Baked Sweet and Sour Chicken Recipe - The Recipe Critic (2024)

FAQs

What keeps chicken moist when baking? ›

Add Fat:Brush the chicken breasts with olive oil, melted butter, or another fat source before baking. This helps lock in moisture and adds flavor. Cover the Chicken:Cover the chicken breasts with foil during the first part of the baking process. This helps trap steam and keeps the chicken moist.

You can roast or bake anywhere between 325 and 450 degrees F. When roasting a whole chicken, a nice rule of them is to start at 400 to 425 degrees F and then turn the oven down to 350 after 15 minutes and cook until the internal temp of the chicken is 165 – 175 degrees F on an instant read thermometer.

The dish generally comprises cubes of white meat chicken deep-fried in batter and served with sweet and sour sauce. Sometimes it is topped with pineapple, green pepper, carrot, or sweet pickles. Sweet and sour pork is a Chinese dish particularly popular in Westernised Cantonese cuisine and may be found worldwide.

When I make sweet and sour sauce from scratch, there's a bit of a red colour, but that's because I use ketchup to make some of the “sour” part. It's also got tomatoes in it, which adds some red colour. Usually, my sauce is more of a brown colour from the soy sauce and brown sugar. Because they generally add tomatoes.

Nutrition Facts

There are 1765 calories in a 1 order (706.000g) serving size of Restaurant, Chinese, sweet and sour chicken. The calorie breakdown is 46% fat, 38% carbs, and 16% protein.

A corn starch slurry thickens the sauce – this sauce is a medium thickness, so depending on your preference add little more or less corn starch slurry (but go slowly – the sauce will take a little time to thicken up once the slurry is added).

The origin of sweet and sour chicken was in the 18th century or even earlier from China. It spread to the United States in the early 20th century after the Chinese migrant gold miners and railroad workers turned to cookery as trades. In some countries, the dish is known as Ku lo yuk.

The discrepancy is likely due to the fact that while sweet and sour chicken aptly contains slightly more sugar than General Tso's, the latter contains way more protein, so despite being a bit more calorically dense, it's actually the healthier choice.

Preheat the Oven

Bonus: baking chicken breasts in the oven doesn't require babysitting. No flipping or turning.

Oil & butter- Cook the chicken in a little oil, and baste with butter for maximum flavor. Seasoning- I highly recommend Lawry's Seasoned Salt! It's my favorite seasoning for chicken and a little goes a long way. I also use Lawry's Seasoned Pepper, but you can also just mix back pepper with paprika for a similar flavor.

How do you make chicken taste more flavorful? ›

Just sprinkling a little salt on top of your chicken right before cooking it will only season the surface. But seasoning the chicken with salt well ahead of time or brining it in a salt-water solution will draw salt deep into the meat, resulting in a very tasty piece of chicken.

The reaction of cysteine and sugar can lead to characteristic meat flavour specially for chicken and pork. Volatile compounds including 2-methyl-3-furanthiol, 2-furfurylthiol, methionol, 2,4,5-trimethyl-thiazole, nonanol, 2-trans-nonenal, and other compounds have been identified as important for the flavour of chicken.

Marinades:Marinades are a great way to infuse flavor into chicken. Prepare a marinade with ingredients like olive oil, vinegar, citrus juice, herbs, spices, and garlic. Allow the chicken to marinate for at least 30 minutes (or longer for better flavor penetration) before grilling.

Add a touch of spice to your chicken breast by combining paprika, cinnamon, turmeric, cumin, ginger, garlic and olive oil to create a paste. Then cover your chicken breast with the paste and pat down to secure.