Sweet & Sour Chicken/Stir-fry

I'm not really sure how to do this, so here goes my first attempt at blogging! Wish me luck!

I didn't have a lot of time so I just sautéed the chicken in the sweet and sour sauce, but I will include the Peanut Chicken part of this recipe, as well.

Peanut Chicken

(This is an authentic Japanese recipe)

Serves 6-8

2 eggs

1/2 t salt

3-4 T cornstarch

8 boneless, skinless chicken breasts

2-3 T oil

1/2-3/4 C chopped peanuts

3-4 green onions, finely chopped

Break eggs into shallow bowl. Add salt and enough cornstarch to make a sticky dough (not too thick). Add chicken, coating breasts with cornstarch mixture. In a large skillet, cook chicken in hot oil until done in the middle and golden brown on both sides. Slice chicken pieces diagonally. Arrange on a platter and cover with sweet and sour sauce. Garnish with peanuts and green onions.

Sweet and Sour Sauce

(You may want to half this, depending on how much sauce your family likes to use.)

1 clove garlic, minced

1 t oil

1/2 t salt

2 C water

2-3 T cider vinegar

1 C sugar

3/4 C ketchup

1-2 T cornstarch

1/4 C cold water

Sauté garlic in oil. Add salt, 2 C water, vinegar, sugar, and ketchup. Bring to a boil. Thicken to desired consistency with paste made of cornstarch and cold water.

*My "paste" was pretty runny, I used the whole amount of the "paste" and it worked great.

Stir-fry

I basically just make this part up.

Cut up desired vegetables. I used white onion, broccoli, carrots, red/green bell pepper, and green onion. You may want to include water chestnuts, snow peas, mushrooms, celery, cabbage, or anything else you like!

Then, sauté 3 cloves garlic, minced (I like to use bottled, minced garlic because it saves so much time!) in oil. Add veggies. When vegetables are tender-crisp sprinkle with sesame seeds and drizzle with sweet and sour sauce. Toss to coat. Then, I put the vegetables aside and in the same pan, sauté a defrosted chicken breast in sweet and sour sauce (I cut the chicken up in strips).

Serve over rice.

(my version without chicken)

(with chicken)

***I often make variations of this, cooking the chicken differently or using different sauces. One of my favorites is World Harbors' Maui Mountain Teriyaki sauce & marinade. It is so good that Rich and I will saute the veggies and chicken in just this! It makes for a very quick and tasty dinner. I have been able to find World Harbors brand sauces at pretty much all grocery stores here. We also really like their Fajita sauce and marinade.