chicken

Sweet and sour chicken
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Easy Sweet and Sour Chicken Recipe

This simple recipe for sweet and sour chicken doesn’t use any crazy Chinese ingredients. It’s basically the american-ized version of the dish. It’s also very delicious.

This recipe is intended to be served with rice, but there is no rice in the recipe. Serve it with rice anyways.

Sweet and sour chicken

This sweet and sour chicken recipe uses this simple sweet and sour sauce recipe. An abridged version will be included below to keep everything on one page, but the sauce can be used for many other dishes as well.

Ingredients for Sweet and Sour Chicken

For this recipe, you will need:

  • Four boneless, skinless chicken breasts
  • One red pepper
  • One green pepper
  • Some finely chopped ginger
  • Five to seven garlic cloves, depending on how much you love garlic
  • A couple of onions
  • Some pepper
  • Vegetable oil
  • Sweet and sour sauce
  • Optional: some sliced pineapple (usually from a can)

How to Make Easy Sweet and Sour Chicken

Bring a frying pan to medium heat and start cooking your chicken.

While your chicken is cooking, chop your red peppers, green peppers and onions into fairly large pieces. Big chunks of each is the general standard for sweet and sour chicken.

Finely chop your garlic cloves and your ginger.

While your chicken is (probably) still cooking, start preparing the sweet and sour sauce.

The Short Version of the Sweet and Sour Sauce Recipe

Combine:

  • Three quarters of a cup of sugar
  • Two thirds of a cup of water
  • A third of a cup of white vinegar
  • A quarter cup of soy sauce
  • About a tablespoon of ketchup
  • And about two tablespoons of corn starch

In a saucepan and bring to a boil. Cook for about 5-7 minutes or until the sauce thickens.

With your chicken (probably) about cooked, add a few tablespoons of vegetable oil to a frying pan and begin cooking your peppers, your garlic, and your ginger. Once the peppers have started to soften, add your onions. Cube up your chicken breasts and add those as well.

Pour your sweet and sour sauce overtop and allow to simmer for a few more minutes, and you’re done.

Tips for Making Sweet and Sour Chicken

  • This recipe is written in an order that allows for the cooking times to align with your prep time. You can pre-make the sweet and sour sauce if you consider it simpler.
  • If you choose to use the pineapple, add it at the same time you re-add the chicken.
  • Some recipes suggest you cook the chicken along with the peppers. This one doesn’t. It’s for health reasons and for simplicity’s sake. Do what you will.
  • Serve with rice.
They probably won't look too much like this
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How to Cook Garlic Chicken

This simple delicious recipe for pan-fried garlic chicken can be prepared in under twenty minutes.

Ingredients for Garlic Chicken

  • Four chicken breasts, halved.
  • Five tablespoons butter
  • One tablespoon fresh oregano
  • A quarter to half a teaspoon of dried hot pepper flakes
  • Olive oil
  • A garlic clove
  • Salt and pepper

You can use chicken with skin and bones to keep the cost down, but it is usually best to go nuts and get boneless, skinless chicken breast for this sort of thing. Because of deliciousness.

Preparation for Garlic Chicken

Chop the garlic as finely as you possibly can.  Stir the butter until it is soft and add the red pepper flakes, oregano, and chopped garlic. Continue mixing until the whole thing is a delicious smelling goo.

pan fried chicken breast

Cut into the middle of your chicken.  A nice horizontal slice into the middle will do fine.  Fill that slice with the goo mixture.  Add some salt and pepper.

Heat your oil in a frying pan over a medium to high heat.  (Stick closer to medium, burnt oil will ruin your food.)

Cook the chicken, completely uncovered, until it starts to brown in the oil.  This should take between seven and ten minutes.  Lower the heat and flip the chicken.  Continue cooking for ten to twelve minutes or until the chicken is cooked through to the middle.

If there’s any of your garlic butter paste left feel free to slather it on.

Tips on How to Cook Garlic Chicken

  • If you’re in a rush you can cover the pan to prepare the chicken a bit faster. Covering your frying pan with a lid has a two-sided effect: it will help you cook through the chicken a bit quicker (which is helpful when you are in a rush) but it tends to result in dryer chicken. Which is sort of okay if you’re into that.
  • Try not to move the chicken around too much.  If you move chicken around in the pan too often you will overcook the outer layer and make the whole thing take longer.  Be patient and let it cook through a bit. It’s worth it.
  • If you have any leftovers you can use it for a homemade chicken noodle soup. The additional flavor only adds to the end product.