One of my favourite Chinese takeout dishes has to be sweet and sour chicken or pork with juicy pieces of pineapple and crisp slices of bell pepper and it’s super easy to make at home in under 20 minutes! As with a lot of my Chinese takeout recipes I like to omit the breading and deep frying and keep things nice and light with a quick and simple saute. This recipe is as easy to make as quickly cooking the chicken at a high temperature, adding the pineapple and bell pepper followed by the ingredients for the sauce and with a total cooking time of less than 10 minutes, this tasty dish is perfect for busy work nights!
Feel free to omit the red pepper and pineapple or use your favourite vegetables.
20 Minute Light Sweet and Sour Chicken
A quick, easy and lighter version of sweet and sour chicken that is so much better than takeout!
ingredients
- 1 tablespoon oil
- 1 pound boneless and skinless chicken breasts or thighs, cut into bite sized pieces
- 1/2 red pepper, sliced
- 1 cup pineapple, sliced
- 3 tablespoons honey
- 3 tablespoons rice vinegar or white vinegar
- 3 tablespoons ketchup
- 1 tablespoon soy sauce (or tamari for gluten-free)
- 1 teaspoon chill sauce such as sambal oelek or sriracha
- 1/4 cup pineapple juice or chicken broth
- 1 clove garlic, grated
- 1 teaspoon ginger, grated
- 1 tablespoon water
- 1 tablespoon cornstarch
- 1 teaspoon sesame oil
- 1/4 cup green onion, sliced
directions
- Heat the oil in a pan over medium-high heat, add the chicken and cook until cooked through, about 2-4 minutes per side.
- Add the red pepper and pineapple and cook until just tender but still crisp, about 2 minutes.
- Add the mixture of the honey, vinegar, ketchup, chill sauce, pineapple juice, garlic, ginger and the mixture of the water and the corn starch, toss to coat and cook until the sauce thickens, about a minute.
- Remove from heat, mix in the sesame oil and serve garnished with sliced green onions.
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I am always looking for new stir fry recipes. This looks so good. Will try this out for sure!
http://palsywalsyblog.blogspot.ca/
This was soooo good. The sauce is excellent and that’s what makes sweet and sour so good. I used pork and shrimp. I added a few more veggies. The beauty of this dish is you can add or subtract any veggies and you still have a wonderful dish because of the great sauce.
I love sweet and sour chicken, so this fast an healthy version is perfect!
Looks delicious and sounds very healthy. Blessings, Catherine
Sweet and Sour Chicken is one of my favorites. So happy to now have a lightened up version of it! Thanks, Kevin!
Do you have a General Tsao recipe? I have sesame seeds so wondering if they would work with this one, and if so when do you add them?
Love how quickly this comes together!
Anonymous: I have not posted my General Tsao recipe yet but it is coming. If your sesame seeds are already toasted you can just add them at the end otherwise I would lightly toast the in the pan first, set them aside and add them at the end.
This is the perfect weeknight meal, Kevin. Especially once school starts here next week. My boys will love this!
Loooove! My kids favorite take out for sure 🙂 Trying this soon.
The perfect weeknight meal!
Love these flavours, Kevin!
omg Kevin- I am so making this! it looks amazing!
Totally craving this now!
I made this (with pork) last night and LOVED it! Thank you for a great recipe!
I made it 10 minutes ago – it's delicious indeed. Instead of pineapple, I used pear and it also composed well. For sure I'm gonna rewrite that receipt in my daily meals book :3
Oh my god! I really enjoy eating asian dish and so it's time to cook them. This recipe is perfect! I also have a blog and I would like you tu visit it. It's about american baking, and spanish cooking. I wish you could take a look. Thank you, Adrián from http://dulceriasconsorpresa.blogspot.com.es
Love how simple, healthy, and yummy this looks. Craving it right now. Adore all your colors for the dish, too!
Super Bon !
Just cooked, absolutely delicious! I also added some carrot, peas and onion with the peppers. The family loved it!
This was very tasty. I added onions and served over brown rice…don't be afraid of the sambal oelek, I'll add a little more next time. Nice and light, I don't feel bad about going back for seconds.
Your recipes are always amazing.
Or make it even lighter and quicker by using leftover cooked chicken from soup. I omitted the soy sauce as the chili sauce has enough sodium. Served over 3 minute brown rice and it tasted just like, better even, than the chinese restaurant. Thanks for the recipe!
Amazing recipe! My family loved it. I hace modified the amound of igrediance based on my preference but still turned great! A must try recipe. Thank you!
A Singaporean here!
First time coming across a sweet and sour recipe for Chicken! Normally what the restaurants or typical seafood stall sells in Singapore is Sweet and sour Pork instead.
Made tonight for the first time–absolutely fabulous–will be making again and again! Love your recipes, hate all the ads! G
uess we can't have it all…lol…
I found it quite nice, used it for pork. I like ketchup, but am not too keen on it in cooking, but I recognise that it does give a certain taste. I used only a little and finished the measure with fresh tomatoes, cut finely. I will probably try it again. Oh, I did cut some onion into chunks and added that with the pepper and pineapple.