Sweet and Sour Chicken – 8sp

Always keen to try out new stir fries, tonight whilst brain storming for new flavours, I thought I would give Sweet and Sour a whirl. I’m not usually a fan of overly sweet dinner dishes so I fiddled with the sauce for quite a while to make sure it was the right balance of sweet, savoury and of course, a little spicy. If you like the regular chinese Sweet and Sour Chicken and don’t like spice, feel free to leave out the five spice and crushed chillies but they really do take this dish up another level.

I served this with egg noodles but it would be equally as nice with either some plain or egg fried rice.

Sweet and Sour Chicken

Serves 2 = 8sp each (Flex)

Ingredients

2 x 165g chicken breast, raw, cubed

1 onion, finely sliced

1 pepper, deseeded and sliced

3 garlic cloves, peeled and finely chopped

1 thumb sized piece of ginger, peeled and grated

Handful of sugar snap peas, sliced in half lengthways

Tin of pineapple rings in juice (juice reserved) – four rings, quartered

1 lime, quartered

For the sauce

1 tbsp corn flour

3 tbsp pineapple juice (from tin above)

2 tbsp soy sauce

1 tbsp rice wine or white wine vinegar

3 tbsp tomato puree

½ tsp Chinese five spice

Pinch of crushed chillies

200ml chicken stock (made up with ½ a stock cube)

½ pack fresh egg noodles (205g)

Method

Add all the ingredients for the sauce together in a bowl or jug. Add the stock bit by bit last to keep the sauce nice and thick. Pop to one side.

Spray a wok or large frying pan with 1kal, add chicken, season and fry for 6-8 minutes until cooked through. Remove from pan onto a plate and pop to one side. In the same pan, spray again with 1kal and fry the onion, pepper and sugar snap peas for 4-5 minutes until they soften. Then add the garlic and ginger and fry for another few minutes. Add the chicken back to the pan with the quartered pineapple and then add the sauce. Simmer to let the sauce heat up and thicken for around five minutes. Squeeze over the juice of ¼ lime.

In a separate frying pan (or put the meat sauce in a bowl and use the same frying pan), spray with 1kal and stir fry the noodles for 5-7 minutes. Season with salt and pepper, add in a little of the sauce from the meat mixture and heat through. Squeeze over ½ lime.

Serve meat and sweet and sour sauce on top of noodles and pop ¼ lime on the side of each.

Enjoy!