Sweet and Sour Chicken Experience

I have had some successful recipes and not so successful. The ones that flop are really more entertaining to write about, so here is my latest flop. I use the word flop loosely. If it is edible, it is okay.  However, I have higher standards than "edible".

Last week I made sweet and sour chicken. Everything started out great. I only had brown rice on hand (supposed to be healthier, right?). This is not the minute rice that you pop in the microwave and BOOM! it's fluffy. Brown rice has to cook on the stove for 45 minutes or so. I started the rice first. Then, cooked the bite-sized chicken in olive oil in the skillet. I added the cut green, yellow, and red sweet peppers with onions. Oh, did it smell delicious!

Then, I started the sweet and sour sauce. I used Martha Stewart's recipe for sweet and sour sauce minus the Tabasco sauce and adding pineapple juice. Everything went fine with that, except the orange marmalade had orange strips or rinds in it and the final sauce was very runny. I strained the sauce to get rid of the tiny orange rinds.

Meanwhile, the rice was getting thick so I kept adding more water. It began to burn just a bit on the bottom of the pot. The rice ended up looking like oatmeal, which is not very appetizing when wanting to eat with sweet and sour chicken. Maybe I stirred it too much or had too much rice in a pot that was too small. I'm wondering if I should get a rice cooker (if only I had room for an extra kitchen gadget).

I tried to thicken the sweet and sour sauce with cornstarch, but it still wasn't think enough. I poured all of the sauce into the chicken and pepper mixture. It was still not thick enough. I added some chunk pineapple and then added more cornstarch to the pineapple juice to try to thicken more. It FINALLY thickened up nice, but the amount of sauce to chicken and pepper ratio was a little too much. It was swimming in sauce, but tasted really good.

It was edible. Next time, I'll have to do something different with the rice or use minute rice in the microwave. I was trying to be a little healthier, though, and avoid white rice. Also, I'll gauge how much sauce to put in with the chicken, realizing that I don't HAVE to use all of it.

I'll try it again. I think there is potential for a tastier, healthier, and cheaper Chinese meal without having to order from a Chinese restaurant.