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Sweet and Sour Chinese Chicken

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If take-out is what you’re craving this Sweet and Sour Chinese Chicken is the perfect 20 minute budget-friendly meal to fill that need!

Chinese chicken on plate with green onions and sweet and sour sauce in background

Chinese take-out is one of our most favorite things on the planet. I mean seriously, it’s just so good and all the options that there are amazing.

But we also like to save money too, so we started making our own homemade Chinese take-out and we have hardly looked back. Whether it be this Sweet and Sour Chinese Chicken, potstickers, egg drop soup, etc. We love to make it at home.

Oh and you wouldn’t believe how easy some of these recipes are to recreate! This recipe is only a few ingredients and whips up in under 30 minutes start to finish!

overhead photo of crispy Chinese chicken on plate with green onions on top

WHY THIS RECIPE WORKS:

  • Like mentioned above, minimal ingredients make this a fast weeknight recipe that the whole family will adore.
  • Sweet and sour chicken is a perfect pairing item and goes well with a variety of things such as rice, noodles or soup.
  • The dipping sauce is served on the side, preventing the nice and crispy chicken from getting soggy and oversaturated.

There has been much debate on whether this Chinese chicken is served with the sauce over the top or if it is served alongside. 

We have been to ALLLLLL the take-out places and not once have we seen it served over the chicken itself. So this is our preferred method of serving, but if you like it over the chicken itself, by all means, drizzle away.

HOW TO MAKE SWEET AND SOUR CHINESE CHICKEN, STEP BY STEP:

Preheat your deep fryer to 375 .In bowl combine your flour, cornstarch, salt, water and sugar and whisk until smooth. The batter will be thin, don’t worry it is supposed to be like that, trust me (Photos 1 & 2).
 
Dip your chicken pieces one by one into the batter and then place into deep fryer. Fry for about 7-8 minutes or until golden. Turn out onto paper towel to drain, repeat will all chicken (Photos 3 & 4).
in process photo of making Chinese chicken

To make your sauce, in sauce pan combine your sugar, vinegar and water and heat on medium until sugar is desolved. Meanwhile in small bowl stir together your ketchup and cornstarch (Photos 5 & 6).

Once sugar is desolved stir in the ketchup and cornstarch mixture and turn heat to medium high and bring to a boil.Once mixture is boiling and it rises up in pan remove from heat and cool (Photos 7 & 8).

in process photos of making sweet and sour sauce

See how simple this homemade takeout Chinese chicken is? There really is no comparison, just look at all the amazing reviews that people have left making this.

We have been trying to dabble into more ethnic cooking lately, thanks to my aunt who is originally from Japan and likes to share her recipes with me. 

Whether they are Chinese, Japanese, Korean, etc. any of these ethnic flavors are loved in our house. My kids have become fanatics as well

Some of our favorite take-out fake-out recipes include Sesame Garlic Ramen Noodles, Chicken Lo Mein and Crispy Orange Chicken!

TIPS AND TRICKS FOR CHINESE CHICKEN:

  • The batter for the chicken will be thin, do not worry about it, it sticks to the chicken hen frying and creates a nice and crispy coating.
  • Some people like to serve the sweet and sour sauce over the chicken itself, we don’t recommend this as it makes the chicken soggy since it is breaded, but if that is how you are used to doing it by all means go for it!
  • Cut your chicken into larger pieces, 2″ work best for actual restaurant size!
  • When adding chicken to deep fryer make sure your basket is down and add one at a time, this prevents it from sinking and sticking the the bottom of the grates.

up close side view of finished chicken on plate with sweet and sour sauce

If you are craving take-out but want to keep it on a budget then you have to whip up this Sweet and Sour Chinese Chicken recipe. You won’t be disappointed! 

If you like this recipe you might also like:

If you’ve tried this SWEET AND SOUR CHINESE CHICKEN or any other recipe on my site, let me know in the comment section how it turned out, we love hearing from our readers! You can also follow along with me on PINTEREST, FACEBOOK and INSTAGRAM to see more amazing recipes and what shenanigans I’m getting into!

Finished sweet and sour chicken on white plate topped with green onions with sweet and sour sauce in background

Sweet and Sour Chinese Chicken

If take-out is what you're craving this Sweet and Sour Chinese Chicken is the perfect, quick and easy, budget-friendly meal to curb fill that need! Homemade, delicious and tasty.
5 from 25 votes
Print Pin Rate
Course: Main Course
Cuisine: Asian
Prep Time: 10 minutes
Cook Time: 8 minutes
Total Time: 18 minutes
Servings: 6 people
Calories: 273kcal
Author: Tornadough Alli

Ingredients

  • 2 Chicken breasts cut into 1-2" pieces

Batter:

  • 1/4 cup self-rising flour
  • 1/4 cup cornstarch
  • 1/4 tsp salt
  • 1/4 tsp sugar
  • 1/2 cup water

Sweet and Sour Sauce:

  • 1 cup sugar
  • 1/2 cup vinegar we used rice, but can use white
  • 1/2 cup water
  • 3 Tbs ketchup
  • 1 Tbs cornstarch

Instructions

  • Preheat your deep fryer to 375.
  • In bowl combine all batter ingredients and whisk until smooth, batter will be thin but that is what you are looking for.
  • Dip your chicken pieces one by one into the batter and then place into deep fryer.
  • Fry for about 7-8 minutes or until golden.
  • Turn out onto paper towel to drain, repeat will all chicken.

