Sweet and Sour Chicken Stir-Fry

We eat a lot of chicken at our house. I'm not a huge fan of Asian cuisine; however, I do like chicken stir-fry. Here at work, we sometimes order lunch from a local Chinese restaurant that offers a variety of chicken stir-fry dishes. While they're certainly tasty, I prefer preparing them at home so I can add more of the vegetables I like and leave out those I don't.

It really doesn't take long to prep the ingredients for this Sweet and Sour Chicken Stir-Fry. I used the Cutco Trimmer to cut the chicken. The knife, with its recessed edge, is great for slicing through the dense meat.

Put the chicken in the freezer for about 20 minutes before cutting it. The colder it is, the easier it is to cut. Be sure to use a clean cutting board and thoroughly wash the knife before slicing the vegetables to prevent cross contamination.

For the vegetables, a good prep knife, like a 5" Petite Santoku does the trick. The shorter blade is the right size for slicing smaller foods.

This sweet and sour chicken makes 4 generous servings and you can vary the kinds of vegetables. The beauty of stir-fry is that you can decide what you want to add. If you don't like broccoli, use asparagus. If you're not a fan of green pepper, toss in some baby corn. The options are endless.

The sauce for this recipe is more sweet than sour. Keep a close eye on the vegetables while they're cooking as you want them to be crisp tender and not mushy. I served it over basmati rice which is light and fluffy.

Ingredients

3 tablespoons vegetable oil, divided
3 boneless skinless chicken breasts cut into 1/2-inch chunks
2 carrots, peeled and sliced
1 green pepper, cut into 1-inch pieces
2 cup broccoli florets
1 cup snow peas
1 medium onion, cut into 1-inch pieces
1 – 2 tablespoons water
1 20 ounce can pineapple tidbits in juice
1/3 cup white or rice vinegar
1/4 cup reserved pineapple juice (from the can of pineapple)
5 tablespoons brown sugar
2 tablespoons ketchup
2 tablespoons soy sauce
3 teaspoons corn starch

Directions

Drain the pineapple, reserving the juice.

Heat a large frying pan or wok on medium-high heat. Add 2 tablespoons oil. Add the chicken and cook until no longer pink. Remove chicken from the pan.

Add the remaining tablespoon of oil, the sliced carrots, green pepper, broccoli, snow peas and onion. Cover the pan. Stir every couple minutes so vegetables don’t stick to the bottom of the pan. Add 1-2 tablespoons of water to help steam the vegetables and keep them from burning. When the carrots start to soften, lower the heat, add the pineapple tidbits and the cooked chicken.

In a separate bowl, whisk the vinegar, pineapple juice, brown sugar, ketchup, soy sauce and corn starch, making sure the corn starch is dissolved.

Pour the sauce into the pan and stir gently. Cook about 5 minutes or until sauce is thickened and the vegetables are tender but still crispy.

Serve over cooked rice.

Sweet and Sour Chicken Stir-Fry