Baked Sweet and Sour Chicken
No need to order take-out anymore – this homemade version is so much healthier and a million times tastier!
I am a complete sucker for sweet and sour chicken when it comes to take-out. But it’s been hard to find a place that has it down perfectly – crisp on the outside yet completely juicy and flavorful with a sweet and sour punch. Thankfully, I found a homemade version from Mel’s Kitchen Cafe that has it down to a tee.
What makes this recipe so perfect is that the chicken is first fried to get that crisp exterior. Then it gets baked in a low temperature for an hour, really letting the sweet and sour flavors meld right into the chicken. I was worried that the chicken would get overcooked but it was actually so unbelievably tender. And the flavor packs in quite a punch!
The cooking time takes a little over an hour but I promise you – this version is well worth the effort!
Baked Sweet and Sour Chicken
Ingredients
- 1 pound boneless, skinless chicken breasts, cut into 1-inch chunks
- Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste
- ½ cup cornstarch
- 2 large eggs, beaten
- ¼ cup vegetable oil
For the sweet and sour sauce
- ¾ cup sugar
- ½ cup apple cider vinegar
- ¼ cup ketchup
- 1 tablespoon soy sauce
- ½ teaspoon garlic powder
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 325 degrees F. Lightly oil a 9×13 baking dish or coat with nonstick spray.
- To make the sauce, whisk together sugar, vinegar, ketchup, soy sauce and garlic powder in a large bowl; set aside.
- In a large bowl, season chicken with salt and pepper, to taste. Stir in cornstarch and gently toss to combine. Working one at a time, dip the chicken into the eggs.
- Heat vegetable oil in a large saucepan. Add chicken and cook until golden brown, about 1-2 minutes. Transfer to a paper towel-lined plate; discard excess oil.
- Add chicken to prepared baking dish. Top with sweet and sour sauce. Place into oven and bake until the sauce has thickened, about 55 minutes, turning over every 15 minutes to evenly coat the chicken.
- Serve immediately.
Did you make this recipe?
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Love this dish! Followed the recipe exactly! Takes a little work but well worth it
Is there a calorie count and a serving size portion for this amazing recipes thats better than most takeout?
LOVE!! this recipe! I make it all the time. I have added pineapple and bell pepper to it in the baking dish!
Have shared with others
I have been making this recipe for years and it is still our favorite. We make it for gluten free friends by changing out soy sauce to coconut aminos and we switched the sugar for coconut sugar recently and it was so good. By far the best sweet and sour chicken!
I recommend you to everyone and have loved every single recipe I’ve gotten here starting with PF Changs lettuce cups & your amazing shrimp fried rice.
I’ve used this sweet & sour chicken recipe many times and thought I’d share that I move this along by combining the eggs with the cornstarch and stir well adding the chicken then picking the pieces out a few at a time to sprinkle gently into the pan. Nothing gets too sticky or messy and as long as you add the pieces in away from each other they don’t stick to one another. I even learned to flip the pieces with long stainless chopsticks I use often in the kitchen
Thanks for your brilliance and inspiration on this platform
How many days does it keep for in the fridge? Have you ever frozen it?
Favorite recipe!
This recipe looks good.
Please can you tell me if I can bake this dish in advance? Many thanks.
My family LOVES this!!! I have to make OFTEN!
@Damn Delicious. Thank you for your wonderful recipe. I have used this one for many years and it’s always great, just the best. We never get tired of it.
Yesterday my Grandaughter wanted lemon chicken.
So I used this recipe for the chicken, then I used the lemon sauce from your Honey lemon chicken and broccoli bowl recipe.
Poured the sauce over the chicken and put it in the oven like you do with this recipe.
Thickened the lemon sauce with cornstarch and doubled the quantity.
It was amazing, just like this one but with lemon. 2 dishes for the price of one.
Thank you so much.
I’ve made this before, delicious!!! This is one of the few websites I go to for good food. You never disappoint. Thank you. Keep up the good food!!
Thank you Damn Delicious, you never disappoint. This was a 10 star dish! We absolutely loved it! Didn’t change a thing as I think you should always follow the recipe exactly in order to give an honest review. Hmmm…. thinking this could be dinner again tomorrow! I have shared this with family and friends. You have never steered me wrong.
I haven’t revisited this recipe since going vegan but it turned out perfect with extra firm tofu pieces and Just Egg. My Husband and I have loved this recipe and make it a few times a year. So damn delicious!
Outstanding directions, very easy to make. I guess that the chicken content can be changed to Pork and to Any Form Of Fish and Rice. The Shrimp Fry with the directions, I guess would be also excellent ? Thank You!!!!!!
Easy to make, and it was delicious. The next time I make this dish I will reduce the sugar, it was a little sweet for my British taste buds 🙂
One of my very favorite recipes.! I’ve made this for a long time and tonight I tried replacing sugar with an artificial sweetener “swerve” and it still turned out great. Yummmmm
Exceptionally good! I made this as described, with the exception of putting the beaten eggs into the bowl containing the corn flour coated chicken pieces and gently mixing it in rather than dipping one piece at a time, per a previous commenter. That seemed to work out very well for me. Next time, I’ll add bell pepper strips and pineapple chunks. Thanks again, DD crew!
Oh my gosh, this is the BEST chicken I think I’ve ever made. Seriously, I never write reviews, but here I am. This is AMAZING! From the advice of another reviewer, I used half apple cider vinegar and half white vinegar because I’m usually sensitive to ACV. This is so tender, sweet, and easy to make!! Seriously 10/10 this is so delicious!
I was wondering if someone knee the time amount if I were to make it with white fish?
This is my go-to recipe (with only a hint of oil and with a mix of vinegar and lemon juice instead of apple cidar vinegar) there was a request for me to make it with fish instead and I was wondering if someone had a recommendation?
Back home we use fresh and whole Tilapia to make a sweet and sour and it taste amazing! You can buy a Tilapia fillet or any white fish (fillet) to cook this dish, you only need to slightly batter the fish, and the s&s sauce and no need to baked it as you will over cooked the fish. Hope that helps.
Made this last night and it was delicious.
The only thing I changed was the vinegar. Using all apple cider made me nervous so I did 1/2 apple cider and 1/2 rice vinegar and I felt it was perfect. Doubled the sauce recipe. Some was added to the chicken over rice and some was used as dipping sauce for eggrolls.
So so SO good. This is a keeper.
The guys loved it, said it was better than takeout. I did add the sesame seeds and had it over jasmine rice . Cooked up broccoli to go along with it. I am going to try sesame shrimp, next.