Sweet & Sour Chicken

Like my last post, I mentioned that crusts just don't work for me. There are 3 things in the cooking world that I don't do very well. Crusts, yeast for breads, and corn starch. For some reason, those things hate me when I cook with them. The cornstarch is a big reason I've never attempted Sweet & Sour Chicken before. Most of the recipes I've looked at call for it in the sauce, so I never made them. I did some digging and found some recipes, then made up my own recipe from those. Now, I know what you're thinking, you're not going to try this recipe because it's an experiment; experiments in my house growing up were always a little scary. But I promise this one is good. I didn't make up everything, I combined about 5 different recipes, and added my own flare. Try it, it's now become a staple in our house!

Sweet & Sour Chicken

Chicken Breast (usually one per person that you are serving)
Olive Oil
1 can Pineapple chunks
Veggies (Carrots, Onion, Bell pepper, celery, water chestnuts, garlic - anything you want)
Minced garlic - optional
Minced onion - optional

Sauce:
1 cup sugar
pineapple juice from can
1/8 - 1/4 cup white or rice vinegar
1 cup ketchup
1 ½ tsp salt
2 tbsp soy sauce
2 tbsp honey - optional

Cut up veggies into bite size pieces (not minced, good size: bell pepper or onion 1 inch x 1 inch squares, carrots sliced about the thickness of two quarters together) and set aside. Cut up chicken into bite size pieces. Cook chicken in skillet with 1-2 tbsp of olive oil until done. Remove from pan. Cook veggies in the pan with remaining olive oil or add a small amount of oil to coat veggies, cook for about 5minutes covered, until just tender (don't over cook, you want them a little crunchy). Remove from pan. While cooking chicken and veggies, combine sauce ingredients in a saucepan and bring to a low boil, then reduce heat to keep warm. (**Add vinegar slowly, it can over power the sauce - so if you tend to like vinegar add the full amount, if not add less. Although, tasting the sauce doesn't give an accurate taste because baking it changes the flavor. Trust the recipe, it will turn out good.) Place cooked chicken, cooked veggies, and pineapple in a 9x9 or 9x13 pan (depending on the amount of chicken cooked) and pour sweet and sour sauce over the top. Bake at 350 for 30-45 minutes. Serve over rice.

*I know there aren't measurements for the chicken and veggies, but it's all about what you like. The last time I made this, I used 3 chicken breasts, 4 carrots and a small bell pepper. After I cooked it, I thought it could've used a few more veggies. Next time, more carrots, celery, and a little more pepper, maybe red and orange for more color. I didn't use raw onion because I don't care for it, so I did a tbsp of the minced onion along with a tbsp of minced garlic. Go wild!

**A lot of the recipes I found called for coating in the chicken in egg (or milk) and then dredging it in flour followed by deep frying it. I cut out that step to save on calories, but feel free to add in that step. With keeping leftovers in mind though, flour coated chicken doesn’t warm up well the next day, it tends to be mushy. As where pan cooked chicken with a little olive oil warms up great. We had this for leftovers twice and each time it was fantastic!