Sweet and Sour Chicken
SWEET AND SOUR CHICKEN
Hi friends! I hope you all had an amazing Thanksgiving! We sort of had a traditional Thanksgiving. We had stuffing, mashed potatoes, pie… but no turkey! I know, I know weird huh? We had steak instead. None of us are all that fond of turkey, so my grandma cooked steaks in a cast iron and then in the oven. It was so much faster than cooking a turkey.
I wanted to share my recipe for sweet and sour chicken for those of you who don’t have any leftover turkey (like us) but want something easy to make before ya hit the mall to go shopping. This is by far the best sweet and sour chicken recipe I have ever made, and I do not say that lightly. I love this recipe for many reasons, but the one thing I super duper love about this recipe is that there is no frying involved. When you order sweet and sour chicken in a Chinese restaurant, they usually bring you chicken that’s coated and fried with some sweet and sour sauce. Not here! It saves time (and calories) by not frying the chicken and I think it tastes even better because they chicken soaks up all that yummy flavor when it cooks in the slow cooker all day! On top of all that chicken, you get flavorful onion and green peppers, plus chunks of pineapple. This recipe could not be any easier!
Sweet and sour chicken tips:
This recipe calls for chicken, but you can also use beef, pork, or shrimp in place of it. I would cook it the same way, by cutting it into chunks (except shrimp, leave those whole) and placing it in the slow cooker with everything else.
- You could also mix up the veggies in this dish. It calls for a green pepper and an onion, but you can sub-in whatever you think would taste good.
We like to eat our sweet and sour chicken over plain white rice, but fried rice or Chow Mein noodles would also taste really great!
Have a great weekend! I hope you find lots of great deals if you go out shopping! I am more of a last-minute shopper… I just don’t like shopping all that much and I love to order stuff online 😀
- 2 pounds chicken breasts cut into bite sized pieces
- 1 large green pepper seeds removed and cut into chunks
- 1 large white onion cut into chunks
- 1 20-ounce can pineapple chunks, reserve the juice
- 1 ½ cups ketchup
- ½ cup white vinegar
- 1/3 cup white sugar
- Reserved pineapple juice
- 1 tablespoon corn starch
- 3 tablespoons water
- Place cut chicken, green pepper, onion and pineapple chunks (save the juice) into the slow cooker.
- In a medium bowl, mix the ketchup, white vinegar, sugar and pineapple juice together until combined.
- Pour over chicken and veggies and stir.
- Cook on high for 4 hours, or low 6-8 hours.
- About 15 minutes before serving, mix corn starch with water to make a slurry. Pour into the slow cooker and stir. Mixture will thicken.
- Serve over white rice, fried rice or Chow Mein noodles.
This looks way different than most sweet and sour chicken recipes I’ve seen before! I can’t wait to try it out.
Great post. However do you recommend a recipe for a vegan alternative to the meat? X
You could just add more veggies, and slow cook for less time and serve over rice, or make the sauce and veggies in the slow cooker and pour over tofu 🙂 Thanks for checking out the recipe!
This looks so good! I love a good home alternative to takeout 🙂
Im preparing a a Chinese dinner next week. Will try this recipe too.
I enjoy a good sweet and sour dish, but we never ate much of this at home since we don’t like deep frying, but NO DEEP FRYING for this recipe!! AWESOME.
This looks delicious! I love that your family doesn’t do the traditional type recipes for Thanksgiving. I would rather eat steak than turkey on Thanksgiving! I’ve made roasted chicken several times but next year maybe I will make steak!
OH yes with pineapple chunks and juice! It reminds me of a dish I used to make but I hadn’t prepared in a while. Don’t really know why stopped cooking it. Thanks for reminding me, this should inspire me on a days when I am out of food ideas. 🙂
OH my goodness this is a recipe revival! My mom used to make this for us all the time but with battered fish! Ah the memories!
I always order mine with little bread-like dough balls with pork in the middle. You don’t maybe have a recipe for that too? Would like to recreate the whole experience at home.
I haven’t had this dish in a very long time! I don’t eat meat anymore, but I bet this would be equally delicious without it – over rice especially!
Make this with tofu!! Fry the tofu (soft or firm) with a little bit of oil on all sides till it’s golden then use it like chicken in this recipe. YUM!
This looks like an easy meal to prepare. Looks delicious!
Thank you Ali 🙂
Who needs take-away with recipes like this! So much healthier, cheaper and probably even faster than getting a take-away! Great recipe.
Thank you Anne-Marie! 🙂
The only dish my husband will order in a Chinese restaurant is Sweet and Sour Chicken. He absolutely loves it. I cannot wait to try this recipe on him. Love the idea it is not a battered deep fried chicken base! And hear you on the Thanksgiving meal. We did lasagna. 🙂
Lasagna sounds like an awesome choice! 🙂 I hope your husband likes my recipe. Mine sure did 🙂
Isn’t it funny how some people like turkey, and others don’t. We happen to LOVE turkey, especially when it is done on the smoker. This chicken recipe is the perfect comfort food for the cold weather we are heading into. Sounds and looks delicious.
Thank you Gloria! 🙂
Love this recipe so much! I am a big fan of chicken breasts! Thank you for sharing!
Yum! Also, I love that you don’t have turkey for Thanksgiving, haha. None of us are super fond of it either!
Sweet and sour chicken is one of may favorite “asian” style dishes to make. Everyone loves it, even the kids 🙂