Baked Sweet and Sour Chicken

Amarante ↓

Fri, Jun 26 2015, 8:11 am

This is not the best chicken recipe I've ever eaten but it's very easy and very kid friendly. And it's tasty but not as good as a real Chinese stir fry. Very Happy

And it's relatively healthy because it's baked - the ketchup and brown sugar aren't the healthiest but not the worst either.

The baking time for chucked chicken breast is way too long so do check after about 20 or so unless you like dried out chicken chunks. Very Happy

My mother's joke when someone recommended a restaurant that served bad food is that their mother must have been a bad cook. LOL

I think you could probably cook the sauce ahead of time if necessary and store in the fridge but then the baking time would need to be adjusted but that's a pretty easy thing to check to determine if chicken chunks are cooked.

And I hate green pepper so I always use red pepper but that's my eating mishegos.

I use the Cooks Illustrated foolproof method for cooking brown rice. It's baked and since discovering the recipe my rice life has changed. Very Happy

Baked Sweet and Sour Chicken:

Ingredients:

1/2 c. onion, chopped
1/2 c. green peppers, chopped
1/2 c. carrots, sliced
3/4 c. ketchup
1 c. pineapple juice (I used juice from canned pineapple)
1/4 c. brown sugar
2 tsp. soy sauce
1/2 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. pepper
dash of ground ginger
1/4 tsp. garlic salt
2 Tbsp. vinegar
1 c. pineapple chunks
1-1/2 pounds chicken breasts, cut up
cooked rice for serving

Directions:

In a saucepan, saute together onion, green pepper and carrot. Cook for about 15 minutes, until vegetables are crisp-tender.

Mix in ketchup, pineapple juice, brown sugar, soy sauce, salt, pepper, ginger, garlic salt and vinegar. Add in pineapple chunks.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Lay chicken pieces on the bottom of a 9×13 dish. Pour cooked sauce mixture over the top of the chicken. Bake for 30-40 minutes, or until chicken pieces are cooked through. Serve over cooked rice (I use brown rice).

↑ Amarante ↓

Fri, Jun 26 2015, 11:12 am

happybeingamom wrote:

Added it to my recipe box I think my kids will like it.

How many servings do you get as I think I need a larger amount.

Yes very kid friendly Very Happy

And very easy. But not gourmet. LOL

But as Jerry Seinfeld would say, nothing wrong with that.

Servings really depend on people's appetites? People in my house tend to be a bit on the fresser side LOL

so I figure this serves 5 to 6 as we don't stretch the good stuff with rice. LOL

Normally recipes with a pound of chicken breasts are supposed to serve 4 so a pound and half would theoretically serve 6. Very Happy

Also, the leftovers are good. I package in individual plastic containers that are microwaveable with a portion of rice and then you can freeze. If you want to do this, extra sauce is good because when you reheat with rice, the rice absorbs some of the sauce.

↑ Amarante

Mon, Jul 06 2015, 12:57 pm

Cooking time can vary a bit depending on the size of the chicken pieces. You don't want to overcook so I would start checking for doneness at about 20 minutes. These are boneless chunks so they can dry out if overcooked.

I don't generally need to cover it. If you see that towards the end the sauce is getting too dry you can cover with a bit of tinfoil.

ETA - Sorry and I don't know if these clarifications are timely. I attempted to respond on my iPad which isn't the best way.

Original instructions had timing - since these are chunked boneless chicken breasts, I don't want them to overcook and get dry so I start checking after about 20 minutes - it's easy to tell if they are raw in the middle.

You shouldn't need to cover up since the cooking time isn't that long and you do want the sauce to thicken up a little bit and covering it up would probably prevent that.