Sweet and Sour Chicken
When it comes to Chinese recipes, there are a few basic cooking methods. One of them is sweet and sour.
Sweet and sour chicken is also one of the most popular dishes. It’s basically fried chicken cubes coated with a crispy batter and stir-fried with a mouthwatering sweet and sour sauce.
Sweet and Sour Sauce
How do you make sweet and sour sauce? With my easy and healthy recipe (no red food coloring in the sauce!), you can make it in advance and keep in the refrigerator. The ingredients include:
- Ketchup – this is the key ingredient and gives sweet and sour sauce its iconic color.
- Chili Sauce – you can use any Asian chili sauce you like. This gives you the heat in the sweet and sour sauce.
- Plum sauce – this is one of the secret ingredient that gives my recipe that extra special flavor
- Lea and Perrins Worcestershire sauce – this is another secret ingredient that will make your sauce just like the best Chinese restaurants
- Chinese rice vinegar – this ingredient gives the tartness in the sauce and makes sweet and sour chicken sauce so appetizing
- Sugar – the sweetness in the sauce comes from sugar.
Other Recipes You Might Like
How Do You Cook Sweet and Sour Chicken?
The key to a great sweet and sour chicken is that you don’t want your chicken to swim in the sweet and sour sauce like what most Chinese restaurants do.
The sauce should lightly coat the chicken cubes so they don’t turn soggy. Another secret is the use of baking powder in the frying batter, which does a great job in giving the battered fried chicken an extra crunch.
What Dishes to Serve with this Recipe?
For a wholesome meal and easy weeknight dinner, I recommend the following recipes.
Pairs well with:
Sweet and Sour Chicken Recipe
Sweet and Sour Chicken - crazy delicious and crispy chicken in the most amazing homemade sweet and sour sauce. This Chinese takeout is so easy to make and better than restaurants.
Ingredients
Ingredients:
- 8 oz. boneless and skinless chicken breast, cut into bite-size cubes
- 1 tablespoon Shaoxing wine, (optional)
- 2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
- 1 green bell pepper, seeded and cut into squares
- 1 small tomato, cut into wedges, optional
- 1 stalk scallion, cut into 2-inch lengths
- oil, for deep frying
Batter:
- 4 tablespoons all-purpose flour
- 4 tablespoons corn starch
- 1/2 cup water
- 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
Sweet and Sour Sauce:
- 3 tablespoons ketchup
- 2 tablespoons Lingham brand hot sauce or other chili sauce
- 1 teaspoon plum sauce
- 1/2 teaspoon Lea and Perrins Worcestershire sauce
- 1/4 teaspoon Chinese rice vinegar
- 1/2 teaspoon oyster sauce
- 1 tablespoon sugar
- 3 tablespoons water
- 1/2 teaspoon corn starch
- 3 dashes white pepper powder
Directions
-
1Cut 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.
-
2Heat 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.
-
3Add 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, tomatoes and add the chopped scallions, do a few quick stirs, dish out and serve immediately with steamed white rice.
Recipe Notes
If you don't have Lingham hot sauce, you can use other chili sauce or chili garlic sauce. If you use Sriracha, which is very spicy, you probably should tone it down to about 1/2 tablespoon or to taste.
Dominique
Amazing recipe. Just tried it for the first time and really enjoyed it. Didn’t had the plum sauce but looked after a recipe. The end result was fantastic (made with dried plums, vinegar, sugar, white vinegar, sushi vinegar, garlic, ginger and pepper). Not sure if it comes close to the original chinese taste but added extra flavour to the sweet sour sauce. This recipe is a keeper.
Rasa Malaysia
Hi Dominique thanks for trying my sweet and sour chicken recipe.
Neli Howard | Delicious Meets Healthy
This is better than restaurant quality sweet and sour chicken…absolutely perfect without any changes. All of my kids enjoyed it too, which is bonus!!!
Ann Cheah
I just made this tonight and it was delicious! Thank you for the recipe.
Rasa Malaysia
Hi Ann, thanks for trying my sweet and sour chicken recipe!!! :)
Colin
No pineapple or pineapple juice in this recipe?.. I thought that wud be a key ingredient in sweet n sour?
Rasa Malaysia
There are many ways to make sweet and sour chicken. You don’t need pineapple or pineapple juice to bring out the flavor.
