Quick 'n' Easy Sweet 'n' Sour Chicken

Once again I was scrounging around the house last night looking for something to cook for dinner that also would provide leftovers. Had odds 'n' ends of this 'n' that, so here's what I came up with... Gotta say, when my son eats the leftovers today and says "Damn Mom, that's good!" I figure I did something right (considering his restaurant cooking experience). Here's what I did, along with commentary...

- 1 1/3 Cup brown sugar
- 1/2 Cup soy sauce (light or low sodium is fine)
- 1/4 Cup diced onion (I used red onion, any old onion will work the same)
- 1 tsp. minced garlic
- 1 Cup cider vinegar
- 1 big can of crushed pineapple (15 ounce?)
- 1 little can of water chestnuts (6 ounce?)
- 1 pint jar of home canned sliced carrots (try to avoid store-bought canned carrots, better off to use some frozen ones if you don't have fresh. If you have fresh, slice them and boil them for awhile first, 'til they start to get soft)
- 7 flash frozen chicken breast pieces (Safeway sells a huge resealable package of these for about $9.99, about 15 to a pack)
- A handful of Craisins
- Some cornstarch and some ketchup (I'll explain this later)

Much like the bbq chicken recipe earlier on, rub the chicken all over with a real light coating of mayo. I started out with frozen chicken, this worked fine. Sprinkle a bit of pepper, onion salt, garlic powder, and chili powder over both sides of the chicken, and put it in the oven on 300. Then you can go do whatever for half an hour or so. Drain the liquid from the chicken, then slice it into 1/4" strips, leaving it in the baking dish.

Drain the pineapple while the chicken is cooking. Put the juice, soy sauce, brown sugar, garlic, vinegar and Craisins into a kettle and heat to a boil. While this is heating, dice the onion and the water chestnuts. Once the liquid mixture comes to a boil, mix up about 4 heaping teaspoons of corn starch with about half a cup of ketchup and add to the boiling mixture. Stir it in good, then add the pineapple, drained carrots, onion and water chestnuts. Bring to a boil again while stirring, and if this mixture isn't thickening like you think it should, mix a bit more cornstarch in some cold water and add it in. Once the mixture is sort of thick, pour it over the sliced chicken, cover with tin foil and return to the oven. This can bake now at 325 for awhile, I think I did about 40 minutes but unsure 'cuz I got busy with other things. Take the dish out of the oven to "rest" while you make some rice.

Serve the sweet 'n' sour over the rice and enjoy :)

The ingredients I would have added to this if I'd had them include diced green peppers, diced celery and a bit of shredded cabbage. Feel free to use whatever veggies you like to have in a sweet 'n' sour, just stay true to the ratios of vinegar, brown sugar, soy sauce, pineapple juice and ketchup. Make as much or as little as you want. Don't worry if some of the ingredients don't "seem" to go together... they really do complement and enhance one another once combined. I didn't add any extra salt to the mixture, not even to the rice water. None needed.