(I can't believe I made) Sweet & Sour Chicken

I made this after finding the recipe on a site that rhymes with "binterest".  I was skeptical, because I do not have much skill with making Chinese food.  I'm sure anyone actually from China would laugh their butts off an me for calling this "Chinese food", but it sure tasted like it to me and Corey.  (I wonder what passes as "American food" in other countries?  Probably something I would hardly recognize if it's anything like what we do here in the U.S.)  I didn't take a picture of the final product because I had no confidence that it was going to turn out to be blogworthy.

In fact, I think it would go reeeeeeally well with Alicia's delicious fried rice that she makes but can't really tell me the recipe for because it's all kind of done by feel (you know, like how real chefs cook).  I think that means we need to get her up to Michigan for a Chinese food night.  I'm not sure if I can handle visiting Tennessee just yet, because if the kids and I caught sight of the old house right now I think we would all burst into tears and Peter might just barge right in and insist on staying there.  Whenever he sees a picture of our Tennessee house, he stares at it for a long time and keeps exclaiming "dat's MY house!"

Until we figure out the logistics of the Marshall/Stringer Chinese food extravaganza, here is my version of the sweet and sour chicken recipe.

Sweet & Sour Chicken

1 lb. chicken breasts or thighs
Salt
Pepper
1 cup cornstarch
2 eggs, beaten
1/3 cup vegetable oil
3/4 cups sugar
4 tbsp. ketchup*
1/2 cup white distilled vinegar**
1 tbsp. soy sauce***
1 tsp. garlic salt

1.  Heat oven to 350 degrees.

2.  Cut chicken into 1-inch cubes and season with the salt and pepper.  Dip each cube into the cornstarch and then into the eggs.  Seems kind of backward, huh?  Trust me -- this works.

3.  Heat the oil in a big skillet on medium-high and brown those lumpy little cubes until brown on all sides.  Dump them into a baking dish (a 9 x 9 or 9 x 13 depending on how close you stick to the 1 pound of chicken guideline).

4.  Whisk together the sugar, ketchup, vinegar, soy sauce, and garlic salt until smooth.  Dump it on the chicken in the baking dish and stir it all around until the chicken is well-coated.

5.  Pop the dish (uncovered) into the oven for 15 minutes.  Turn the chicken over and then bake for 15 minutes more.

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I served the chicken over brown rice and it was gooooooooood!  Even Corey, who is usually brutally honest with me when I try new recipes, raved about this one.  As usual, the shorties in the house turned their noses up at it and refused to even try a bite.  Oh well, more for us!  Might need to try this with pork the next time around.  I bet it would be fabulous.

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*  It's amazing how much I loathe ketchup but how much I love many recipes that use it as an ingredient (like BBQ sauce, my mom's meatloaf, etc.).  Any ketchup haters should not be scared off by the inclusion of this ingredient.

**  It's kind of funny to use the vinegar out of the huge bottle I keep around for mopping my floors.  Perhaps I should buy a small bottle dedicated to cooking so I don't feel like I'm serving my family cleaning products.

***  Make sure you have soy sauce in the fridge BEFORE you get to Step #4.  Otherwise, you have to make an emergency call to your husband on his commute home from work.  There really is no good substitute for it (especially if you also don't have teriyaki sauce on hand -- I'm still restocking my staples since moving a few months ago!).