Sweet & Peach Chicken

For awhile now I've been on this sort of quest to find a good sweet and sour recipe. As fake and artificial tasting as the chinese food restaurant variety is, I still love it. So what I was looking for was never going to replace my take out sweet and sour, it just had to be good for a 'real' meal at home. Most recipes utilize ketchup in their sauces, which I was trying to avoid so I've never actually tried that variation of the recipe. I have made one with Kraft Catalina dressing which was good, but really not what I was going for as it was pretty watered down.

Then I stumble upon this recipe that I put on my 'to-make list' ages ago and just finally got around to doing so. The funny thing is, I had no idea that I was going to be making sweet and sour chicken. I thought it was going to be more fruity salsa like. Well, I was oh so deliciously wrong. This recipe turned out amazingly. Next time I might make one substitution though. Instead of using canned peaches, I might just substitute in an equivalent amount of pineapple. It would add a bit more of a kick to this sauce, and cut through a bit of the sweetness I think. Or I could just might omit the 1/2 Tbsp of sugar. Even though I was sceptical about adding it in because I thought the sauce would be sweet enough, I still did, but at a significantly reduced amount. I probably should have just gone with my gut instinct though.

Just as a warning again, I do cook / bake in huge quantities. These measurements that I include make enough to fill my wok right up to the brim. Mmm, yummy lunch leftovers for several days. But if you are aiming for just a one night meal for a family, try check out the quantities used over at  Kayotic Kitchen where I got this recipe from. For the most part I followed that recipe, but with a few slight changes.

Ingredients

1 Onion, chopped

2 Bell Peppers, chopped

1 Extra Large Can of Peaches (mine was 791 mLs I think), in juice (or syrup by I'm going healthy here)

1 Tbsp. Oil

2 lb Chicken, cubed

3 Garlic Cloves, minces

1 Tsp. Chili Peppers

6 Tbsp. Soy Sauce

2-5.5 oz Can Tomato Paste

1/2 Tbsp Sugar (optional)

1 Tbsp White Vinegar

Directions

~Chop your onion and pepper into chunks. 

~Cut the peaches into chunks, but reserving the liquid.

~Heat a large frying pan and then add you oil. When oil is hot, add your chicken and cook until it is no longer pink.

~Add in your onion and cook until onions start to soften. Then add in the bell peppers.

~When chicken is cooked through, mince garlic and add it in. Stir until garlic cooks but make sure not to burn it.

~Sprinkle in the chilli, stir to evenly coat the mixture.

~Pour in the soy sauce, and add the tomato paste and peaches with the juice. Stir.

~Sprinkle in the sugar and vinegar and give it a good stir.

~Place a lid on the pan and simmer until mixture is heated through.

Enjoy