanting to cook this myself for ages and ages but never found anyone who could give me a good recipe for the sauce. I’m going to try this out soon. :)
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Rasa Malaysia replied:
Let me know how this sweet and sour chicken recipe turned out for you after you tried. Hope you’ll like it.
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I really love sweet and sour chicken, pork etc. I must really overcome my laziness to deep fry hehe
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Rasa Malaysia replied:
Some say they deep fry everything due to their laziness :P
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Rasa Malaysia, I tried this last week when I saw it!! It turned out ABSOLUTELY great.. the hubs said it’s the best Swt & Sour pork he’d ever had (he’s being drama!). I plan to do this more eventhough I seldom deep fry stuff, well worth the effort (of cleaning up the smell in my windowless kitchen & small apmt).
PS : I noticed the earlier recipe does not have lingam chillli sauce. Please tell me you just added it after Fri right? Can’t be my eyes totally missed that after reading the recipe 5 times!
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Rasa Malaysia replied:
Tsu Lin – my original sweet and sour pork recipe doesn’t have Lingham hot sauce because it wasn’t available then. Now that I have Lingham in my neighborhood Asian store, I would use it instead of Sriracha. Seriously, Lingham is so much better than Sriracha.
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If I don’t want to marinate the chicken in wine, is there something else I could use or should I skip this step altogether?
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Rasa Malaysia replied:
Yes, you can skip it all altogether. :)
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A classic and yummy dish! :)
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Thanks for the recipe! It was so easy to follow. Instead of chicken I used vegetarian chunks and I added in pineapple chunks, onion segments and a dash of red wine vinegar to the sauce. BTW it’s bachang (kochung) season. Will you be making any? :-)
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I made this the other night and it was WONDERFUL! I was trying out different recipes for a large gathering I will be having in a few weeks. So, my family voted for this recipe, but I will have to feed 55 people. Do you have any idea of quantities for that many people? Do you think I will run into trouble if I just multiply the quantities by 20 times or so? I already quadrupled it just for my family of six (I have teenagers, so they eat a lot).
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Rasa Malaysia replied:
Hi Kat – wow, 55 people, that’s a lot of people to feed. Hehe.
How about you make it into like 6 big portions instead of cooking in one batch. I think it’s fine to multiply everything according to the portions. The more the merrier. Good luck and let me know how it goes. :)
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katpigott replied:
Well–I made this for 57 people while cooking on camp stoves. I multiplied the recipe by 30 TIMES(!), and it took me and one other person a good, long while to deep fry all that chicken (about an hour and a half), but it was great. We got rave reviews. Thanks for the recipe!
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Rasa Malaysia replied:
Hi Kat – thanks so much for trying my sweet and sour chicken recipe and that the 57 people loved it. Do you have a picture to share? Would love to see it. :)
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I tried this recipe last week and it was a hit!
thanks for sharing it is fabulous!!!!!!!
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Rasa Malaysia replied:
Hey, another believer of this sweet and sour chicken recipe :) Thanks you and hooray!
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Hi ~~
I tried this recipe and the sauce was fantastic~!!!! But … I just wanna ask.. my chicken didnt turn out crispy like yours .. was it because the temperature of the oil is too low? (i am using electrical stove : ( ) and i notice all the flour was struck on the bottom of the pan ….
Hopefully one day I can make it right : D
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Rasa Malaysia replied:
Yes, the oil has to be super hot. If the flour is stuck at the bottom, it means your oil is not hot enough.
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I’ve never had any luck getting a satisfying “crunch” out of batter fried chicken, the only success I’ve had in frying chicken to a crispy crunch is from your chicken karaage (excellent recipe by the way). I’ve never added baking soda to the batter before, is that the key? I normally make my batter with just eggs and cornstarch and usually a little bit of soy sauce. Also, would a batter benefit from 2-stage frying like in the karaage recipe?
