Sweet and sour sauce with chicken

Chinese food has become increasingly popular around the world.  It’s considered healthy, because is rich in vegetables and low in greasy. It combines also the proteins of meats with the plant fibres of vegetables and the starch of rice. And if you mention Chinese cuisine it’s impossible to omit most famous and popular dish- Sweet and Sour.

Sweet and sour is a term that covers many styles of sauce and cooking methods. It stereotypically linked with traditional Chinese cuisine, but its popular Westernised version is actually slightly different in preparation methods than original Cantonese sweet and sour.

Western cultures use sweet and sour sauce in two different ways. Dishes can either include the sauce as an ingredient in cooking or use the sauce as a pour-over or dipping sauce for the meal. In China traditionally the sauces are made from mixing sugar or honey with a sour liquid such as rice vinegar, soy sauce, and spices such as ginger and cloves. Sometimes a paste made from tomatoes is used but this is rare and normally restricted to western cooking.

Also Chinese cuisine usually ties certain sauces to particular kind of meat, while Western sweet and sour is served with variety of battered and deep-fried meats, sea food or stir-fry vegetables.

Common in Western sweet and sour sauce is the addition of fruits such as pineapple and vegetables such as sweet pepper, carrots and onions.

Some people find combining sweet and savoury foods together a little strange for their palettes, however the dish has so many fans that I think you should try it at least once to judge if it suits your taste… Here is the easy way to prepare it at home.

Ingredients:

For the sauce:

2 medium sized tomatoes- skinned, seeded and chopped

1 red bell pepper- skinned and chopped

2 Tbsp butter

1 Tbsp honey

1 ½ Tbsp malt vinegar

1 tsp soy sauce

1 tsp Worcestershire sauce

Salt – to taste

Optional ingredients:

1 small onion- finely sliced

1 small bell pepper- diced

1 carrot- peeled and sliced

¼ fresh pineapple or 3 pineapple slices- diced

Oil for frying

500 g diced chicken thighs or breast

For batter:

240g soft flour

Pinch salt

30 ml vinegar

280 ml water

20g baking powder

Pinch of turmeric powder- optional

Pinch of Chinese 5 spice powder- optional

Oil for frying

1. Skin tomatoes and peppers using hot water. (Place the whole, fresh tomatoes into a bowl. Cover with boiling water. Set aside for 30-60 seconds, or until the skins have split. Remove the tomatoes from the water using a fork. When they're cool enough to handle, peel off the skins.) Remove the core and cut into small chunks.

2. Place the tomatoes and peppers in a pan. Add enough water to cover the vegetables and shimmer on a low heat until the vegetables are mushy and sauce gains creamy consistency. Add butter to give the sauce a nice glaze. You can add more water if you don’t want the sauce to be too thick. It all depends on personal preference.

3. Take the pan off the heat, add honey, vinegar, soy sauce and Worcestershire sauce. Mix well together. Your sauce is ready at this point.

Honey obviously gives the sweet taste to the sauce, whilst the "sour" is achieved by adding vinegar, and in the more authentic recipes, rice vinegar is used. There's nothing wrong with varying the quantities of honey and/or vinegar in the recipe to either increase or reduce the sweetness of the sauce. You can mix those ingredients in ratio that suits your taste buds best. You can also use vegetarian Worcestershire sauce if you want to make sure your sauce is 100% vegetarian. 

4. Prepare batter for the chicken. Mix sifted flour, salt and vinegar together. Gradually add cold water whisking well. When the batter is smooth add baking powder and mix well. You can add a pinch of turmeric powder as natural yellow colouring to add golden tint to your batter. If you wish to incorporate more flavours into your chicken also add Chinese 5 spice powder. 

5. Heat up the oil to 180C using deep fryer or heavy based pan. Dip the diced chicken in prepared batter and mix well. Deep fry in the hot oil until batter turns golden brown  and chicken is fully cooked inside. Remove  from fryer and drain well on kitchen paper.  

6. Heat 2 Tbsp of oil in heavy based frying pan or wok. Add onions and other vegetables and fry for a few minutes until carrot and pineapple are tender. 
Pour prepared earlier sweet and sour sauce over the vegetables and stir together. When ready pour reheated sauce over the chicken. Serve warm with rice. Enjoy!

Tips:

You can create as many varieties of this dish as you want. Instead of chicken you can use any type of meat or fish or just stick to vegetarian stir-fry.

Using vegetables in Step 6 is optional. You can adjust the ingredients to your personal taste. If you don’t like battered chicken you can fry it instead with the vegetables and cover with sweet and sour sauce for a nice glaze.

You can also use your sweet and sour sauce base as a dip for popular Chinese starters or other dishes.