Title: Easy Sweet and Sour Chicken
Categories: Poultry Blank
Yield: 2 Servings

1	lb	Chicken breast, boneless
1	ts	Ginger, chopped
1		Egg white
1/2	ts	Salt
2	ts	Cornstarch
1/2	c	Vegetable oil (peanut oil is best, but sunflower is good, to
1		Green (bell) pepper
6		Carrots
12	oz	Pineapple chunks, canned (drained, but reserve about 1/2 cup
		SAUCE
2	ts	Sherry
2	ts	Light soy sauce
1	tb	Vinegar
1	ts	Sugar
1	tb	Cornstarch
1	ts	Salt

Cut up the chicken into bite-sized chunks. Combine ginger, egg white, about 1/2 teaspoons each salt and cornstarch, and about 1 teaspoon oil. Add the chicken chunks and stir until the chicken is well-coated.

Wash green pepper. Discard seeds and stem. Cut into strips about 1 x 1/4 inches. Peel carrots. If they are thick, cut in half lengthwise. Cut diagonally into pieces about 1 inch long. Cook the carrots in boiling water for 3-5 minutes, depending how crunchy you like your carrots.

Drain pineapple chunks, saving about 1/2 cup of the juice. Prepare the sweet and sour sauce by mixing sherry, soy sauce, vinegar, sugar, reserved pineapple juice, about 1 tablespoon cornstarch, and about 1 teaspoon salt. Stir well and set aside.

Heat about 3 tablespoon of oil very hot in a wok or deep cast iron pan. Peanut oil is best since it has a high smoking point. Stir-fry the chicken by putting a small batch (e.g., 5 pieces) of the cubed chicken in the wok and stirring continuously until golden brown. Remove to a dish. Repeat until all the chicken has been cooked, adding small amounts of oil as it gets used up.

Heat about 1 tablespoon oil in an empty wok. Stir fry the parboiled carrots and the green pepper for 30 seconds. Add the chicken and the pineapple chunks to the vegetables in the wok. Stir 1 minute or until well mixed and reheated. Add sweet and sour sauce to wok. Stir until thickened.

Serve with rice. I serve this recipe to company all the time and am amazed at how many people don't realize that you can cook Chinese food at home. It is always a big hit. The recipe works equally well with lean pork, tofu cubes, or soy beans instead of the chicken.

NOTES:

* A nice Chinese dinner you can make at home -- Don't forget to start cooking the rice so it will be done at the same time as the chicken.

: Difficulty: easy. : Time: 45 minutes. : Precision: measure the sauce ingredients.

: Andy Tanenbaum : Dept. of Math and Computer Sci., Vrije Universiteit, Amsterdam, HOLLAND : ast@cs.vu.nl seismo!mcvax!cs.vu.nl!ast

: Copyright (C) 1986 USENET Community Trust

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