Sweet and Sour Chicken Recipe

We had this last week and it tasted legit like Chinese restaurant style sweet and sour chicken.  I used to really like sweet and sour chicken when I was a kid, but then started to think that it was too sweet as I got older and I generally prefer spicier Chinese dishes.  We had some fresh pineapple which made me think of this dish and I wanted to try my hand at making it at home – it was super easy and tasty!  I love making stir fry at home – they’re a good way to get a lot of veggies in a meal and they come together super quickly.

Sweet and Sour Chicken

Ingredients

For the sauce:

1 C. pineapple juice

1/3 C. water

3 Tbs rice vinegar (white vinegar would work too)

1 Tbs soy sauce

3 Tbs brown sugar

1 Tbs honey

1/4 tsp ground ginger (or 1 tsp freshly grated ginger)

3 Tbs cornstarch

1 Tbs sweet chili sauce or Sriracha (optional)

 

1 1/2 chicken breasts, cut into 1″ chunks

garlic salt

black pepper

ground ginger

1 tsp sesame oil

1 carrot, sliced on the bias into “rounds”

2 stalks celery, sliced on the bias

1 medium onion, cut into 1″ chunks

1 red bell pepper, cut into 1″ chunks

1/2 green bell pepper, cut into 1″ chunks

1 C fresh pineapple, cut into 1″ chunks

2 C cooked rice (all I had was a wild rice mix and it was good, but jasmine rice or brown basmati rice would be fantastic!)

Directions:

Combine all sauce ingredients in a sauce pan, whisk together.  Cook over medium heat, until thickened, stirring often.

Season the chicken with the garlic salt, pepper, and ground ginger.  Heat the sesame oil in a large saute pan or wok over medium high heat. Add the chicken and cook until no longer pink, about 4 minutes. Add the carrot, celery, onion and peppers. Cook and stir chicken and veggies until veggies are just tender, about 5 minutes.  Add the pineapple and cook for one minute.  Add the sauce and stir to combine and heat through.  Serve over rice. Enjoy!