Easy Homemade Sweet And Sour Chicken Pakistani Recipes

Saucy Sweet and Sour Chicken

Sweet ‘n Sour chicken is a classic restaurant style Asian main. The chicken is lightly coated tossed into a classic sweet and tangy sauce along with some veggies to balance the flavors. I love making fake-outs at home! It gives me so much more control over the taste. Here’s why making this recipe is MORE NUTRITIOUS than ordering it in!

It is more nutritious because you are skipping the MSG (Chinese Salt) that restaurants use.The takeout Sweet ‘n Sour is usually loaded with artificial orange food coloring, that WE are going to skipThis version of Sweet ‘n Sour is rather saucy (like saucy Asian meatballs) rather than dry and works perfectly with chow mein noodles or riceYou can use low Sodium sauces when you cook Chinese at home. The chicken! When you cook at home, you have the option to bake or fry the chicken, which again adds to my health narrative.

Ingredients

Here’s what you’ll need to make the perfect Saucy Sweet n Sour chicken

Veggies – Bell Peppers and onions are non-negotiable guys! sorry! And yellow bell pepper is even better! You can ADD pineapples and delete carrots if you want, but the onions and bell peppers balance the flavors, so no way are you skipping that ok?Boneless Chicken – Sauces – Oyster sauce, Soy sauce and Sriracha SauceDark Brown sugar – Brown sugar brings out a slight bitterness along with sweetness in the recipe. Don’t you dare use white sugar for this recipe!Cornstarch – You will need this to coat the chicken and to thicken in the sauce. I’ve experimented with all kinds of coating for this recipe, the cornstarch and egg coating works the best. Its light, and holds well whether baked or fried. Egg – You will need this for coating the chickenGarlic and Ginger – Lifelong flavor enhancers, need I say more? You can also use galangal instead of ginger.Seasoning – Your usual salt and black pepperGarnish – I use the usual scallions (green onions) and sesame seeds to garnish this recipe. But I also use the bulb or the white portion of the green onion in the gravy.

Substitutions

Eggs – Some of you have mentioned time and again that you avoid eggs due to dietary restrictions. If you can’t add eggs, simply skip it. Eggs adds a slight binding element to the batter, but you can do without it if you need to.Tomato Paste – You can totally use regular ketchup instead of tomato paste in this recipeSauces – You can use hot sauce (half quantity) instead of Sriracha and a dash of BBQ sauce instead of Oyster sauce.

Instructions

Here’s a simple rundown of all the steps you’ll come across while cooking, so that there are no surprises!

You marinate chicken in egg, spices, vinegar and cornflour for 10 mins and fry it in oil until its golden brown. I also baked a small batch of chicken to show you that you can opt for both. This chicken is not crispy, but it has a specific texture that comes with the coating. Its light and airy. The best part is, it doesn’t become soggy or “doughy” once it hits the sauce. You can set the chicken aside and start with your sweet n sour sauce. Simply saute garlic, ginger and the white bulb portion of green onions in oil. After it turns golden, add tomato paste with water NOTE: Tomato paste sputters when added to oil, make sure you add about 1/4 cup of water before adding the paste to avoid excessive sputtering. And then everything just goes in 1 by 1. I like to mix all the sauces with cornflour to make a slurry rather than adding it 1 by 1 to the dish. Add water and vegetables to your tomato garlic base. Allow it to boil and then drop in cornflour sauce mix and the chicken pieces. Give your cornflour some time to thicken up and your chicken pieces to heat up again. And thats it! Do a taste test and serve warm with garnishes! Can I make this recipe Vegetarian? Totally! Like all recipes, this one is totally adaptable. You can use tofu or cauliflower florets insteads of chicken. Can I make this recipe with some other protein like beef or fish? Ofcourse! Sweet ‘n Sour Fish would turn out amazing! You can follow the same instructions for fish. For beef, if you are using flank beef, then you can use the same steps. If you are using a more tough cut of the beef, boil it for 20 mins in salt, black pepper and garlic and then proceed the recipe as is. Can I reheat it in the microwave? Yes! Most cornflour based gravies tend to clump when they are kept in the fridge. But this recipe has enough water content to prevent that from happening. So yes go ahead heat it up in the microwave. Can I make a Lite version of Sweet and Sour chicken? Ofcourse! Here’s what you can do to make this recipe Lite

Use Low sodium Soy sauce instead of regular one.Use fresh organic tomato paste.Bake the chicken instead of frying.Use tapioca flour instead of cornflourYou can also use Pink salt instead of regular table salt

Expert Tips

While frying, make sure your wok or pan is wide enough to allow the chicken pieces to fry separately. Keep everything chopped and prepared before starting to work on the sauce. Things happen very quickly once you start prepping the sauce so it’s best that you have everything ready by your side.Use good quality tomato paste! For dinners or parties, you can prepare the chicken a day in advance and simply prepare the sauce on the day of the event.