posted by Fruffy 09-21-101 6:00 AM
Chinese Sweet and Sour Chicken
Cookin' Dad's recipes
2 large whole boneless chicken breasts, cut in bite-sized pieces
1/4 cup soy sauce
3/4 cup sugar
1/2 cup vinegar
1/4 cup water
5 tsp. ginger (grated,extra fine)
1 tsp. garlic, minced, or pressed)
1 1/2 tsp. freshly squeezed orange juice
1 1/2 tsp. freshly squeezed lemon juice
1/4 cup green onion, sliced in approx. 1/4" segments
2 tbsp. hot oil
2 tbsp. cornstarch, mixed with water for thickening sauce
Chicken nugget breading:
2 cups cornstarch (approximation)
2 eggs
1 cup water (approximation)
1 tbsp. oil (approximation)
Several hours before cooking time, cut salt chicken. After you have salted chicken, drizzle a little water on breast chunks and mix. Follow that with about 2 tbsp. cornstarch. Mix cornstarch in, gently massaging it into meat with your hands. Set in fridge.
A couple of hours before cooking time mix sauce ingredients together. This includes everything except green onion, hot oil and cornstarch. Make sure the ginger is very finely minced or you will sacrifice some of the flavor. Set sauce aside to allow flavors to marry.
Before you heat up oil (about 3 in. deep in deepest part of wok), mix eggs, water and oil together bowl. Place nuggets in mixture, then dip in pure cornstarch. Make sure you have a thin, solid coating with no bald spots. Heat oil while nuggets sit in cornstarch. Before frying, make sure oil is piping hot (important for allowing cornstarch to achieve its full functionality).
Drop first batch of nuggets in hot oil (should see just a little smoke just before nuggets are placed in oil). Oil temp. for this recipe is important, because if oil is hot enough, nuggets will be slightly crispy in spite of having been fried for just 2 1/2 - 3 min.! On the other hand, if the temp. is too low, your nuggets may have a slightly gooey exterior. If you have a thermometer, fry at 375-380 degrees. Remove first batch of nuggets which should be ready in no more than 3 min. unless you are using golf ball-sized nuggets. Drain well. Allow a minute or two for oil temp. to rise before frying your next, and possibly final, batch.
Also, for optimum results with different sized nuggets in same batch, put larger sized nuggets in before smaller sized ones. After you are done frying and draining nuggets, pour oil out of wok and into safe container. Allow wok to cool for minute or so before cleaning it and then heating sauce. When heating sauce, pour in cornstarch/water mixture within first minute or so. Stir and, when sauce starts to thicken,
add hot oil and stir well before adding green onions. Lastly, dump chicken nuggets into wok and stir until all nuggets are coated with sauce. Serve over white rice.