Sweet and Sour Chicken

I used to make a sweet & sour/Hawaiian chicken back in the day that was baked with some chunky onion, pepper, and pineapple and a different sauce. The idea was right, the dinner was really good, but the sauce was more hawaiian than sweet & sour. The sauce below really does the trick. This one was all over Pinterest and after a few "failed" attempts at Chinese food and a decent Hawaiian chicken thing, we finally found a winner. The previous attempts weren't actually failed, it's just that some weren't even blogable and some were just decent and then there's still a few we've made again and again like the Pad Thai and the Peanut Chicken.  This is another one of those recipes that's been put into the regular rotation. It's easy and delicious. The original recipes are below but here's how I did it.

Sweet and Sour Chicken & Fried Rice

Chicken:
1lb boneless, skinless chicken breasts
1/2 cup cornstarch
salt and pepper
1 egg
1 tablespoon water
2-3 tablespoons olive oil
cooking spray

3/4 cup sugar
4 tablespoons ketchup
1/2 cup white vinegar
1 tablespoon soy sauce
1 teaspoon garlic salt

1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees.
2. Cube chicken breasts. Combine cornstarch and salt and pepper to taste in a plastic bag. Toss cubed chicken into bag and coat with cornstarch.
3. In a medium/large bowl, beat egg with water. Remove chicken from bag and put into egg mixture. Do this with your hand, shaking off excess cornstarch because the cornstarch + egg will make a paste.
4. In large pan, heat olive oil over medium heat. Add egged/cornstarched chicken to hot pan. Cook chicken until browned but not cooked fully or chicken will get too dry.
5. Lightly grease glass baking dish. Put cooked chicken into dish.
6. In a bowl, whisk sugar, ketchup, vinegar, soy sauce and garlic salt. Pour over chicken mixture.
7. Bake for about an hour (it'll take about 45 mins before the sauce starts to thicken). Stir/turn chicken every 15-20 minutes.

Rice:
2 cups cooked brown rice
2 tablespoons sesame oil
1 cup frozen peas and carrots
2 teaspoons minced garlic
1 small onion, diced
1 egg, beaten
1/4 cup soy sauce

1. Heat oil in large pan on medium or medium-high heat. Add peas/carrots, onion, and garlic. Cook until onions are tender.
2. Push veggies to one side of the pan and add beaten egg. Scramble eggs on other side of the pan. Mix with pea/carrot/onion mixture when done.
3. Add rice and soy sauce. Mix and heat until warm.

Original Chicken Recipe: http://www.melskitchencafe.com/2008/07/sweet-and-sour-chicken-updated.html
Original Rice Recipe: http://life-as-a-lofthouse.blogspot.com/2010/09/baked-sweet-and-sour-chicken-with-fried.html

AEM