Wednesday 6 January 2016

Sweet and Sour Chicken


This is my Plum Sauce Chicken gone wrong hah..hah..hah... I was referring to my auntie's recipe (which I scribbled in my scrapbook) where I added a note "if using chicken replace black vinegar with plum sauce".

Well, that recipe was Meat with Thai Sauce which you can modify to make into Plum Sauce Chicken. Perhaps I wasn't paying attention or my auntie was having one of her senior episodes. I think there is more than one ingredient to replace/omit to make Plum Sauce Chicken.


I should have left out tomato ketchup from the sauce ingredient. Even though there was only one tablespoon of tomato ketchup, the sauce turned out to become a tomato based sweet and sour sauce. But it was fine by me because I happen to love sweet and sour chicken. 


There is a lot of peppers and pineapples in my dish, so it might as well be a sweet and sour peppers and pineapples with chicken hah..hah...  Peppers and pineapples go very well in sweet and sour dishes and most of the time when I eat at the restaurant or chap fan stalls, I am left wanting. I will dig at the very last pepper, onion or pineapple chunk.


So when I cook at home, I will be sure to have an abundance of peppers and pineapples to enjoy to my heart's delight. This made for a very tasty dish when served with rice. There will be another attempt soon on the plum sauce chicken.









Sweet and Sour Chicken
Recipe source : Phong Hong

Ingredients :
- 1/2 chicken, chopped into bite size pieces
- 1 tbsp light soya sauce
- 2 cloves garlic, finely minced
- some pepper
- enough cornflour to coat chicken pieces
- red, green and yellow peppers, cut into strips
- some pineapple chunks
- two yellow onions, diced

For the sauce :
- 4 tbsp plum sauce
- 1 tbsp tomato ketchup
- 2 tbsp light soya sauce
- 1 tsp cornflour mixed with some water 
- 3 tbsp water

Method :
1. Marinate chicken pieces with soya sauce, garlic and pepper. Set aside for 30 minutes.
2. Meanwhile, make the sauce by mixing all the sauce ingredients together. Taste and adjust seasoning.
3. Heat oil in a deep pot or wok. Dip the chicken into cornflour to coat and deep fry until cooked and brown. Drain on paper towels.
4. Heat oil in a wok and saute the yellow onions until translucent.
5. Add peppers and fry briefly. The peppers should be cooked only till tender crisp.
6. Pour sauce ingredients and bring to a boil.
7. Add chicken pieces and stir to mix. Add pineapples.
8. Serve immediately.

42 comments:

  1. Gone wrong or not, your sweet and sour chicken looks superb! I love the chunky pineapples and red capsicum in it.

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    1. Thanks, Veronica! I am glad it turned out well :)

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  2. As usual , it looks so good and you are one good cook !

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  3. gone wrong?? but what's wrong?? haha.. I don't see anything wrong with your dish but instead it looks really good to me leh.. sweet and sour chicken (using plum sauce rather than vinegar) is one of the most famous Chinese cookings besides fried rice and spring roll in the eyes of westerners.. I guess this dish is also very popular among locals, especially kids, haha!! :p

    anyway back to your PH style SASC, I love those green and yellow peppers, and I actually like pineapples in cooking.. if one would take the trouble to pan fry or grill the pineapples, then I believe lagi nice, hehehe!! SASC is so good to go with rice don't you think, but you are staying away from rice, aha!!

    looking forward to your "right" attempt for the plum sauce chicken next~~ :p

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    1. Well, one dish became another, but luckily can still eat hah..hah.. Yeah, I have seen recipes using grilled pineapples but haven't tried that as yet.

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  4. The colours are so lovely and yummy to make anyone scream for more!
    I also prefer it to have lots of pineapples that make the real sweet & sour taste besides the tomato ketchup. If you dislike the tomato ketchup you can probably add milder fresh tomatoes instead as I have seen the chefs serving that. When will you host a blogger's party with your culinary skills??

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    1. How many times have you asked that same question? hah..hah..hah...

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  5. Looks lovely! I am more used to pork or fish though. Yesterday, my missus cooked sweet and sour prawns. Nice too, but not so used to it that way.

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    1. My top favorite is pork followed by fish too. Oh, with prawns would also be good and it's something I've yet to try.

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  6. Hahaha! Er... if we look at it as a sweet and sour chicken (actually I prefer oinks), then... not good leh. The meat need to be fried till crispy what...

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    1. hah..hah..you ah...so fussy one :D True lah must fry until crispy and obviously I didn't do that :(

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  7. Wah, your sweet and sour chicken is very colourful what with 3 different-coloured bell peppers (must have had quite a bit left over since you had to buy 3 whole bell peppers). I like mine with lots of pineapple too (most chap fan stalls stinge on this). But I would have preferred if the chicken was boneless thigh meat....much easier to eat like pork....hehe....(lazy woman mode activated)! :D

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    1. I would also prefer boneless chicken too but the lazy woman in me did not have the patience to debone the chicken hah..hah.. I know I can get those from the supermarket but it's much more expensive and besides, most of the time they also remove the skin :(

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  8. Despite the mix-up, the dish sure looks yummy!

    Reading your description made me go hungry!

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  9. I like this dish and will pick and eat all your colourful bell peppers and pineapple chunks leaving the chicken for you, hehehehe.

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  10. Phong Hong, I don't know about the recipe but I know your sour plum chicken looks so tempting and makes me drool. I too will pick up all the chunks and leave the plate totally clean.

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    1. Thanks, Nancy! The dish turned out quite tasty :)

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  11. Hi Phong Hong, looks yummy. I like the coloured capsicum and the onions. This is a very basic sauce good with any fried meat.

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    1. Kimmy, I always love any dish with sweet and sour sauce.

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  12. Never thought of cooking pineapple with chicken... great dish this one will make for my kids...

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  13. You're so cute! I love sweet & sour pork/prawns/fish, but I've to admit I've never tried sweet & sour chicken before. I don't mind trying your version :D

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    1. I used to love the sweet and sour chicken at the chap fan stall near my office but their cooking has not been the same in recent times. So I am glad I can cook my own.

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  14. I really don't mind the mix up because this chicken dish looks very delicious!

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    1. Thanks, Ann! I am glad it turned out well.

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  15. I absolutely love sweet and sour food! But for some reason, I have never made anything sweet and sour! Love all your chicken recipes :)

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    1. Thanks, Cathleen! You are the dessert queen, no wonder hah..hah..

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  16. Yummy, healthy, flavorful---looks like the perfect dinner to me!

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  17. Hi Phong Hong,

    Happy New Year to you!!! I see nothing wrong with your sweet and sour chicken... I will add lots of pineapple to my sweet and sour chicken too. Pineapple is sweet and sour right? So can't be wrong :D

    Zoe

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    1. Happy New Year, Zoe! Pineapple is great in any sweet and sour dishes. I also love it in asam fish!

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  18. Used to do such a mix - pepper& pineapple + chicken very often, I do not know why not now, thanks for reminding about this recipe:)

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  19. Hi Phong Hong,
    This sweet & sour chicken of yours looks delish! Colourful too.

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    1. Thanks, Karen! I enjoyed it very much :)

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  20. Sweet and sour chicken is my daughters' favourite, but I never cook it before. Your sweet and sour chicken looks awesome.

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    1. Thanks, Yannie! I suppose you don't cook it due to the deep frying. Not healthy :(

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