A quick and easy sweet and sour chicken recipe that combinesΒ yummyΒ pineapple, bell pepper and Chinese flavours.Β ThisΒ classic Chinese takeaway dish is so ridiculously easy to make at home! It’s delicious, cheap and it only really needs a tiny adjustment to be made gluten free – the soy sauce! Unless you want the βΒ battered chicken version β, which can also easily be made with corn instead of wheat flour.
P.S.: I included two versions for sauce as I know that some ingredients can be hard to find depending on where people live. The second one is a bit simpler and made without shaohsing wine which is by far the hardest gluten free Chinese ingredient to find in my experience. But both are as delicious as one another. ?
Easy Sweet and Sour Chicken Recipe:
- 1 large (or 2 small) chicken breasts
- 130g canned pineapple chunks (4-5 pineapple rings)
- 1 onion
- 1 bell pepper
- 1-2 Tbsp butter (or olive oil)
- Salt
- Black pepper
- Optional: fresh red chilli (to garnish)
- ½ vegetable stock cube (I used Kallo)
- 200ml water
- 200ml pineapple juice (from the canned pineapple)
- 5 Tbsp ketchup
- 1 Tbsp fish sauce
- 1 Tbsp GF soy sauce (I used Datu Puti)
- 2-3 Tbsp Shaohsing wine ( I use a brand called Hua Dia Jiu - if you can't find any, substitute with rice or sherry vinegar)
- 1 Tbsp grated ginger (or ginger powder)
- A few garlic cloves (or 1 Tbsp garlic powder)
- 1 tsp Chinese five spice
- 1 tsp sugar
- 200ml water
- 200ml pineapple juice (from the canned pineapple)
- 5 Tbsp ketchup
- 1 Tbsp GF oyster sauce (I use Healthy Boy Brand)
- 1 Tbsp grated ginger (or ginger powder)
- A few garlic cloves (or 1 Tbsp garlic powder)
- 1 tsp Chinese five spice
Directions
- Roughly chop the onion, bell pepper and pineapple into chunks, finely chop the garlic and ginger and dice the chicken.
- Pan fry the chicken on medium/high heat in a bit of oil, with salt and black pepper, until fully cooked. Set the cooked chicken aside. Note: to cut down on calories, use just a bit of oil, enough to seal the outer layer of the chicken, then add water for the remaining cooking time.
- Pan fry the onion chunks for a few minutes until partly cooked, butΒ still a bit crunchy. Set aside with the chicken.
- Pan fry the bell pepper and pineapple chunks together for about 5 minutes, again keeping the peppersΒ a bit crunchy. Set aside with the chicken and onion.
- Make the sauce: if using fresh garlic and ginger, start by pan frying them in a bit of oil, on low/medium heat, for a couple of minutes. If using powder forms,Β just go ahead and add all of the sauce ingredients into the pan and cook on medium/low heat for about 5 minutes.
- Stir in the chicken, onion, bell pepper and pineapple chunks and cook for a couple more minutes.
- Serve with rice.
Enjoy!
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