Baked Sweet and Sour Chicken with Fried Rice

        I have a DELICIOUS recipe for you all! I am so excited to share this one. I found this on Mels Kitchen Cafe about a year ago. My family and I LOVE this dish! It has such a great flavor. You could probably trick your family into thinking you picked up some yummy Chinese food at a gourmet restaurant... It is that good, I promise! One of the great things about it is that its baked :)  Your not deep frying it like the normal chinese dishes, so your getting tons of great flavor without all the fat and grease. I found the Fried Rice recipe on a website (dont remember which one) but added my own little twist to it. I made this last night for dinner and I think we all ate it up within 5 - 10 minutes! It's soooo good. I hope you give it a try soon :)

Baked Sweet and Sour Chicken

The chicken coating:

3-4 boneless chicken breasts

salt + pepper

1 cup cornstarch

2 eggs, beaten

1/4 cup canola oil

The sweet and sour sauce:

3/4 cup sugar

4 tbs ketchup

1/2 cup distilled white vinegar

1 tbs soy sauce

1 tsp garlic salt

       Start by preheating your oven to 325 degrees. Rinse your chicken breasts in water and then cut into cubes. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Dip chicken into the cornstarch to coat then dip into the eggs.  Heat your 1/4 cup oil in a large skillet and cook your chicken until browned but not cooked through. Place the chicken in a 9x13 greased baking dish. Mix all of your sweet and sour sauce ingredients in a bowl with a whisk and then pour evenly over the chicken. Bake for one hour and during the baking process you will need to turn the chicken every 15 minutes.  

                                 Below is the greatness you will get when it's all cooked:

YUM!

Fried Rice                                                                                             

3 cups cooked white rice (day old or leftover rice works best!)

3 tbs sesame oil

1 cup frozen peas and carrots (thawed)

1 small onion, chopped

2 tsp minced garlic

2 eggs, slightly beaten

1/4 cup soy sauce

      On medium high heat, heat the oil in a large skillet or wok.  Add the peas/carrots mix, onion and garlic. Stir fry until tender. Lower the heat to medium low and push the mixture off to one side, then pour your eggs on the other side of skillet and stir fry until scrambled. Now add the rice and soy sauce and blend all together well. Stir fry until thoroughly heated!   **You could really play around with this rice too! Try adding some diced ham, or green onion :) Yum!  

     

SCRUMDIDLIUMPTIOUS!