Sweet and Sour Sauce:

  • In small sauce pan combine your sugar, vinegar and water and heat on medium until sugar is desolved.
  • Meanwhile in small bowl stir together your ketchup and cornstarch.
  • Once sugar is desolved stir in the ketchup and cornstart mixtures.
  • Turn heat to medium high and bring to a boil.
  • Once mixture is boiling and it rises up in pan remove from heat and cool.

Notes

  1. The batter for the chicken will be thin, do not worry about it, it sticks to the chicken hen frying and creates a nice and crispy coating.
  2. Some people like to serve the sweet and sour sauce over the chicken itself, we don't recommend this as it makes the chicken soggy since it is breaded, but if that is how you are used to doing it by all means go for it!
  3. Cut your chicken into larger pieces, 2" work best for actual restaurant size!
  4. When adding chicken to deep fryer make sure your basket is down and add one at a time, this prevents it from sinking and sticking the the bottom of the grates.

Nutrition

Calories: 273kcal | Carbohydrates: 46g | Protein: 17g | Fat: 2g | Saturated Fat: 1g | Cholesterol: 48mg | Sodium: 265mg | Potassium: 306mg | Fiber: 1g | Sugar: 35g | Vitamin A: 65IU | Vitamin C: 1.2mg | Calcium: 4mg | Iron: 0.4mg

Tornadough Alli is not a nutritionist or dietitian, and any nutritional information shared is an estimate. If calorie count and nutritional value is important to you, we recommend running the ingredients through whichever online nutritional calculator you prefer. Calories and values can vary depending on which brands were used.

Tried this recipe?Mention @TornadoughAlli or tag #TornadoughAlli!
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Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Melinda

    5 stars
    I love this recipe. I’ve made it like 7 times since I found this recipe 4 months ago! The only thing I did in addition to this wonderful recipe was to season the chicken with salt and pepper before i put it in the batter.
    Thank you for sharing!

    Reply

  3. Sharon Seiber

    5 stars
    Hi and I just have a quick question for you. It looks and sounds delicious! I would like to know if it’s possible to fry these in an air fryer? Honestly, because my youngest son has chronic acute pancreatitis and I would love to make this for him as his list of foods are SO limited.
    Thank you so much for your reply,
    Sharon

    Reply

    • Tornadough Alli

      As much as I would love to say yes, I would not recommend these in the air fryer just for the simple fact that the batter is really thin and probably would create a hot mess in there, dropping them into oil is the one thing that makes the batter work so well with these unfortunately. But I’ll see if I can come up with a way to be able to makes these in the air fryer for the future.

      Reply

  4. Sheenagh

    5 stars
    I found this batter for the chicken so much better than all the other methods I tried all of them and this is recipe is perfect

    Reply

  12. Sue-anne Hardcastle-Toms

    5 stars
    Absolutely perfect!❤️I just added pineapple and Half a cup of the juice! If too sweet! Cut down the sugar add pineapple juice Shattotts , strips of carrot , onion and cucumber 🥒 without the seeds Or any likeable veggies! My boys loved it! Thumbs up for this dish! Batter perfect! . Gluten free just add gluten free self raising flour! And pure corn flour! 🥰🥂🍾

    Reply

  13. Kayla

    5 stars
    This is a hit at my house! I was so nervous about using ketchup for the sauce but it’s perfect! I do lightly season my chicken. Thanks a bunch for the recipe

    Reply

    • Tornadough Alli

      I know using the ketchup sounds weird, but it really makes a good sauce! So happy you guys liked this 🙂

      Reply

  14. Max Horovitz

    5 stars
    Question about frying the chicken – I followed the instructions for the batter, but all of my pieces of chicken were sticking together and sticking to the fry basket. Any suggestions? The end product was delicious, but I had to do a lot of scraping out of the fry basket. Thanks!

    Reply

    • Tornadough Alli

      This does tend to happen with us as well, you can also deep fry in a pan on the stove as well. What I like to do most is kinda grab the chicken and slowly drag it across the oil before dropping the pieces in.

      Reply

  15. Sondra

    5 stars
    Thank you for the recipe! I must have done something wrong because my chicken stuck to my deep frier basket. We did get it out and it still was so good! It was better than take-out and I will definitely be trying it again!!!

    Reply

    • Tornadough Alli

      It happens to us as well, mainly happens to anything we hand batter and deep fry in our deep frying, not just this recipe unfortunately. What you can do is either deep fry in a pan on the stove where it cant stick to the basket or what I do is grab each pieces after battered and drag it across the top of the oil a few times before fully dropping it in, it helps keep it from sinking.

      Reply

  20. Jessica Burgess

    5 stars
    I HAVE to make this. I’m always craving something like this, but hate always getting takeout. This is going to be perfect! Thank you!

    Reply

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