Sweet and Sour Popcorn Chicken

Eating just chicken and fish (and vegetables of course) can be limiting sometimes. I tend to cook almost exactly the same dishes over and over. For chicken, it is either fried, barbecued, baked, or curry. My daughter is not fond of afritada or tinola so I don't cook them. Recently I posted a blog about my orange chicken recipe. And been cooking it since, at least once a week. To cut it short, my daughter got tired of it too. So I thought, maybe she will like sweet and sour chicken. I bought a frozen dish at Walmart and she seems to like it. But I don't plan on buying frozen meal on a regular basis. So guess what, this is my next experiment.

As usual I googled the recipe and tweaked it a bit to make my own version. I made some mistakes but im sure I will be able to correct it the next time I cook it. My daughter loved it! Although she said she wants more sauce.


Here is my recipe for sweet and sour popcorn chicken

Ingredients

2        pcs        chickeen breasts, cut into squares
2        pcs         egg
1        cup        all purpose flour
1        tsp         salt
1        tsp         pepper
Oil for frying

Sauce

1         cup        pineapple chunk
1         cup        pineapple juice (juice from the chunk)
1/2      cup        green and red bell pepper, cut into squares
1/2      cup        carrots, cut into small pieces
1 1/2   tbsp       conrstarch, dissolved in 2 tbsp water
3         tbsp       brown sugar
2         tbsp       vinegar (I used Datu Puti vinegar)
1/2      cup        water
1         pc          medium onion, chopped
1         tbsp       chopped ginger

Procedure

Dip the chicken in flour, then egg then flour again. Fry until golden brown. Set aside.

In a saucepan, saute onion, ginger and carrots for 5 minutes.

Add bell pepper, pineapple chunks, pineapple juice, sugar, vinegar and water. Cook for another 10 minutes.

Add the cornstarch mixture and chicken. Simmer for 5 minutes or until the sauce thickens.

Serve over rice.

The recipe above was already revised. Originally I only used 1/2 cup pineapple juice. But since my daughter wanted more sauce, I thought of doubling the amount. As for sugar,  I used white sugar, it came out pale, so I added 1 tbsp soy sauce for color. But then i thought if I used brown sugar then the sauce will turn to shiny brown color due to its caramalization.  Aside from carrots and bell pepper, you can add diferent veggies like green beans and onion leaks. Otherwise, this recipe is already perfect, well, in my opinion! Happy cooking!!