I love sweet and sour pork or chicken but my biggest complaint is that there is too much batter and not enough meat. So, of course, I perused the web to get different ideas and variations of this particular dish. That had a good aout of chicken and little batter. I finally found a way to for that and here my take on this dish:
Ingredients
- 2-3 lbs. chicken thighs
- 1 cup potato starch
- 1 egg white, whipped
- 1-2 minced garlic clove
- 1 tsp Aji Mirin or white wine (optional)
Vegetables
- 1 bell pepper
- 1 onion
- 1 carrot
- 2 pineapple slices
Sauce
- 1 cup of water
- 5 Tbsp. sugar
- 4 Tbsp. vinegar
- 1 Tbsp. Soy sauce
- 5 Tbsp. oyster sauce
- 1 tsp. potato starch and 1 tsp. water
1. In a bowl, put the cup of starch and add water until it covers the starch about a half inch. Do not stir! Leave the starch alone until all the bubbles that surface stop. It should take about 5 minutes.
2. Next, clean, debone and remove skin from the chicken thighs. cut into about 2 inch pieces or strips. Add salt, pepper and a tsp. of Aji-Mirin, which is a rice seasoning (optional), Mix in 1 minced garlic clove. Let sit while you prep the vegetable by cutting them into bite sized pieces of about 2-3 inches.
3. Dry the chicken with paper towels. This will help the starch to adhere to it. Set aside in a bowl. Check the potato starch and if the water on top is clear, drain it. Scoop out the starch and add it to the chicken in chunks and them chicken and starch together until well incorporated. This will ensure you get a crisp crust when frying. You can add an egg white to help in the mixing.
4. Time to fry. In order to get it super crisp, you need to double fry it. In a pan, add enough oil to deep fry the chicken. Turn on to medium high heat. Once the oil shimmers, around 340 degrees, add pieces of the chicken one at a time. Try to avoid crowding by cooking in batches. Cook for about 3 minutes. Scoop out chicken and any pieces that stick together would break off from each other by tapping with a spatula. Set aside for about about minute or two and then re-fry the chicken in the hot oil and cook for another 3-4 minutes. Remove and let cool on a cooling rack with some paper towels to remove excess oil.
5. Make the sauce by adding the water, sugar, vinegar, soy sauce and oyster sauce into a wok. Bring to a boil over low heat. Mix 1 tsp. potato starch and water in a bowl and add to the sauce, making sure it’s well mixed in it. Once it starts to boil, add the vegetables. Cook for about 1 minute. Turn off heat. I apologize for not having a pic of this process.
You can now add to the chicken. You will find that the chicken will retain it’s super crispiness from the double fry and adding the sauce at the end keeps it from getting soggy. Serve with rice or noodles or enjoy on it’s own. This came out really crispy and not too sweet. You can adjust how sweet or sour you like. You can also make this strips of pork, but either way, I hope you give this a try. Thank you for stopping and Buen Provecho!
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