I like Asian cooking, well the taste at any rate, and when a recepie came along for a sweet and sour dish with vegetables I wanted to give it a try. The issue for me is the original recipe was a strictly vegetarian preparation using tofu and salad bar vegetables. Sorry, I’m just not that into tofu and having a pound of salad bar veggies sitting around didn’t excite me either.
I decided to see what I could do with using chicken and a bag of frozen onion & pepper stir fry vegetables. This makes a good dish for 4 people when served with rice. Here’s how it works:
- 1.5 lbs chicken (about 4 breasts) cut into 1-inch cubes
- 1/3 cup + 1 tbsp of vegetable oil
- 1/4 cup honey
- 3 tbsp soy sauce
- 1 tbsp garlic-chili sauce
- 1 tbsp grated ginger
- 1/2 cup corn starch
- 1 lb frozen stir-fry vegetables (pepper and onions were my choice)
In a large non-stick pan, heat 1/3 cup of oil over medium high heat until shimmering. Note that you may want to work in 2 batches if your skillet isn’t that large. Just half the oil for each batch of chicken.
Pat the chicken dry, cut into cubes and set aside. Add cornstarch to a shallow pan (pie pan works good here) for dredging and set aside. Reserve 1 tbsp of corn starch for use in sauce.
Whisk together honey, soy sauce, ginger, garlic-chili sauce, and reserved 1 tbsp of corn starch and set aside.
When oil is shimmering in pan, dredge chicken in corn starch, and shake off excess. It’s best to dredge all (or a batch) of chicken and then add to pan rather than piece at a time. Add dredged chicken to pan and cook until golden brown turning as needed so all sides are cooked, about 6-8 minutes. Remove to paper towel lined plate.
Add frozen vegetables to pan and cook for about 5-7 minutes until liquid is gone. You can cook them in a separate pan to speed things along. Add soy sauce mixture to pan and cook until thickened, about 2 minutes.
Return chicken to pan and stir to mix well. Serve. Note that if you used a separate pan, return the vegetables to the pan used to cook the chicken.
Some observations: This was my second time making this and I think the frozen vegetables come out way to soft. I’d like them to be crisper. I’d also like to try a mixture of beans and watercress. If you’re not a spicy fan, you may want to cut back on the garlic-chili sauce. My wife found it to be a bit on the spicy side. The cornstarch dredge gives the chicken an interesting texture. It seems lighter than flour and is “bumpy” on the surface.
