Easy Sweet & Sour Chicken

Sweet and sour chicken is packed with bold flavours, but the recipe can be easily adapted to suit your own tastes.

What I love most about a homemade sweet and sour chicken recipe, is that you know exactly what's going into it. Not only is it cheaper than the local takeaway, you won't find excessive amounts of sugar, salt, oil or unnecessary additives and preservatives in this sweet and sour sauce.

Sweet and sour chicken ingredients

• Oil - I like to use sunflower oil when stir-frying as it doesn't have a strong flavour.
• Chicken - I use chicken breast in this recipe, cutting it into bite-sized chunks.
• Vegetables - I like to use onion, carrot, red bell pepper (or use any other colour pepper) in this recipe.
• Chilli - I add one red seeded chilli to the stir fry, this adds very mild chilli heat, but you can cut it back by deseeding the chilli, or use ½ chilli, or leave it out if you prefer.
• Garlic & Ginger - I add fresh garlic and ginger to add depth of flavour. You can also use frozen garlic and ginger.
• Pineapple - I use a small can of pineapple rings in juice. I retain the pineapple juice to add to the sweet and sour sauce.
• Spring onions - I like to add sliced spring onions to the dish before serving to add a burst of freshness.

Sweet and sour chicken sauce ingredients

• Flour - I use plain flour (all purpose flour) to thicken the sauce.
• Sugar - caster sugar is used to sweeten the sauce, but don't add to much as there is also sweetness in the pineapple juice.
• Tomato ketchup - tomato ketchup adds both depth of tomato flavour and sweetness to the sauce.
• Vinegar - I use white wine vinegar or white vinegar when making sweet and sour sauce, both work equally well.
• Soy sauce - I add light soy sauce to the sweet and sour sauce, as light soy sauce add salty seasoning.
• Pineapple juice - I retain the juice from the can of pineapples and add it to the sauce with some cold water.

How to make easy sweet & sour chicken

• Place the wok over a high heat on the stove. Add 2 tablespoons of oil and when hot add the chicken, stir fry for 7-10 minutes until the chicken is cooked through. Remove from the wok into a bowl and set aside.
• Prepare the vegetables and set aside, keeping the onion, carrot and bell pepper separate from the chilli, garlic and ginger.
• Remove the pineapple rings from the can and cut each ring into 8 even-sized pieces.
• Pour the remaining pineapple juice into a measuring jug and top up with water to 280ml (½ pint).
• Place all the sauce ingredients into a bowl and stir until well combined. Now pour the sauce ingredients into the jug with the pineapple juice and stir.

• Place the wok back on the stove. When hot add the remaining tablespoon of sunflower oil, followed by the onion, carrot, bell pepper and pineapple chunks. Stir fry for 5 minutes, keeping everything moving to stop it burning.
• Now add the chilli, garlic and ginger and stir fry for a minute.
• Pour the sauce into the wok, bring to a boil and cook for 3-5 minutes until the sauce has reduced and thickened to the desired consistency.

• Add the cooked chicken back into the wok and stir for 1-2 minutes until the chicken is warmed through.
• Remove the wok from the heat and serve the prawns and sauce with some steamed rice or noodles. Garnish with spring onions.

Recipe variations

• Chicken - I like to use chicken breast in this recipe, but you could also use boneless, skinless chicken thighs.
• Cooked Chicken - you could also use up leftover roast chicken in this recipe. As the chicken is already cooked you don't need to cook it again. Instead, cook your sauce then add the cooked chicken at the end of the cook to warm through.
• Pork - swap the chicken for sliced of pork fillet (tenderloin).
• Seafood - you can also use this sauce with seafood like fish or prawns. However, to avoid overcooking seafood add it once the sauce is cooked then add the seafood and cook through.
• Vegan - make a plant based vegan sweet and sour by replacing the prawns with tofu, or a variety of other vegetables.
• Vegetables - add in other vegetables to the stir fry, try baby corn, sugar snap peas, mange tout, mushrooms, or broccoli florets (par boil broccoli for 2 minutes first).
• Gluten Free - swap the flour in the sauce for corn flour (cornstarch).

Serving suggestions

I like to serve sweet and sour with some steamed white rice, or my Easy Egg Fried Rice. You can swap rice for noodles if you prefer.

I also like to add a couple of additional vegetable sides, try my Chinese Stir Fry Broccoli or Stir Fry Pak Choy.

Useful hints and tips

1. Once the sauce has reduced taste the sauce, then adjust to your taste. Want it a little sweeter add some ketchup or sugar. Prefer it a little more sour (I do), then add a vinegar. If it needs more salt add soy sauce.
2. Allergy advice: dairy free, egg free, soya free and nut free. For comprehensive and detailed allergy advice go to Allergy UK.

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Additional recipe suggestions

If you like this recipe then try some of my other stir fry recipes:

• Easy Sweet & Sour Prawns
• Beef Stir Fry with Black Bean Sauce
• Easy Stir Fried Chicken & Cashew Nuts
• Easy Vegetable Stir Fry
• Chinese Steamed Seabass
• Pork & Peanut Stir Fry

For further great family dining ideas take a look at our Ultimate Guide to Family Dining.