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Al
Hi, do you add tomatoes in the dish? When do they go in?
Mausie
Made this tonight, was delicious! Heaps of flavour, great batter and chicken, will be a regular now, can’t wait to try another rasamalaysia recipe
Sam I.
I love sweet and sour chicken, can’t wait to try this out. Thanks for the recipe!
Diane Brown
The picture accompaning the recipe shows tomatoe and red pepper also. Is this your actual sweet and sour, or is this a different picture.
Rasa Malaysia
I updated the pictures but the recipe tastes the same. You can add tomatoes and red peppers.
Aleksandra
Thank you! Finally a sweet and sour sauce that is the real deal, not the sweet syrup they serve everywhere. I couldn’t get a plum sauce so I used plum preserves with some garlic and ginger added ;)
Musharaf
How to thining the sauce. As the pieces float in saucr.
Musharaf
How to make more thiner sauce?
Musharaf
How to thin sauce ?
Sam
Delicous, surprised at how well it tasted as I substituted the plum sauce and chili sauce for a sweet chilli sauce.The chicken batter was nice and crunchy and sauce was better than any chinese restuarant i’ve tasted! Got great feed back from family!
Rasa Malaysia
Hi Sam, great to know that your family enjoy my sweet and sour chicken recipe.
Kaylee
Hi! May I know what brand of plum sauce do you use? Will Lee Kum Kee brand be okay? Or any other substitutes you can recommend. Thanks a lot!
Rasa Malaysia
Yes Lee Kum Kee is fine.
DZ
Hi Bee, did you retake the photos? They look so good and much better than the last set… Was planning to make sweet sour chicken but with your pork recipe based on the picture alone but I’ve changed my mind… I’ll use this recipe instead!
Musharaf
I have tried this raciept, but at the end chicken pieces are too hard to chew. Can you please tell what i have made a mistake?
Rasa Malaysia
That’s strange I think you fried too long.
Din
Wonderful and easy to follow recipe for a dinner for two! :) The only two questions I had was:
1) The Chinese restaurants seem to use more batter?
2) Do the restaurants use more than two tablespoons of oil?
Apart from that, everything else tasted great.
Rasa Malaysia
Yes Chinese restaurants have thicker batter and more greasy and oil used.
Melinda
I made this dish yesterday and it was a hit. My hubby loved it and said that it’s even better than restaurant sweet and sour chicken. A couple of questions, if I want more sauce, do i just double the sauce recipe? Also, I couldn’t find shaoxing wine. Any idea where to get it in KL? Also, I used rice vinegar (white) as I couldn’t find Chinese rice vinegar. Does that make a difference to the dish?
Rasa Malaysia
Yes you can double the sauce. Rice vinegar is fine. Shaoxing wine any supermarket has it.
Anna
What Chinese rice vinegar you use in that recipe? Black Chinkiang vinegar or perhaps red or white vinegar?
Rasa Malaysia
White vinegar.
Tracey
Today I made my first recipe from your website. It took me a month to find all the ingredients in Greece. Sweet & Sour Chicken – absolutely delicious!!!
Rasa Malaysia
Hi Tracey, wow, thanks so much for trying the recipe.
shyan
I recomend a cornflour and egg batter when used it keeps the chicken crunchy without the sauce making it soggy put the chicken in the corn flour then egg then cornflour again☺
Virginia
Hi..am from the Philippines ..I cannot find plum sauce .. Any substitute?
Rasa Malaysia
Just add more ketchup
Adrian
Just tried this today, very yummy and a balanced taste, even though i did not have plum sauce, Thanks for the great recipe!
paintnmynails
I made this 2 nights ago and it was absolutely wonderful! I have Celiac disease so I always have to sub out anything containing gluten. I did and the recipe was still completely successful. Family had no clue they were eating gluten free. Batter fried up very crisp and light. I just love your website and thank you for teaching me how to make these dishes. I can’t safely go out for Chinese food with having Celiac and now I can have food at home that tastes even better. I am not missing out. Big hug to you!
Adriana
I can’t wait to try this recipe!
Sheila
Hi there. Just a suggestion – you should put the “Cook’s Note” about using Sriracha chill sauce right in the ingredients list. I used Sriracha because that’s all I had and cut it back to 2 tbsp because I knew it was spicy but it was still very spicy. Ok for me but too spicy for my daughter. If the note had been in the ingredient list right after the Lingham sauce listing, I would have know to only use 1/2 tbsp.
