American Chinese Chicken

One of our kids favorite meals is what our youngest calls American Chinese Chicken, it is a meal that I only make once in a while so about every month and a half or when the youngest keeps on asking it shows up on the menu.

 

I started making it about twenty years ago, a friend used to make it and I learned from watching her that it wasn't really all that hard and way cheaper then getting take out,  especially as our family grew larger. Little did I know that just a few years later we would move the country and the nearest Chinese restaurant would be 30 minutes away and being able to make Chinese chicken would be handy. Today we live minutes from numerous Chinese food options but this has been and is still cheaper to make at home.

I usually serve this with homemade fried rice, and if I am feeling really motivated egg rolls.

1	cup all-purpose flour
2	tablespoons cornstarch
1 1/2	teaspoons baking powder
2	eggs
1/2	teaspoon vegetable oil
1	teaspoon sugar

This is usually enough for 2-3 pounds of boneless chicken

1. Mix up the batter

2. Start heating up your oil, I like to use a cast iron dutch oven on the stove top

3. Cut up your chicken breasts into bite sized pieces

4. I like to then add all the chicken to the batter and mix together

5. Take the chicken piece by piece and place in hot oil, enough to fill one layer of pot

6. In about      flip the chicken over then in about take out and drain

7. Repeat until all the chicken is cooked. 

While all this is going on I have rice cooking in my rice cooker, when it is done I place a bit of oil in the largest frying pan I have and fry up some diced onion, then add bag of frozen of peas and carrots, once they are cooked add the rice, some oyster sauce to taste.

I also make a dipping sauce for the chicken

In a small sauce pan mix together the liquid from a can of pineapple, 2 tablespoons cornstarch, 1/4 cup ketchup, 1/2 cup vinegar, 1/2 cup brown sugar. Bring to a boil while mixing and then then remove from heat to thicken.