Chicken is one of the most popular meat products in many families. There are an incredible number of different dishes from this meat, which are cooked in a pan, in the oven, slow cooker or on an open fire. In this case, we consider the recipes of chicken in sweet and sour sauce, prepared by various methods.
Oven Chicken Legs
Cooked legs according to this recipe have a sweet and sour taste with hints of hot chili pepper. All these mixes of tastes pleasantly explode the taste buds, once you try this dish, you will want it again and again. Essential Ingredients:
- chicken legs - 8 pcs.;
- ketchup - 150 g (if you like sharper food, you can take Chili ketchup, but remember that hot pepper is also part of the sauce);
- several fruits of bell pepper, it is recommended to take different colors, then the dish will look more extravagant;
- chili pepper - 1 pc.;
- pineapple - 0.2 kg (when you open the jar, do not pour the marinade, it will also be needed in the cooking process);
- onion - 1 pc.
- starch - 4 tbsp. l
You can also add other vegetables: carrots, asparagus, broccoli and more.
Step-by-step cooking instructions
Cooking chicken in sweet and sour sauce in the oven will take you a little time and effort if you follow the steps described exactly:
- Rinse the chicken drumstick thoroughly, salt, pepper and sprinkle with a small amount of vegetable oil. Of the additional spices, optionally, you can add turmeric, thyme or curry.
- Breaded legs in starch and fry them in a pan with vegetable oil.
- While the meat is being fried, you can peel the onions and bell peppers, then cut them into small pieces. Hot peppers should also be peeled of the stalk and seeds, and then chopped into small cubes. Pineapple cut into medium cubes.
- Fry all vegetables in vegetable oil for several minutes. After pouring pineapple juice and add ketchup, mix everything, you should also add about 1 cup of water. Simmer for a short time over low heat.
- Now you should take the baking dish, put the chicken legs fried in starch in it, pour the sweet and sour sauce on top. Cover the mold with foil and put in the oven for 40 minutes. At the end of the heat treatment, remove the foil and wait until the chicken gets a golden brown. The temperature of the oven should be 180-200 degrees.
This completes the process of making chicken legs. Serve this dish best with boiled rice or deep fried potatoes. You can also use a salad of fresh vegetables as a side dish.
Chicken Nuts Sauce
This chicken recipe is a good alternative to various pork and veal dishes. It uses a large number of different ingredients that are inherent in oriental cuisine. Chicken in sweet and sour sauce in Chinese is an excellent dish where a variety of products are combined.
Essential Ingredients
Immediately it is worth noting that for cooking you will need to acquire a large number of products, some of which are quite exotic. To prepare the dish you should take:
- chicken fillet - 600 g (this amount of meat is calculated for 3-4 people);
- seasoning for chicken (you can buy a ready-made set, but you can use thyme, turmeric, rosemary, cumin);
- garlic - 3 teeth .;
- onions - 2-3 pcs. (small onions);
- ginger - 10 g;
- chili pepper (in this recipe there is no specific indication of how much pepper is needed, it all depends on how much you like spicy food);
- unsalted peanuts - ½ cup;
- sugar - 3 tbsp. l .;
- corn starch - a few teaspoons (it all depends on the amount of liquid left, it should just give the sauce the desired consistency);
- soy sauce - 1 tbsp. l .;
- rice wine - 1 tbsp. l (if you did not find this product, then you can replace it with an ordinary semisweet white wine, of course, this is not a completely equivalent replacement, but it is sometimes quite problematic to purchase rice wine);
- wine vinegar - 3 tbsp. l .;
- to give a special aroma quite a bit of sesame oil (it is sometimes difficult to find this product, but you need to try, it has a specific smell that cannot be replaced with any other product).
When all the necessary products are collected, you can proceed directly to cooking chicken in sweet and sour sauce in Chinese.
How to cook
Since a sufficiently large number of different ingredients are involved in the dish, you should follow the step-by-step instructions exactly. Otherwise, there is a risk of simply spoiling all the products.
Instruction:
- Rinse chicken under running water and cut into small or medium cubes. Transfer it to a deep bowl and sprinkle it with plenty of seasonings.
