We were going to have some friends over for dinner the other night, and I was feeling like Asian. Not like AN ASIAN, that's RJ's domain, but like cooking and eating Asian food. Whew. I'm glad we cleared that all up.
Anyway, I was planning on making fried rice, Spring rolls, and Beef with Broccoli. I know how to make all those things, and all those things taste good in my mouth.
A few nights before our planned dinner, I woke up in the middle of the night. It had come to me, as if in a dream, that I suddenly remembered that one of our soon to visit dinner guests was allergic to broccoli.
Who the hell is allergic to broccoli?
Really? Broccoli?
So, I moved on to Plan B. I'm flexible that way.
What Asian food has not even a whiff or an essence of broccoli?
Sweet and Sour Chicken, of course.
I went to my favorite recipe site, Allrecipes, and looked for Sweet & Sour Chicken recipes.
Apparently, everyone else in the world is either too health conscience or too lazy to use breaded chicken. All I could find were stir-fry like deals, and while those probably would help my arteries (and the size of my a$$), they would not taste as good.
So I made up my own recipe.
It's sort of like homemade, except for the part where I bought pre-prepared sauce.
It is the best Sweet & Sour Chicken I've ever eaten.
WHAT YOU NEED:
For the sauce:
1 medium sized yellow onion, cut into largeish pieces
1 green pepper, cut into largeish pieces - it's a theme, you see
1 small can of pineapple chunks. Don't drain it. If you buy the expensive name brand kind, they will be called TIDBITS.
2 jars of pre-prepared sweet and sour sauce. It's in the Asian food aisle. I got one jar of Kikkoman and one jar of La Choy because the colors were both wrong. If you mix them together, they look better. I promise. I cannot make this stuff up.
For the chicken:
1 lb. chicken breast, cut into bite-sized chunks
1 cup plus 2 tablespoons flour. It can be all-purpose or self-rising. I don't really care, and it won't really matter.
1 egg
1/2 cup of milk, give or take
Salt and pepper
Oil for frying
WHAT YOU DO:
Put the chopped chicken bits into a gallon ziplock bag with the 2 tablespoons of flour and some salt and pepper. Squish it all around until the chicken is coated, and then put it in your fridge for a while. At least an hour. DO NOT SKIP THIS STEP. I know what you're thinking. It won't matter if you put it in the fridge, right? It. Will. Matter.
Chop the onion and pepper, and put them into a small saucepan. Dump in the pineapple, juice and all, and add both jars of sweet and sour sauce. Simmer covered on really low heat for a while, the longer the better. Somewhere between a half hour and an hour seemed to be enough, but longer than that works, too. Just stir it every few minutes so it doesn't stick.
In a small bowl, mix the cup of flour with the egg and the milk. You're going for the consistency of pancake batter here. As a matter of fact, you could totally turn on the griddle and fry up a batch of pancakes out of this. But then there won't be any left for your chicken, and you'll be sad.
Preheat 1/2 inch of oil in a big skillet.
Dip the flour/salt/pepper coated chicken pieces in the batter one at a time, and drop them into the hot oil one at a time. If you try to do a bunch at once it will turn into a big mutant chicken ball, and nobody wants that. Cook for 2-3 minutes on each side until it's toasty brown.
When the chicken's all done, put it on a big platter and pour the sauce over top of it. Serve it to your friends for dinner.
They will like it.
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