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Rasa Malaysia replied:
Hi JT – I think baking soda gives that “airy” crunch to battered fried chicken, the mouth feel is definitely different. I think your batter recipe works, too, but do try it with a wee bit of baking soda and see if you like it. Yes, frying the chicken two times definitely help. :)
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This recipe was perfect. This was the first time I made a sweet and sour recipe and I wanted the best of all!! I made it with shrimp because we love seafood!! It was soo crispy with the batter! It is definitely true to just mix the sauce lightly and serve quickly. Thank you for such a wonderful recipe!! I am going to keep this forever and I am now, I am a keeper of your website!! What is your favorite Curry recipe? With seafood?
Thanks
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Rasa Malaysia replied:
Hi Amy – Thanks so much and I am glad that you love this sweet and sour chicken recipe and a convert to my website. :)
For curries, yes, I love seafood curry the best!
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I tried your recipe the other night using seitan in place of chicken and it was amazing!! For any vegetarian out there wondering if this would translate well with fake chicken, it does, it does!! I used Morning Star fake chicken strips. Thawed them out before cutting them into cubes and fried them the way you would regular chicken. I also added a little pineapple because I’m big on the sweet portion of sweet and sour. :-)
Thank you so much for the post!
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Rasa Malaysia replied:
Amanda – great that you love the recipe and that it works for vegetarians, too. :)
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Hello!
I tried making it just now but I don’t have plum sauce and a few of the recommended ingredients. I used balsamic vinegar and a bit of honey and it seemed to do the trick.
Thanks for the recipe! :)
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Adriana replied:
I got disconnected last night when I wanted to say that I really like your blog and that I added a link (of your blog) in my blog. Hope you don’t mind.
Cheers! :)
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I love your site, and for sure I’m gonna try this recipe…. do you have some recipe for lemon soy sauce, sorry, I’m mexican and I like the soy sauce but, here in mexico and some restaurants in usa use diluted version of the soy sauce….. but I don´t know how can I make it. Thanks!!!!
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Rasa Malaysia replied:
Laura, I don’t think I know what you meant by lemon soy sauce. I’ve been to Mexico a few times and I understand what you meant by the limited choice of soy sauce. I don’t know how to make them and personally, I wouldn’t recommend home made. You can check out my earlier postings on this topic to get an idea. http://rasamalaysia.com/soy-sauce/
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i’ve been looking for some good disum recipes do you think you can post some soon thanks
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I cooked the sweet & sour chicken recipe last week couldn’t believe how well it turned out as sometimes my dishes don’t look like the pictures… BUT this one did brilliant… cooking it again tonight yum yum !!
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Rasa Malaysia replied:
Jo – so happy you had a successful sweet and sour chicken dish. :)
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Just made sweet and sour chicken using your batter recipe. Wow! What a simple and satisfying recipe. I already had the sweet and sour sauce (in a jar- I know, I know) and I was looking for an easy batter recipe preferably without eggs. Didn’t really feel like an eggy batter. My chicken was delicious. Nice crunch! I seasoned the chicken slices with garlic and onion powders, a little salt and pepper. Can’t wait to use the batter on shrimp. Reminded me of the crust on Chinese restaurant shrimp but it hadn’t been sitting around for hours! I will bookmark your site and use it for other recipes. Thanks
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hey this dish looks soo tasty! i’m planning on making it this week for my boyfreind and i, and i was just wondering how many people your reciepe feeds, if i need to cut down on the amount, thankyou! :)
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Rasa Malaysia replied:
It feeds two people with only one dish.
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Just super! Made it for my family in Moscow, Russia where it is a challenge to find ingredients for Chinese food sometimes.
I made a few modifications to the sauce – I didn’t have any plum sauce, so I added a tablespoon of sugar for sweetness. I cut down on the chili sauce to a tablespoon because of the kids (no lingam, so I had to settle for sriracha which was fine). I also greatly increased the amount of vinegar to about 2 tablespoons to make it nice and tangy.
The only other addition I made was to top it off with lots of fresh cilantro.
yes, I agree with another reader that shrimp would be awesome in this dish. Just wish shrimp here were not so expensive!
The other dishes here look great – can’t wait to try them all. I’ve already tried the cashew chicken and will come back for more. I really appreciate that they aren’t the standard goopy glooopy American-style Chinese fare.
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Rasa Malaysia replied:
Philip – I am glad you love my recipes. No, no goopy American-Chinese food here. Hehe.
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