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Our Easy Sweet and Sour Chicken is one of my family’s favorite meals. Tender chicken combined with an amazing sauce, pineapple, onions, and peppers is a WIN.
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This is BY FAR the best and easiest homemade sweet and sour chicken recipe I have ever had. I prefer it to takeout. The sauce is incredible! It tastes just as good, if not better, than any restaurant. And the juicy chicken, sweet pineapple, and crunchy red peppers and onions makes it a perfect combination of flavors. You have to try it and tell me if you agree. This tasty recipe is in our families regular dinner rotation, my kids are always requesting it.
Simple Ingredients
- Boneless, skinless chicken breasts (boneless, skinless chicken thighs can also be used)
- Pineapple chunks or tidbits (when you can get good fresh pineapple – use that instead)
- Red bell pepper
- Onion
- Eggs
- Cornstarch
- Cooking oil
- Sweet and sour sauce (ingredients below)
- optional: green onions for garnish.
Sweet and Sour Sauce
Sweet and sour sauce is one of my very favorite dipping sauces, which is why we always double or even triple the sauce recipe. The flavor is just so good! We love using it for dipping egg rolls, pot stickers, wontons, and even spooning it over rice. Sweet and sour sauce is so easy to make and just uses a few easy ingredients:
- Ketchup
- Sugar
- Soy sauce
- Cider vinegar
- Salt
For Extra Dipping Sauce:
To prepare extra sauce for dipping, prepare the sauce according to the recipe with doubled ingredients. Pour half of the sauce over the chicken, then simmer the other half in a small saucepan for 10-15 minutes. If you want to thicken the sauce, combine 1 tablespoon of cornstarch with ¼ cup of water. About 5 minutes before serving, SLOWLY whisk in cornstarch mixture to simmering sauce until the consistency is where you want it. You may not need all of the cornstarch mixture.
Extra Easy Chicken Hack
If I am going the extra easy route I will get the chicken breast nuggets from Costco and cook them up in the oven or air fryer. It’s not as good as making the chicken from scratch but a great option when you are short on time.
Questions About Sweet and Sour Chicken
Sweet and sour chicken traditionally is made with breaded chicken, peppers, onions, and pineapple. The sauce is made from sugar (sometimes brown sugar is used), ketchup, soy sauce, vinegar, and salt.
When frying the chicken, the breading is made of a thick batter of flour, egg, cornstarch, salt, and white pepper. Our baked version of this recipe, is lighter. The chicken pieces are dipped in cornstarch and an egg batter, then lightly browned before baking.
The preparation of both chicken recipes is similar, however our General Tso’s chicken recipe has fresh ginger and cayenne pepper in the sauce which gives it more of a spicy kick. General Tso’s chicken also isn’t made with chunks of pineapple, peppers, and onion.
This dish is so easy to make gluten-free! All you need to do is sub the soy sauce for a GF Soy Sauce or Tamari.
Side Dishes for Sweet and Sour Chicken
Treat your sweet and sour chicken to the next level with one of these tasty side dishes!
Easy Sweet and Sour Chicken
Equipment
- 9×13 baking dish
Ingredients
- 2 pounds boneless, skinless chicken breasts or thighs
- 3/4 cup cornstarch
- 2 eggs beaten
- 2-3 tablespoons vegetable oil
- 20 ounces pineapple chunks or tidbits
- 1 red bell pepper
- 1/2 onion
SAUCE:
- 3/4 cup sugar
- 4 tablespoons ketchup
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 cup apple cider vinegar
- 2 tablespoons soy sauce
- 1-2 teaspoon chili paste (optional, use if you want to kick up the spicy heat in the sauce)
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Cut chicken, onion, and bell pepper into bite-size pieces. Drain pineapple tidbits and reserve pineapple juice for another use.
- Place cornstarch in a shallow dish. Dredge each chicken piece in cornstarch then dip in beaten egg.
- Heat oil to medium heat in a large skillet. Add chicken and cook until lightly browned. It doesn't need to be cooked through.
- Place drained pineapple tidbits, pepper, and onion in the bottom of a 9×13 pan. Position chicken tenders evenly over pineapple and vegetables.
- In a medium bowl, stir sauce ingredients together with a whisk.
- Pour over chicken. Toss chicken and vegetables lightly until covered with sauce.
- Bake for 50 minutes, turning once after 25 minutes.
Notes
FOR EXTRA DIPPING SAUCE
- Double the sauce recipe.
- Pour half over the chicken (as the recipe calls for) and simmer the other half in a small saucepan for 10-15 minutes.
- If you want to thicken the sauce, combine 1 tablespoon of cornstarch with ¼ cup of water. About 5 minutes before serving, SLOWLY whisk in cornstarch mixture to simmering sauce until the consistency is where you want it. You may not need all of the cornstarch mixture.
Nutrition Information
Made this, but with a little different sauce. Everybody LOVED IT!
I love this recipe! I grew up eating sweet and sour this way and haven’t been to a Chinese restaurant here in Georgia that makes it this way! I added red pepper flakes instead of paste! Can’t have it too spicy with a 75 and 89 year old guys eating it! Thanks for sharing and it is oven but smells awesome!
Loved it. Easy to make too.
Hi Shelly- so glad you liked it! 😀 Thanks for the 5-stars!