Otherwise, very good recipe.
Angie
The sauce taste superb ! However my batter turns out to be very watery, I wonder what’s wrong? Should I use less water instead, adjust it so that it’s just enough to cover the back of a spoon ? Thanks !
Rasa Malaysia
Yes you can adjust the water.
Shirley Ong
just like to check for your recipe the ingredients quantity is based on how many people?
Eunice
Thanks for your recipes, i’ve tried yesterday it’s very delicious, I love it so much :-P
SaucySpatula
Can’t wait to try this dish on the coming weekend! I might even put a little twist to it too :)
Thanks for sharing!
DanS
Chicken looks very good! Gorgeous photo!
Would you recommend to fry the chicken twice ( low to cook and high for crispy)?
Dianne
Thank you for your awesome recipes..I made this dish last night and we loved it..I also made your BBQ Pork and was awesome…Great work!
Dianne
PJ
I used onion instead of scallion and added pineapple as well. Personal preferences but the pineapple tasted AMAZING with the sauce. Thank you for this recipe. I love sweet and sour but hated not knowing what crazy chemicals might be thrown in. Now I can make it myself!
Michelle
I love authentic Chinese, even more so when I can make it at home and know it’s not “Americanized”, which most Chinese places are where I live.
My big question here is; have you cooked with bamboo? I don’t know if there are different kinds of bamboo or which to cook with; but one of my favorite dishes in Germany was a mix of fast sautéed vegetables with bamboo served on rice and topped with seasoned breaded chicken and fresh sweet & sour sauce.
I look forward to trying your recipe and my family having another added favorite home made Asian dish to the menu!
Ray
I am not a fan of sweet and sour sauce and do not order it often. But I tried your recipe and its amazing especially as it does not call for any sugar(not a fan). I was initially sceptical of the batter cause I really do not like fried food especially with batter on it, but it turned out to be very light which I guess is as a result of the baking soda. I will definitely make this again. Thank you. @ bheifner, I made my own plum sauce because I prefer to be certain of whats in the sauce so I never by if I can make it and it had no corn starch in it. Just google how to make plum sauce, there are different recipes, choose what best works for you. I hope that helps. I am not too sure about the oyster sauce though.
bheifner
I don’t like American Chinese sweet and sour so I’ve never tried to make it. I’ve read that real sweet and sour is not Americanized. Is this a “real” Chinese recipe?
DanRobin99
Can you recommend a recipe for the plum sauce and the oyster sauce? My son has celiac disease and is allergic to corn. All the plum and oyster sauces on the market have either or both gluten and corn. I can easily convert the rest of this recipe to gluten free, but it’s tricky with the plum and oyster sauce – there are so many recipes out there for these and they vary widely. I want it to taste like real sweet and sour chicken. Hope you can help!!
vtoria
Yikes! I meant to say Bee! (not Rasa) Duh!
Victoria Peabody
5.11.13
I to am confused as to using 1/2 tsp baking powder or baking soda….which do I use????
(Per the recipe above….1/2 teaspoon baking soda/baking powder)
I want to try this immediately but don’t want to use the wrong ingredient and have to throw the entire dish away.
Anyone that has made this…your help would be so appreciated.
Rasa Malaysia
You can use either one.
vtoria
Rasa,
Which do you prefer?
I am not a very cook cook so I am pretty unsure about this.
Thanx so much for the fast reply…
Rasa Malaysia
Either is fine, whichever you have.
CA Ong
Hi, what is Lea and Perrins Worcestershire sauce? Is Lea and Perrins the brand? Where can I get it?
Michele Ong
What do you mean by (all purpose-flour)? Thank you.
Akari Akatsuka
Thank u so much! I can’t wait to surprise my mom when she comes back from china! She will be very happy. Thanks again! :) x
paulina
I’ve tried this recipe yesterday with the Lingham sauce, It was delicious, and not spicy. This will be my sweet and sour sauce for everything. Thank you.
Aj
Hi may I ask if what temp oil is heated to and how long chicken must be fried to cook through? Thanks!
daisy
I tried your recipe last night and it was really spicy. It actually overpowered the actual taste. I hardly tasted sweet. But overall it was good, did I do something wrong?
