Food Friday - Baked Sweet and Sour Chicken

Baked Sweet and Sour Chicken
 adapted from Life as a Lofthouse

So, I've wanted to try this recipe for months but it just never happened.  It has gotten HUGE reviews on Pinterest and Facebook so, honestly, I thought it wouldn't be worth the hype.  My husband is not a fan of sweet and sour combo's so I had planned this for a night he was gone but, wouldn't you know it, he was home HA!  The good news is . .. he liked it.  I feel like baking it kept it a little more mild than it would have been cooked in a pan.  I did like that the sauce "only" called for 3/4 cup of sugar - so many sweet and sour recipes call for 1-2 full cups of sugar in the sauce and that, my friend, is a dessert!!  My four year old l.o.v.e.d it.  Now, true confession - I was kinda put off by this recipe because you have to prep the chicken - cut it, batter it, brown it . .. all before cooking it for an hour. In my husband's words, "Wow, this is a messy-lot-of-prep-work recipe, isn't it?  He hit the nail on the head BUT it was actually worth the work.  My house smelled wonderful as it cooked and it really tasted like restaurant quality sweet and sour chicken at home.  We love pork in this house so I might try this next time with pork instead. 

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.