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Sweet & Sour Roast Chicken

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Do Not Freeze!

Sweet and sour chicken, what's not to love? Take away versions are great, but home made sweet and sour chicken, especially roasted chicken as I'm using here, will wipe the floor with them if you box clever. Now making this dish is bit like cooking Indian food; preparation is every thing! So get all your ingriedients out, grab some little pots and some storage containers. It'll be fine trust me ;-) I've broken this down into 3 stages:

If you (or the kids) prefer a smooth sweet and sour sauce, you can blend the whole mixture down in a food processor, or use a handheld stick blender until it's a completely smooth like the little pots of sweet and sour sauce that come from the Chinese take away, but, I leave my cooked vegetables whole as the star of the dish, it's a real grown up version of your sweet and sour chicken, I promise. Here I am using chicken legs that I'll roast separately in a coating of five spice powder and a couple of other flavour enhancing goodies. The result is totally amazing, I knew it'd be good (well, fairly sure lol!) when I was thinking of this, but WOW! This is really, really good!

This is not your gloopy, clingy, gluey sauce that coats your chicken balls from the take-away. No! This is home made tangy, fruity, sweet and sour chicken, I want more deliciousness, with textures of fruit and veg that not just compliment, but, marry with the flavours and texture of the roasted chicken coated in spices.

Click the Method tab below to see a step by step guide with pictures.

ingredients

serves 4

Here's what you need :¬)

serves 4

for the coated chicken

  • 4 chicken legs
  • 4 cloves garlic finely diced
  • 2 inch piece of fresh ginger finely diced
  • 4 tsp five spice powder
  • 1 tsp salt
  • 1 tsp ground black pepper
  • Juice of one lemon

for the sweet and sour chicken sauce

  • 1/2 white onion very finely diced
  • 425g tin of pineapple slices, we only need the juice
  • Water
  • 30g butter
  • 1 Tblsp cornflour
  • 2 Tblsp brown sugar
  • 3 cloves garlic finely diced
  • 1 Tblsp Sriracha hot chilli sauce ( Optional )
  • 4 Tblsp Shaohsing rice wine vinegar*
  • Pinch of salt and pepper
  • 1 OXO™ vegetable stock cube crumbled

Or white wine vinegar if you dont have this in your store cuboard

for the fruit & vegetables

  • 4 small tomatoes quatered
  • Pineapple slices from the tin, cubed
  • 8 thick slices of cucumber quartered
  • 1 inch of fresh ginger finely diced
  • 1 green chilli finely chopped
  • Bunch of spring onions

method

So, as I was saying, you can break this dish down into three stages:

  • the chicken
  • the fruit & veg
  • the sauce

Each stage is really easy and if you have everything you need prepared in advance, it's a breeze to put this dish together. I used an air fryer to roast my chicken legs, but it's just fine to do them in a conventional oven, or even under the grill if you want. The cooking time is just a little shorter using an air fryer and there is no need to wait for it to heat up.

Here's a couple of pics of how I prep' things for the sweet and sour chicken sauce:

fruit & veg for the sweet and sour chicken sauce
fruit and veg for sauce
other ingredients for the sweet and sour chicken sauce
ingredients for sauce

So, now that we are organised to make our sweet and sour sauce, we can concentrate on our chicken and get that started!

  1. Pre-heat the oven to 180c
  2. Place the chicken legs on a board
  3. Sprinkle some of the five spice over the chicken
  4. Turn the legs over and repeat
  5. Mix the garlic, ginger, salt & pepper together
  6. Pop the chicken in a food bag (preferably) or bowl
  7. Sprinkle in the remaining five spice powder
  8. Tip in the garlic & ginger mix
  9. Add the lemon juice
  10. Massage everything into the chicken
  11. Allow to marinade in the bag for 15mins or so
  12. Put the chicken into a roasting tin
  13. Bake for 30 - 45mins depending on the size
  14. Once cooked, allow to rest

Start making the sauce while the chicken is cooking and resting

  1. Strain the pineapple juice into a jug
  2. Top it up with water
  3. Slake your cornflour with a little water
  4. Add the vinegar to the cornflour slake
  5. Add butter to a hot pan
  6. Add the onions and fry gently until soft
  7. Add your garlic
  8. Now add your sugar & allow it to melt
melt the sugar
softened onions
  1. Add a crumbled stock cube
  2. Add the jug of pineapple juice to the pan
  3. Stir until it thickens and begins to shine
  4. Allow it to reduce until you are happy with the consistency
reduce the sauce
sauce simmering
  1. Add the chilli sauce
add the chilli sauce
onion juice chilli sauce
  1. Add the ginger
add the ginger
ginger added to sauce
  1. Add the cucumber
add the cucumber
ginger added to sauce
  1. Add the pineapple
add the pineapple
pineapple added to sauce
  1. Add the tomatoes
add the tomatoes
tomatoes added to sauce
  1. Cook on low heat until happy with the cucumber texture*

*Don't cook for to long or you will spoil your tomatoes

  1. Sprinkle with chopped spring onion to finish
add the spring onion to finish
spring onion added to sauce

Everything should be ready now, so serve it while it is still piping hot, or, if you (or the kids!) want a smooth sauce, pop it into a food processor or use a stick blender to until it is the consistency that you want.

Note: You might need to add a little more slaked cornflour to thicken the sauce again, because blending the mixture will release the juices from the fruit & veg' and make it a little thin. If so, pop the sauce back onto the heat to thicken it up again with a little more corn flour slaked in water.

Pop the sauce into bowls ready for serving

sweet & sour sauce ready for the chicken
sweet & sour sauce in dishes
serving suggestion
dinner plated
sweet and sour chicken with chips

Please let me know what you think of this one, we all love it to pieces at my place :¬)