Rasa Malaysia
This shouldn’t be spicy, and no one has complained about it. I used Lingham hot sauce which is not that spicy, if you use Sriracha then just use a little bit.
Shauna
Sweet and Sour Chicken is my absolute favourite dish to order when going to a Chinese Restaurant. Never ever expected that a homemade recipe would come close but this is AWESOME. Multiplied it easily by 5 as was having a lot of family over. Highly recommend and will definitely be eating this again!
Phillip
Hello, I discovered your book and made the Kung Pao chicken last week. It was great! I would like to try the S&S Chicken next. Is there a difference in the Lea & Perrins worcestershire sauce or can I just use a brand like Heinz that is already in my refrigerator?
Zsusha
Hi! I’ve just discovered your blog and I LOVE it! We are from Australia but are living in Argentina. At home we can get really amazing asian food for great prices so we never end up cooking it ourselves… But here it’s not very common and sadly not very good so I’m now going to try and cook all our favourites ourselves! I can’t say thank you enough for your recipes and tips! I can’t get every ingredient though, so I’m substiting here and there. So you may get some questions from me about this! So for this recipe I have everything except the plum sauce :) Do you think there might be a substitute I might use? Thanks again from a very happy reader!
Rasa Malaysia
You can opt out the plum sauce.
Zsusha
Awesome, thanks i’m going to try it this week! :)
Ada Okorogheye
What country does the chicken often come from?
Buck Sidhu
Old Taiping boy, 40 years in UK, many thanks. Brought back childhood memories. Sweet & sour fish (cod) turned out perfect with a few adjustments of my own due to some ingredients not aviable. Thanks once again.
LKAustin
I want to add – I am on weight watcherfs, and while this is not a low-fat dish, it is great to at least know exactly what goes into it, so I know what to track. I LOVE being able to make my favorite dishes at home, and really appreciate your site!
LKAustin
I tried this tonight and had an issue with the chicken sticking to the bottom of the pan. I have my wok on order, so I used a regular soup pot for frying. Should I have stirred as I added the chicken? Was it not enough heat? Managed to scrape it up and it was delicious anyway!
Rasa Malaysia
Yes, the hot is not hot enough and also you can stir it as you added the chicken. So sorry I don’t know much about Weight Watchers so not sure about how to calculate the calories.
uzair
best recipe ever……
Darby Davis
how many servings does this make?
Rasa Malaysia
2
griffin
wow i used 1/2 a CUP of baking soda. tasted like death
Rasa Malaysia
Was it a mistake? The recipe asked for 1/2 teaspoon baking soda.
Su Lim-Macdonald
Tried this recipe this evening – it’s fantastic. I’m not a fan of sweet sour chicken/pork (although the rest of Australia is! haha) but the balance of taste is perfect. Just one question – I guess the addition of 2 tbsp of oil to the sauce is to give it the glistening look. Am I right? Can I omit it or reduce? I used olive oil instead but would still welcome your feedback re omission of oil. Thanks a bunch, mate!
Rheena
Wat a fabulous recipe. Made it for lunch today and I just couldn’t have enuf of it!
Ps I’m hooked on to ur blog!
Justyna
BEST recipe ever! The chicken is sooo delicious it never gets boring! HIGHLY recommended recipe! Thanks!
Angie
I just made this for dinner and it was really good! I added pineapples to the recipe too, will make again soon!
m&t
i added pineapple juice to the sauce and a little fresh squeezed lemon juice. overall was a great recipe to follow and make personal changes too
Val
I got a Korean stir fry recepie that I need to use sweet and sour sauce is ur sau e a Korean style thanks
daniel
i want to ask you :) why you add baking powder in the batter ? is baking powder can improve the texture ? or what ?
tq for answer mam .. tq
Rasa Malaysia
Yes, it will make the batter airy and crispier.
angel
Daniel mentioned baking powder but the recipe says baking soda, was wondering which one it is, because they are different. You agreed with her that it is baking powder. Which one is it baking powder or baking soda? please respond soon. thank you
Bubbles
I tried yr recipe a while ago and whilst I didn’t hv rice vinegar with me, it tasted SO AWESOME! I was skeptical initially when I read linghams but given the above comments I must say it’s the best dish I’ve cooked so far. My hubby finished the whole bowl!!
