Slow-cooked sweet & sour chicken
Enjoy the flavours of sweet and sour chicken without the sticky heaviness of the restaurant version – it’s as quick as a takeaway too.
- SERVES
4 - PREP
20 minutes - COOK
1 hour 20 minutes
This dish is great for batch cooking as the chicken and sauce (but not the noodles) can be frozen.
Ingredients
- 4 skinless and boneless chicken breasts, cut into chunks
- ½ tbsp Chinese five-spice powder
- 230g can pineapple chunks in natural juice
- 1½ level tbsp cornflour
- 1 tbsp tomato purée
- 2 tbsp rice wine vinegar
- 2 tbsp soy sauce/tamari
- Low-calorie cooking spray
- 1 onion, cut into chunks
- 2½cm piece fresh root ginger, peeled and grated
- 2 medium carrots, peeled and sliced into chunks
- 2 peppers (red, orange or yellow), deseeded and cut into bite-size pieces
- 250g passata
- 1 star anise
- 4 baby leeks, cut into short lengths
- 225g can bamboo shoots, drained
- Boiled dried egg noodles, to serve
Method
-
Preheat your oven to 200°C/ fan 180°C/gas 6. Put the chicken in a large bowl with the Chinese five-spice powder and toss to coat. Leave to marinate for 10 minutes.
-
Meanwhile, drain the pineapple over a bowl to reserve the juice. Put the cornflour in another bowl and gradually whisk in the pineapple juice to make a smooth paste. Whisk in the tomato purée, vinegar and soy sauce and set aside.
-
Spray a large non-stick frying pan with low-calorie cooking spray and place over a medium-high heat. Brown the chicken all over in batches, then transfer to a large baking dish.
-
Spray the frying pan with a little more low-calorie cooking spray and reduce the heat to medium-low. Add the onion and ginger and soften until starting to turn golden. Add the carrots and peppers and fry for 2 minutes. Add the pineapple sauce, stirring until thickened, then add the passata and star anise and bring to a simmer. Transfer to the baking dish, cover and bake for 30 minutes.
-
Stir in the leeks, bamboo shoots and pineapple chunks. Re-cover and bake for a further 30 minutes. Discard the star anise, then divide between 4 bowls and serve with the noodles.
