Sweet and Sour Chicken Stir Fry

Use frozen strips of chicken breasts, you can add them to this recipe straight from the freezer. Make sure they are well cooked through and piping hot. This recipe is a hit with the children as they love the sweet and sour flavours. Accompany this dish with broccoli and rice. You can also use leftover chicken in this recipe – see Cook Once Eat Twice Family Roast.

By Caroline Marson

Cookery advisor All recipes by Caroline Marson

Ingredients show imperial units

Serves 4

2 tablespoons sunflower oil

Sunflower oil

It is tasteless and heats to a high temperature so is a good all round oil.

Ideal for pan-frying, mayonnaise, dressings and marinades.
1 onion, peeled and roughly chopped
1 red pepper, cut into strips
1×200g can pineapple chunks in juice
1 1/2 tablespoons caster sugar
Sugar and Syrups

Try having in stock caster sugar, muscavado, honey and golden syrup
- Once opened ensure they are tightly resealed with quick clips or bag clips.
- If you have got rock-hard brown sugar, crystallised honey/syrup, place in a suitable non-metallic bowl and give a quick blast of about 30 seconds on high in the microwave to bring these back to their normal state.
2 tablespoons soy sauce
Soy sauce

The two basic types of soy sauce used in chinese cooking are light and dark.
- Dark soy is aged much longer than light soy, giving it a brownish-black colour and much thicker texture. Dark soy is used in red-cooked dishes, and is good for marinating meat. Use carefully as the rather pungent odour and darker colour of dark soy sauce can ruin the taste or appearance of a dish.
- As its name suggests, light soy has a lighter colour, plus a saltier flavour. It is used more in cooking.
4 tablespoons tomato puree

Tomato puree

Concentrate made from paste type tomatoes that have high pectin content.

When they’re cooked down, they’re put through a strainer to remove skins and seeds, and reduced further until almost all of the moisture has evaporated. Usually a recipe will call for a tablespoon or two, just enough to enrich a beef stew, for instance, or to deepen the flavour of a sauce made with fresh tomatoes.
1 teaspoon mustard
Mustard

Worth keeping a few different types.
- French mustard or Dijon is creamy and can be used in dressings, marinades or adding to sauces.
- English is good for roast beef, steak, gammon or sizzling sausages.
- Wholegrain is used in chutney’s and pickles
125g beansprouts
150g mange tout, thickly sliced on the diagonal
1½ tablespoons cornflour

2 1/2 tablespoons Balsamic vinegar
Balsamic vinegar

Perfect for salad dressings and italian dishes
- A teaspoon or two of balsamic vinegar can wake up the flavour in a bland soup, stew or sauce.
- A sprinkle of balsamic vinegar on fresh sliced strawberries or raspberries with a bit of sugar really brings out the flavour of the fruit.
- Heat sweetens balsamic vinegar and boils out acidity. If you want to mellow the flavour, heat it.
400g skinless cooked or Frozen chicken breasts

Frozen chicken breasts

Cut into strips before freezing for quick defrosting

Could be used for making instant chicken- base recipes like creamy herb chicken, spicy chicken burgers, sweet and sour chicken stir fry

Instructions

In a large frying pan, fry the chicken in half the oil in batches until brown then remove from the pan.
Fry the onion and pepper in the remaining oil then return the chicken to the pan with the pineapple juice along with the sugar, soy sauce, vinegar, tomato puree and mustard. Simmer for 10 minutes, or until the chicken is tender and piping hot.
Add the beansprouts, mange tout and pineapple pieces.
Blend the cornflour with a little water, add to the mixture. Stir over the heat until the sauce thickens and the pineapple is warm. Serve with boiled rice.