Thank u! I’ll be sure to try yr other recipes
Rasa Malaysia
Awesome, so great that you love my sweet and sour chicken recipe.
SparklingRachel
Oh my, after trying your delicious sweet and sour tofu recipe I am craving for more! Once again you are right about the baking soda, it does make the chicken more crunchy and crispy. I even doubled the sauce….couldn’t help. It’s too yummy! Thanks for this great recipe!
redgems
I came across your recipe earlier today and was a little scared that I may not be able to do justice to your sweet and sour chicken picture! The chicken came out great – crispy and yummy. I didn’t have some of the ingredients for the sauce but improvised (honey and chili flakes) and it still turned out really awesome. Marking it as a favorite dish. Thanks much!
Jen
This is a great recipe, my kids loved it and my 2 year old has asked for it again tonight. Success!
Kate
This chicken is absolutely delicious! I added an onion and red pepper along with the green pepper and it was fantastic. I was skeptical about the amount of cornstarch, especially because I basically quadrupled this recipe, but that is what makes the coating on the chicken crunchy and fluffy. This is definitely a keeper! Better than some chinese restaurants around here! I was so impressed!
J
Thanks for the recipe, I just started looking online today and yours seems the best out of the others. They all call for different amounts of cornstarch in the batter, and some don’t use baking soda, or eggs. Yours doesn’t use eggs, does the baking soda replace the eggs? Also, I was wondering if this could be cooked in butter instead of oil or would that just totally ruin the flavor of the batter? please help, I’m not a very good cook :( Thanks again. J
Rasa Malaysia
Just follow the recipe as is and you will get the best results.
Caity
I tried this recipe about 4 times and 3 times and it came out perfect. Thanks.I love your recipes ^_^
Darlene
Made this for partner last night & he loved it! & he’s a meat & 3 vegies man. Tasted way better than some we have had Chinese restaurants we definatly make this again.
Darlene
Just a update had to have gallbladder removed a month ago Dr has put me on low fat diet so made this without the batter & was still great.
paleryder2
I do love your recipes! I try to remain as faithful as I’m able but some ingredients are out of my ability to get…the curse of a rural location. :) With this one I use Tyler Florence’s sesame chicken batter which is a marinade also. I hope you don’t mind. But this sauce is hands down the best I’ve made. To me the sauce is what makes it anyway. It’s good to find something without the pineapple all the time. Thanks so much for your efforts.
THE GB GUY
this was almost too spicy and overpowered with the chili sauce. other than that it was great, i’ll just use 1/2tsp of chili sauce next time instead of 3 tbls
Rasa Malaysia
What brand of chili sauce do you use? I use Lingham’s, which is sweet.
paleryder2
Whew! I used Kikkoman’s Thai style…probably not the same as Lingam but I thought as it is sweet it would be ok to use.
BIG G
Looked at your sweet&sour chicken recipe and I want to make it.
One big problem for me, my stomach cannot tolerate “hot” as in chili.
What should I subtitute in place of that? More ketchup? more plum sauce?
Thanks anybody for some help…
BIG G
Katie
I tried the S&S Chicken recipe tonight with mixed success. First, the hot sauce you recommended was not available at my local grocery store, so I used a general red hot chili sauce (Chinese brand, but can’t remember the name). The sauce came out pretty spicy, my mouth was on fire the first few minutes. Is the sauce supposed to be spicy? Second, I guess from reading other comments that my oil was not hot enough as the batter kept sticking to my pan. Is the chicken supposed to be completely submerged in the oil? I only filled the pan about 2 inches and had to turn the chicken to fully cook (which was especially hard with the batter sticking). But other than that, it was quite the tasty dish – I’m glad my first attempt at “from scratch” Asian went this well!
Nur
Thanks so much for the recipe! Had a sudden craving for a sweet and sour dish, and being away from home, I had to make it myself. Although I’m a beginner in the kitchen, it turned out fantastic. This recipe is definitely a keeper, my husband loved it! Thanks a lot and looking forward to trying more of your recipes in the future. Cheers from Melbourne!
Hallie
I tried cooking this just now, it was soooo good! :D But it turned out very dry, I prefer the ones with more gravy. Any advice? Thanks for the recipe!
