Sweet and Sour Chicken

This Sweet and Sour Chicken recipe is from a much-loved cookbook, which is my husband’s. He has owned this book since 1980 and we have enjoyed numerous recipes from it. The cookbook is called Pei Mei’s Chinese Cook Book Volume 1 and is very unique as one page is in Chinese and the other page is in English.

Miss Fu Pei-Mei was a celebrated television chef in Taiwan and at the time the book was written had over fifteen years of experience demonstrating the art of Chinese cookery. This book is a collection of more than one hundred traditional dishes. We have made many of them and have never been disappointed. The book was originally published in 1969. You can still find used copies online. This recipe feeds about four and is easily doubled. It works equally well for pork, shrimp or fish.

Sweet and Sour Chicken

Ingredients:

1 lb of boneless chicken
2 peppers (sweet)
1 cup pineapple chunks

Marinade:
½  Tbsp soy sauce
1 Tbsp cornstarch
1 Tbsp cold water
1 egg yolk

Seasoning Sauce:
3 Tbsp Vinegar
4 Tbsp sugar
4 Tbsp catsup
3 tsp cornstarch
1 tsp sesame oil

Directions:

In a medium size bowl, combine marinade ingredients. Slice chicken very thin. Best if done while the chicken is still fairly frozen as you can slice it thinner.

Soak in marinade for at least ½ hour.

Cut peppers into halves, remove seeds and membranes, and cut into 1” squares. Set aside.

In a small bowl, combine seasoning sauce ingredients. Stir and set aside.

Heat a few teaspoons of peanut oil in your wok. I use a non-stick pan, shaped like a wok with a flat bottom. When the oil is hot, stir-fry the chicken until it just starts to brown.

Remove to a bowl. Add peppers and pineapple to pan.

Stir constantly until just tender but not soft. Add seasoning sauce and chicken. Stir until thickened and serve immediately. Delicious served with rice.