Firs,t I just want to say how much I have enjoyed reading your comments about the Word of the Year you have chosen. So many wonderful and amazing words. You are all an inspiration to me!! Still time to share your word and enter the giveaway for a Word of the Year pillow made by me!
So I have a confession to make.
True Confessions.
A few weeks ago, I went a whole week without cooking dinner once!
Can you believe it?!
I have to say that is one of the positives of being an empty nester. Lest you think we didn’t eat – we did. But between a few holiday parties and take out there wasn’t much happening in my kitchen. It was that pre-holiday craziness. I was trying to get everything done and ready before my kids got home and there just wasn’t time to cook dinner. Lucky for me I have a very easy going, understanding, supportive husband and as long as there is something there for him to eat, leftovers, take out etc., he is happy.
My non-cooking streak couldn’t last forever so when I decided I really needed to start cooking again I came up blank. I was feeling totally uninspired. I have binders and a blog FULL of recipes and I couldn’t figure out what to fix for dinner. Nothing sounded good.
Well where do you go when you need to be inspired? Pinterest of course! If you haven’t discovered Pinterest yet you really should, or maybe you shouldn’t because it can be a bit of a time sucker. Pinterest is a virtual pinboard where you can organize all those fun ideas you find in the blogsphere. It really is an amazing organizational tool.
So I headed over to Pinterest to my “recipes to try” board and saw a recipe for baked sweet and sour chicken I had pinned a while ago. That was it – I had chicken in the freezer and rice. The recipe came from my friend Melanie over at Mel’s Kitchen Cafe so I knew it would be good and I wasn’t wrong.
The chicken is coated with egg and cornstarch and then after a light browning in oil it is put in the oven to finish baking. As long as you use wheat free soy sauce in the sauce this dish is gluten free! That has become important at our house when Cali is home.
The sauce made of sugar, ketchup, vinegar, soy sauce and garlic salt. You just pour it over the top and let it bake. Turn the chicken about every 15 minutes so the sauce makes a nice lovely glaze all over the chicken.
I served it with some jasmine rice, a salad and a vegetable and it made the perfect meal for the uninspired cook.
So where do you go when you need some dinner time inspiration? I have added a new Pin It button to the bottom of my posts so if you are on pinterest you can quickly and easily add my posts to your board! Thanks for pinning me!!
- 3-4 boneless skinless chicken breasts
- Salt and pepper
- 1 C cornstarch
- 2 eggs beaten
- 1/4 C canola oil
- ¾ C sugar
- 4 tablespoons ketchup
- ½ C vinegar
- 1 Tbsp soy sauce
- 1 tsp garlic salt
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Cut chicken into chunks.
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Season with salt and pepper.
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Dip chicken in cornstarch and then in egg.
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Fry in a little oil until brown but not cooked through.
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Place in a single layer in a 9 x 13 baking dish.
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Mix sauce ingredients together and pour over chicken.
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Bake for one hour at 325 degrees.
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Turn chicken every 15 minutes so it is evenly coated with the sauce. Serve over rice.
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Looks good! I’ve never thought to do sweet & sour in the oven, I can totally see how it’d be glazed and delicious. I’m feeling rather uninspired lately as well…thanks for this inspiration!
I pinned this off of your board a week or so ago and put it on the menu for this week. So glad to see that you made it and it was good. Can’t wait to try it!
I have made this recipe and my family LOVES IT!
I have made this several times, and I did get the recipe from Mel’s Kitchen Cafe. My family loves it and so do I . It makes a lot! 🙂 YUM YUM
I love Pinterest! So glad you loved this chicken, Leigh Anne. It is Brian’s absolute favorite!
Oh yes, we LOVE this recipe from MKC! I have my sister hooked on it now too;)
LOL! I didn’t cook the week before Christmas while I was making the cookie plates… too many things in the kitchen and on the table and no room to cook and eat. This recipe for sweet and sour chicken looks great. I’ll have to try it.
Pinned!!!! Add a few red pepper flakes and you could call it General Tsao Chicken – on of my favorites. I think this is going to be one of those “go to” recipes when you can’t think of what to make.
This looks FANTASTIC!! Yumm!!
I was so inspired by this post that I ran home and made it last night. Perfectly delicious. It’s hard to find gluten-free alternatives so THANK YOU for posting this one. I’ll keep my eyes peeled for more. This one’s a keeper and even the gluten-eaters loved it!!
I was looking for a dinner suggestion last night, and there it was, my husband loves Sweet and Sour, so this was a winner. Except, he likes a lot of sauce so I always have to make twice the amount,. Also with leftovers, it absorbs the liquid. He loves the leftovers, I dont.
I just pinned this! Yummy, thank you.
im making this right now! looks amazin! did you use just regular white vinegar or rice vinegar?
I used white but either would work
I saw this and a light bulb went off in my head! CORN STARCH? Why haven’t I thought to do a GF breading with that before, and I tried it tonight to make chicken fingers and it was the BEAST I’ve tried since becoming GF 13 years ago! Not a BIG Sweet and Sour fan but It sure helped me with making a great meal for my family and they all loved it too! (I did add spices to the cornstarch)
This was such a hit at our house last night! My 17 year old daughter said it was the best blog recipe I have tried ever (she is very critical because I have made lots of good recipes)! Thank you….
This was delicious! I’ve been GF for nearly 5yrs and this turned out exactly the way I remember S&S chicken from our local Chinese Restaurant. I love that the chicken isn’t deep-fried and the sauce was perfect. In fact, I think I’ll make extra next time! I was a little slow at the cornstarch/egg dipping step, but hopefully will get faster next time. Thanks for sharing!
Making this tonight! I will stirfry a bit of broccoli and peppers to round out the meal.
Mmmm I’ve been craving Chinese…can’t wait to make this tonight. I’m out of garlic salt can I replace it with garlic powder and salt?
That should work fine!
Yet another delicious meal thanks to you! 🙂 Thanks again.
I just made this!!!! AWESOME! I doubled the sauce to have extra for pan heating!!! FAB!!!!!!!!