Gluten Free Sweet and Sour Chicken

Crispy Chicken With Sweet And Sour Sauce

Sat eating this with chopsticks last night I actually felt as though we'd ordered a take away, this is so easy and quick to make that all memories of cooking it disappeared as soon as I tucked in.

As far as trying to replicate a Chinese dish goes, I think this is my most accomplished effort to date. The fact that it's gluten free is a given but I don't think that anyone not gluten free would notice. The Glutenite gave the thumbs up so I know it must be pretty good.

This served the 2 of us with Egg Fried Rice, it was pretty filling we finished the Chicken but not the side.

Battered Chicken Ingredients:

1 Chicken Breast

1/2 Cup Doves Farm Self Raising Flour*

120ml Cold Water

2 Tablespoons Mirin

1 Heaped Teaspoon Corn Starch

Pinch of Sea Salt

Vegetable Oil For Frying (Crisp n Dry is great)

Directions:

• Dice the chicken breast into 1" cubes

Free Range Chicken

• Put the chicken into a bowl add mirin and mix until evenly coated

Marinating In Mirin

• Add the corn starch and mix until all pieces are coated
• Marinate for 10 - 20 minutes
• Start heating your oil in a large pan on medium - high
• Mix the flour, water and salt together until smooth

Tried And Tested And Perfect Every Time

• Put the marinated chicken into the batter mix

Couple Of Steps Left

• Use a fork to turn the chicken pieces and thoroughly coat

They're Going To Be Crispy!

• Drop a tiny bit of batter into the hot oil to test, if it floats and starts to go golden after a few seconds seconds it's hot enough, if not leave to heat longer and/or raise the temperature
• Carefully put the battered chicken into the oil using a fork or slotted spoon, cook in batches if need be, don't overcrowd the pan
• Cook for 4 minutes turning halfway through

Love The Sizzle

• Remove with a slotted spoon and drain on kitchen paper

Crispy Battered Chicken

Now for the Sweet and Sour Sauce.

Ingredients:

250ml Pineapple Juice (we use Tropicana, just the right sweetness)

1 Tablespoon Rice Wine Vinegar

1 Teaspoon Caster Sugar (can use regular just takes longer to dissolve)

1 Heaped Tablespoon Corn Starch

2 Teaspoons Pineapple Juice

Directions:

• Measure out the pineapple juice, add the vinegar and sugar and mix

Sweet And Sour Sauce Ingredients

• Pour into a small pan and heat on high until boiling
• Let simmer for 5 minutes
• Bring the heat back up until it bubbles
• Mix the corn starch and extra pineapple juice together until runny
• Add to the sweet and sour sauce and stir quickly until the sauce thickens
• Reduce to heat and simmer for 5 minutes to remove any starch flavour
• Serve

Sweet and Sour Chicken

Printable Version

If you want the colour to be more authentically orange add a half a teaspoon of tomato puree. I quite like the naturalness of leaving it a typical pineapple colour personally but the choice is yours, I've done both.

As the finished result is so good I find it hard to convey just how easy this Sweet and Sour Chicken is to make. If you're comfortable deep frying then it's a must try gluten free meal. As mentioned, we had this with Egg Fried Rice and it was so take away-like that I couldn't quite believe that I created it all from scratch, no guide recipes, just memories of lots and lots of Chinese meals that I didn't cook. 

I never ever post a recipe that I'm not totally happy with at the time, that's why this didn't go out last week I f*£%$d up the sauce so badly by one stupid mistake, I figured it was a good excuse to have it again. Second time round I think that this is my best recipe to date, I'm quite pleased with myself.

The plan for today was and still is baking experiments but it's so blooming hot that I don't know if I can bear the thought of a hot oven making it even more furnace-like. I need a McEnroe sweat band set for such purposes.

UPDATE: *If you can't get Doves Farm Self Raising Flour other brands will work providing they contain or you add Xanthan Gum. See here UK / US