Wednesday, November 16, 2022

Easy Sweet and Sour Chicken for a delicious mid-week meal

 

This is such an easy and economical version of Sweet and Sour chicken with delicious flavours and using basic ingredients. It's so easy to put together if you are feeling just a bit lazy at home mid-week but still have a yearning for something tasty that is simple to cook. We both felt like some Sweet and Sour chicken tonight, but because of the heat we are experiencing here at the moment, we just can't be bothered dressing up and going out to a restaurant either. Know the feeling?

Take away meals or restaurant eating for my generation growing up in an Australian country town in the 60's and 70's, often started with Chinese food, that was before the influx of Vietnamese, Thai, and Indian restaurants which have been great as well. Now just about every style of cuisine is catered for in the cities anyway. When I was still living at home, a take-away Shandy from our local Chinese restaurant was our big treat when my Mum didn't feel like cooking. The dish we ordered was always a Shandy, which from memory was Sweet and Sour chicken, Chow Mein, Fried Rice, two prawns, and something else, can't remember, can you? It could have been chicken and almonds. Those Shandy's gave me the taste for simple and delicious Chinese food at a young age. Meanwhile, the ladies were also enjoying a drinkable Shandy out on the Queenslander verandah, a combination of beer and lemonade, always more of the latter in the chilled glass.

More vegetables such as zucchini, carrot, peas or snow peas can be added to this dish if you have them on hand. Tonight I added some frozen peas, finely diced carrot and broccoli pieces, just to boost up the vegetable content. This is also so much healthier for us all when we are in a rush than reaching for a ready made jar of Sweet and Sour sauce from the supermarket with too many additives for my liking, and tastes even better and is just a cinch to make. This recipe was given to me by Jacquie, a young work colleague, many years ago when I was working in public libraries, and I have thanked her for it ever since. I think that this recipe has stood the test of time. When Jacquie gave me this recipe, we were all at a very busy stage in our lives, we had young children and were working fulltime. It's amazing that I still have this recipe really.

Left over cooked chicken or a cooked chook bought from the supermarket, can also be used as a substitute for the fresh chicken in the recipe. Just cut it into cubes or shred it, doesn't really matter, and add it at after cooking all of the other ingredients. So easy and fast. Have a night off from fancy cooking my friends, and treat yourself to this easy meal.  I promise you, you and your family will love this one.

The Sweet and Sour sauce can also be served over cooked pork or fish. This is another very versatile mid-week meal, when you can use frozen or fresh vegetables you have on hand to boost it up and make it even healthier.

Ingredients:
Serves 4

2 tablespoons Olive oil
3-4 diced chicken breasts or chicken thighs, or equivalent chicken already cooked
1 capsicum cut into cubes
4 celery stalks finely chopped
1 finely diced carrot
1 tin of pineapple pieces, or use fresh if you prefer
1 tin of tomato soup
1 teaspoon sugar
1 teaspoon curry powder
1 teaspoon fresh garlic (optional)

Let's cook:

Cut chicken pieces into bite size pieces and fry in oil until lightly browned. Remove from the pan.
Add chopped vegetables and fry until slightly softened.


Add the pineapple pieces and the juice and the tomato soup.


Add sugar and curry powder. Stir together and simmer until vegetables are cooked but still slightly crisp.

Serve with white or basmati brown rice, some fried rice, or noodles. 

Hoping the rest of your week is all that you want it to be.
Thanks for dropping by.

Pauline x

10 comments:

  1. Haven't had sweet and sour chicken in ages! Yours looks so appetizing.

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  2. I am bookmarking this for a future meal. It sounds like it would be a snap to make and would also be really tasty.

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  3. Sweet and sour Chinese is not my favourite, because of the cooked pineapple. It spikes my blood sugar too much. But I do love Chinese and think I shall have to convince Dave we need a meal out :)

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    1. It's interesting how cooked pineapple is another divisive ingredient with people. I don't have to worry too much thankfully about blood sugar spikes, but the acid in fresh pineapple can affect me sometimes. Anyway we all have our work arounds with food. Thanks Tandy for still commenting.:)

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  4. I love sweet and sour! Thanks for this interesting recipe!

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    1. It's so nice to receive your positive comment Jeff, thank you.

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  5. this looks so colourful and sounds flavourful! (p.s. don't wanna sound negative in any way, but just wondered if you realise that there is a massive! amount of white, blank space at the end of all your posts?) About 3/4 of the page before your last bit about commenting. Cheers! S.)

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  6. Thanks Sherry, I've just done some housekeeping on my pages, much needed I know. I just wish with Blogger it was easier to make other changes as well. Anyhow, I'll keep trying to improve the whole appearance. It all takes time. I'm not sure why on this particular blog there seems to be more white space throughout it as well.

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