{Baked} Sweet and Sour Chicken

Happy Chinese New Year!
(I know I am like a week late, but I've heard the Chinese
celebrate their New Year for about a week, so I'm good, right? ;) )

In honor of the Chinese New Year,
I wanted to share this delicious Chinese dish with you!

It is SO good and super simple
(and better than anything you'd ever find at Panda Express. For real.)
But I don't want to take all the credit because I found
this dish via The Recipe Critic. I just had to share it! :)

I pretty much followed the recipe exactly, except I added one
or two things and tweaked the directions just a bit to fit my
preference of not touching raw chicken as much as possible.

Does touching raw chicken gross anyone else out?!
Ugh, I just do not find pleasure in it and I would probably be
vegetarian if Joshua and I didn't really like chicken.

Speaking of Joshua, he LOVES this recipe and is giddy
every time I make it, which makes me feel pretty happy.

Kaiya also loves this chicken, which is huge for any toddler.
Toddlers can be picky sometimes...about lots of things, including food.

Anyways...
here's the recipe!

I hope you find some friends to celebrate the
Chinese New Year with and make this dish!
Thanks Recipe Critic for this recipe! It is genius. :)

{Baked Sweet and Sour Chicken} Total Time: 1 hour 15 minutes
Yield: 4 servings
Nutrition at a glance (per serving):
Calories (381), Fat (9.8g), Carbs (53.2g), Fiber (.4g), Sugars (29.8g), Protein (11.1g)

Ingredients:

• 2 boneless, skinless chicken breasts, thawed
• salt and pepper, to taste
• 3/4 cup cornstarch
• 1 tsp. garlic powder
• 2 eggs, beaten
• 2 Tbsp. olive oil
• 3/4 cup organic cane sugar
• 3 Tbsp. ketchup
• 1/4 cup white wine vinegar
• 1/4 cup apple cider vinegar
• 1 Tbsp. low sodium soy sauce
• 1/4 tsp. garlic powder
• 1/4 tsp. salt
• sesame seeds (pretty, but optional)

Instructions:

1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees F. Cut chicken into bite-size pieces and season with a bit of salt and pepper.
2. Whisk together the cornstarch and 1 tsp. garlic powder in a medium-sized bowl and the put beaten eggs in a separate medium-sized bowl.
3. Pour all the chicken pieces into the bowl with the cornstarch and mix with a spoon until all the chicken is dusted with cornstarch.
4. Pour the egg into the chicken-cornstarch mixture and stir with a spoon until all the chicken is coated with egg.
5. Heat the olive oil in a medium skillet over medium heat and cook the chicken mixture until it is browned. Pour chicken into a 9x13 (or similar-sized) baking dish.
6. In a medium-sized bowl, whisk together the sugar, ketchup, white wine vinegar, apple cider vinegar, soy sauce, garlic powder, and salt. Pour over the chicken and bake, uncovered for 45 minutes to 1 hour, stirring every 15 minutes to make sure all the chicken is well-coated in sauce. 

Sprinkle sesame seeds over chicken and serve with Fried Rice. If you want to make a healthier version of this dish, just cook the salt and pepper seasoned chicken in the olive oil without the breading. :)