Sweet and Sour Sesame Chicken

Cracking your head on what to cook for lunch or dinner? Add this dish to your menu: Sweet and Sour Sesame Chicken.

I found the recipe here and it tastes soooooo goooooood. Even my mom who hates to eat chicken breast meat said it was yummy. She even suggested that I add this dish to our Christmas and Chinese New Year dinner menu. It is not that difficult to do. Maybe just require some time to fry the chicken.

Okay, so if you're lazy to head over to BlogChef's website, here's a quick look at the recipe.

INGREDIENTS:

• Chicken breast
• Raw sesame seed
• Spring onions (optional. some kids don't like it)

For marinade:

• 1 tsp chicken base - you can use crushed chicken bullion cubes. I used Maggi's concentrated chicken stock that comes in a bottle. 
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp sesame oil
• Ground white pepper
• 1/4 tsp sugar
• 1 tbs fruit flavored wine (I omitted this coz' I don't have it. It was still super yummy).

For batter:

• 1/2 cup all purpose flour
• 1 tsp baking powder
• Beat 1 egg
• 1/2 cup water
• 3 tbs cornstarch
• Pinch of salt
• 1 tbs vegetable oil

(The batter is not very thick. It is quite runny but it is thick enough to coat the chicken)

For sauce:

• 3 tbs honey
• 2 tbs sugar
• Salt
• 2 tbs ketchup 
• 1 tbs distilled vinegar
• Ground black pepper

(When I was cooking, I asked my 10 year old daughter to put the sauce together. She did a great job. So, if you have older kids, you can encourage them to help you in the kitchen. Oh, I forgot to tell her about standard measurements. So she was using our dining tablespoon and heaping in the sugar. Thank goodness I stopped her just in time. Don't forget to tell your kids about using standard measuring tools when following a recipe.)

STEP 1: Marinade the chicken.
Cut up chicken breast into bite size or strips.  Mix in the marinade ingredients. I marinated mine overnight but 1/2 hour is also okay.

STEP 2: Fry the chicken.
Dip the chicken into the batter and then fry in oil. Ideally you dip the chicken one by one before frying it. If you want to be quick, you can do what I did: I just poured the batter over the chicken meat and mixed it all up. Worked out okay for me. Fry till golden brown, maybe about 10 minutes depending on how hot your oil is. I prefer a medium fire. Too hot and the outside gets burned before the inside is cooked. Set the fried chicken pieces aside and drain the oil on paper towels.

STEP 3: Mix in the sauce.
Heat up the sauce for a few minutes. Stir until the sugar melts and sauce thickens slightly. Then dump in the fried chicken and mix it up with the sauce. Make sure everything is coated. Turn off the fire and sprinkle in the sesame seeds and chopped spring onions.

ENJOY!
Hope your family likes it as much as we do.