Sweet and Sour Chicken with Fried Rice

This is one of those rare recipes that makes you do a little happy dance when you taste it! I love that it's easy and made with simple ingredients, that most people have in their panrty everyday!

I found this recipe on a food blog called Life as a Lofthouse. The original recipe is called 'Baked Sweet and Sour Chicken', but this really isn't just baked! It's pan fried first, then baked!

This sauce has the perfect balance of sweet and sour! The corn starch and egg dipped chicken pieces, brown up nicely in the frying pan and made a nice coating for the sauce! The sauce in this recipe starts to thicken and caramelize during the last 30 minutes of baking! I kept eating pieces of the chicken while it was baking! I really had to restrain myself from eating all of it before I had a chance to serve it!

I also made the fried rice to go along with the chicken! It's a nice simple fried rice recipe!  They went very well together!
 

Sweet and Sour Chicken

The Chicken Coating:
3 boneless skinless chicken breasts - cut into bite sized pieces
1-2 tsp. kosher salt
1/2 -1 tsp. black pepper
1 cup corn starch
2 large eggs - beaten
1/4 cup corn oil

The Sweet and Sour Sauce:
3/4 cup white sugar
4 tbls. ketchup
1/2 cup distilled white vinegar
1 tbls. soy sauce
1 tsp. kosher salt
1/2 tsp. garlic powder

DIRECTIONS:
Lightly season the chicken pieces with salt and pepper.
Dip the chicken pieces into the corn starch to coat. Then dip into the eggs.
Heat a large frying pan on medium/high with corn oil.
Preheat oven to 325°
Pan fry the chicken pieces until browned on both side, but not cooked through.
Place all the browned chicken pieces in a 9x13" baking dish.
Whisk all the sweet and sour sauce ingredients together in a small bowl and pour evenly over the chicken pieces in the baking dish. Bake for one hour and
stir the chicken pieces every 15 minutes during baking.
Serves 4

FRIED RICE:
3 cups cooked white rice (leftover rice works well)
3 tbls. pure sesame oil
1 cup frozen peas - thawed
1 medium onion - chopped
2 large cloves garlic - minced
2 large eggs, slightly beaten
1/4 cup soy sauce
2 green onions - chopped

Heat a large skillet on medium/high. Add sesame oil. When oil is hot add peas, onions and garlic. Stir constantly and cook until tender, about 2-3 minutes.
Lower the heat to medium/low and push the veggies to one side of the skillet.
Pour in the eggs, cooking and stirring to scramble. Then add the cooked rice and soy sauce.
Stir until thoroughly heated.
Serve warm topped with green onions.

Recipes adapted from Life as a Lofthouse