Sweet & Sour Chicken With Boiled Rice

This recipe is really tasty and the chicken is coated in a light tempura batter which is really good to use as it's so easy and not at all heavy like some batters. 

To make this delight I used the following ingredients, as ever change the vegetables if you don't have what is listed here! 

Try to stick to the measurements for the batter so that you get a great light batter, this really makes the dish. This always goes down well and is really easy to do! 
This will feed 4 of us! 
The Chicken and Vegetables

2 Chicken Breasts cut into strips

1 Red Pepper

1 Yellow Pepper

2 Carrots

1 Piece of Fresh Ginger

1 Garlic Clove

1/2 Tin Pineapple Chunks

The Sauce

3 Tablespoons Soy Sauce

80ml Cyder Vinegar

2 Tablespoons Tomato Ketchup

Worcester Sauce

180ml Pineapple Juice

125g Light Brown Sugar

1 Tablespoon of Cornflour

Tempura Batter

140g Flour

Egg

Ice Cold Water

Ice (to help cool the water not for the dish)

Rice

80g White Long Grain Rice Per Person

Prep those vegetables. 

I like a chunky bit of veg for my sweet and sour so i dont cut up the veg too small. For the carrot you could get the mandoline out, however i just thinly sliced those carrots. You want an even cook so make sure the peppers and the onions are the same size but dice up that ginger and garlic. 

In a hot wok add a little oil and wait for the wok to get really hot. Add the veggies, ginger and garlic and fry off. Once they are nice and tender take them off the heat and leave in an oven to keep warm, don't have the oven up too high!

The Sauce

To make the sauce it could not be simpler, try to get the proportions as shown as this gives a good balance to the sauce, you don't want it too sweet or sour. Of course change to taste! You can use white wine vinegar or rice vinegar I used cyder vinegar as that is what I had available in the cupboard! 

Ok all you need to do is to put all of the ingredients except for the cornflour into a saucepan and heat up. Slowly warm up the liquid keep stirring to incorporate the ingredients together. The tomato sauce might take time to be incorporated but it will come together eventually. Once it is all mixed together, add 2 tablespoons of water to the cornflour and mix until the cornflower is incorporated into the water. Now add the cornflower mix into the sauce and watch it thicken! Sauce done! 

The Rice

Add the rice to boiling salted water and cook as per the packet instructions, for me this was 12 minutes. 

The Chicken

Slice the chicken into strips. I went for strips but you may prefer cubes! Once I have my strips I make the tempura batter. 

Add the egg to the ice cold water - try to keep the water as cold as possible. Mix the egg and the water then add the flour. The key here is to now whisk the batter just try and incorporate it together. I used a fork but you could use chopsticks if you have them. Just don't over work that batter to keep it light. 

Put on a saucepan of oil or switch on the deep fat fryer and heat the oil. 

Now get an egg in a bowl, beat the egg,  and add some flour to a second bowl. 

Dip the chicken into the egg and then into the flour and then into the batter and finally into the pan of hot oil. The chicken will now deep fry in that oil and give a lovely light crispy batter. 

Cook the chicken in batches so that the oil keeps the temperature, with each batch cooked add it to a bowl and keep in the oven for warming. 

Dish It Up

Once all of the chicken is cooked we are ready to plate up! 
Put some rice in a bowl, add some veggies and the some chicken, finally pour the sauce over the top! Job done now enjoy!