Rasa Malaysia
You can double the gravy portion. I like my sweet and sour chicken just coated with sauce and not soaked in it. Good luck. :)
Philip Watson
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.
Rasa Malaysia
Philip – I am glad you love my recipes. No, no goopy American-Chinese food here. Hehe.
lorna
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! :)
Rasa Malaysia
It feeds two people with only one dish.
Jill
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
Jo
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 !!
Rasa Malaysia
Jo – so happy you had a successful sweet and sour chicken dish. :)
lynn ann
i’ve been looking for some good disum recipes do you think you can post some soon thanks
Laura
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!!!!
Rasa Malaysia
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. https://rasamalaysia.com/soy-sauce/
aaamanda
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!
Rasa Malaysia
Amanda – great that you love the recipe and that it works for vegetarians, too. :)
Amy
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
Rasa Malaysia
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!
JT
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?
Rasa Malaysia
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. :)
Clueless
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
Rasa Malaysia
Yes, the oil has to be super hot. If the flour is stuck at the bottom, it means your oil is not hot enough.
caroline
I tried this recipe last week and it was a hit!
thanks for sharing it is fabulous!!!!!!!
Rasa Malaysia
Hey, another believer of this sweet and sour chicken recipe :) Thanks you and hooray!
katpigott
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).
Rasa Malaysia
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. :)
katpigott
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!
Rasa Malaysia
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. :)
Marilyn
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? :-)
mycookinghut
A classic and yummy dish! :)
katpigott
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?
Rasa Malaysia
Yes, you can skip it all altogether. :)
Tsu Lin
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!
Rasa Malaysia
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.
noobcook
I really love sweet and sour chicken, pork etc. I must really overcome my laziness to deep fry hehe
Rasa Malaysia
Some say they deep fry everything due to their laziness :P
Pink Parisian
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. :)
Rasa Malaysia
Let me know how this sweet and sour chicken recipe turned out for you after you tried. Hope you’ll like it.
zzzyun
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 :)
Rasa Malaysia
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 :)
calvaryzone
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?
Rasa Malaysia
I have never use malt extract to thicken sauce. The corn starch thickens the sauce.
pigpigscorner
Perfect with rice. yum yum!
lisaiscooking
Looks delicious! Love the idea of less sauce on the chicken.
Rus
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.
Rasa Malaysia
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.
allie
something traditional yet it’s new! :) sweet and sour chicken definitely sounds and looks appetizing!
Rasa Malaysia
Thank you!
tummythoz
Such wicked dishes make me crave bowls of fluffy rice.
Rasa Malaysia
Keh pui keh pui..add rice add rice :P
Gastrogeek
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.
Rasa Malaysia
You will enjoy this dish. Don’t forget the rice :)
Manggy
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! :)
Rasa Malaysia
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.”
Damien
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 !!!
Rasa Malaysia
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.
Happy Cook
Love sweet and sour chicken, one of my favourite.
Bookmarking to make them.
Rasa Malaysia
Enjoy this recipe :)
Dominique (de vous à moi...)
Where are my chopsticks? It’s breakfast time here but your pictures give me appetite! I love sweat and sour flavors. Thank you sharing…
Rasa Malaysia
This is a light dish but still, may not be light enough to make breakfast :) But enjoy!
Christa
Hi. I noticed in the recipe that the batter has *Baking Powder* listed. However, in the comment section I keep seeing references to *Baking Soda*. Which one is the correct powder for the recipe?
Thank you.
Rasa Malaysia
Both is fine.
jason
both is fine? theyre two completely different things.. baking soda is 10x stronger.
Don Black
and really both should be used for a very light and fluffy batter in apropriate amounts
Quynh-Vy
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
Rasa Malaysia
Great that you love the recipe. Love the onion idea. Must add it in the future. :)
Perri Sigfrid
I’m planning on making the sweet and sour chicken recipe. Perhaps I am overlooking something, but can you please tell me how many servings this makes?
Rasa Malaysia
2 people.
Ed
Hi if im making this for 6 people what changes exactly ingredients wise.. would I just buy more chicken breast and leave everything else the same or would more of something else be required ? Thanks!
Rasa Malaysia
You can double the recipe.
tigerfish
I love sweet and sour anything too :)
Saw some of your recipes in InSing.com liow.