- Also add rice wine and soy sauce to the chicken dish. Set the meat aside for at least 2 hours.
- Meanwhile, you can roast peanuts. To do this, you need to put the pan on the fire, toss the nuts into it and, without pouring any fat, fry them until golden brown.
- In a separate bowl, mix sugar, corn starch, soy sauce, wine vinegar, sesame oil and one tablespoon of water. Mix everything, the taste of the sauce should be sweet and sour.
- Now you need to chop the garlic, ginger and chili pepper very finely, and it is recommended to chop the bell pepper into medium cubes.
- Fry these ingredients in a pan with a small amount of vegetable oil. When they reach the state of semi-preparedness, remove from the pan and transfer to a plate.
- Now, in the same pan, lay the chicken fillet and fry it until a beautiful, golden crust appears, then lay out all the other ingredients and mix.
- After a few minutes, pour the nuts into the pan, add sweet and sour sauce and simmer all the foods until the liquid begins to acquire a thick consistency.
Since this is a Chinese dish, it is best to eat such chicken with boiled rice or noodles. You can also use various salads in olive oil as a side dish.
Sweet and sour chicken recipe in a slow cooker
A slow cooker greatly simplifies the life of every housewife. There is practically no need to monitor the state of cooking, you just need to signal the desired products. The device itself knows at what temperature to fry the ingredients and how much is left until the preparation of the dish.
The advantage of this dish is not only that the crock-pot does half the work here, but also that it uses clear and affordable products for everyone.
List of ingredients
It is extremely important to adhere to the indicated weight of the ingredient, because it depends on the number of products and the cooking time in the multicooker depends. Therefore, if the weight changes, then in this case it will be necessary to change the program timer. Before cooking, you need to take:
- chicken fillet - 600 g (the weight of the main and all other products is designed for three servings);
- vegetable oil - 2 tbsp. l .;
- apples - 1 pc. (it is best to buy large apples of hard varieties, then at the end of cooking they will be completely soft, but still their shape will remain the same).
These ingredients comprise the main part of the dish for making chicken fillet in sweet and sour sauce, you will also need to take two tablespoons of soy sauce and ketchup and one tablespoon of mustard and honey.
Multicooking
The cooking process in this device is quite simple and unpretentious. The first step is to cut the chicken into small pieces, add salt, pepper, as well as your favorite spices. It is recommended to use cumin and curry.
Pour a small amount of vegetable oil into the multicooker bowl, put the chicken there and set the Frying mode to 15 minutes. While the meat is fried, you need to peel the apple and cut it into cubes or straws. At the end of frying, add fruit to the chicken and turn on the same mode for 5 minutes.
Now you need to mix all the ingredients for the sauce, open the lid of the multicooker, pour the chicken with the resulting mixture, pour another 50 ml of water. Set the "Extinguishing" mode for 25 minutes. When the time allotted for cooking ends, the dish will be ready to serve. Top it can be sprinkled with a small amount of chopped dill or cilantro.
Other sweet and sour sauces
Regardless of the method of cooking chicken, you can cook various sauces in which you can marinate the meat and add them during heat treatment.
In a small saucepan, pour 100 ml of low-fat cream and put on medium heat. After a while, add 50 ml of sour cream and 50-70 ml of soy sauce. You also need to add the juice of ½ lemon and a whole orange (medium size). Bring everything to a boil, reduce heat to a minimum. Strain the sauce for 3-5 minutes, after which put a little starch so that it acquires the desired consistency.
Also, sweet and sour sauce can be made as follows. Pour about 80 ml of pineapple juice into the stewpan, add a little grated ginger, 80 g of ketchup, garlic. Stir everything and simmer a little. This sauce is well suited for chicken, which should be baked in the oven. They just need to water the meat before starting the heat treatment.
Now you know a lot of different recipes for cooking chicken in sweet and sour sauce in a pan, oven or in a slow cooker. All of them are good in their own way and each of them has its own zest. Therefore, it is recommended to cook each of the above dishes and decide on your own what will be the most delicious for you.