Sweet and Sour Chicken with Fried Rice

Oh my goodness!... I made this tonight and had to blog about it immediately. It was soooo good. The truth is I have made fried rice and sweet and sour chicken dozens of times but the truth is I don't have a recipe for either. So it always turns out a little different each time, and it was never anything I had enough confidence in to share. I found this recipe for fried rice on pinterest and as I looked at it, it was really close to what I usually do when I make fried rice. The biggest difference and the ingredient that made all the difference was sesame oil that it was all fried in. Oh it was so good and so easy to make.
The Sweet and Sour Chicken recipe was included with the fried rice, and I figured I may as well make it to go along with the rice. It was so good and the sauce was so much more simple than the sweet and sour sauce that I usually mix up, I loved it. The chicken was easy to cook as well, but after you do the initial browning it takes an hour to bake, which was my only to complaint. But it really needs to bake that long and was perfection.

Sweet and Sour Chicken

chicken coating:
3-4 boneless chicken breasts (I used the same recipe with two large breasts and it was perfect)
salt + pepper
3/4 cup corn starch
2 eggs, beaten
1/4 cup canola oil

sweet and sour sauce:
3/4 cup sugar
4 Tbs ketchup
1/2 cup distilled white vinegar (I used apple cider vinegar, turned out great)
1 Tbs soy sauce
1 tsp garlic salt

       Start by preheating your oven to 325 degrees. Rinse your chicken breasts in water and then cut into cubes. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Dip chicken into cornstarch to coat then dip into the eggs. Heat your 1/4 cup oil in a large skillet and cook chicken until browned but not cooked through. Place the chicken in a 9x13 greased baking dixh. Mix all of your sauce ingredients in a bowl and pour even over the chicken. Bake for one hour and during the baking process you will need to turn the chicken ever 15 minutes. When you serve, make sure and smother chicken with extra sauce. It is so good. and thickens up just perfectly when cooled just a little.

Fried Rice

3 cups cooked white rice (day old or leftover rice works best! I keep left over white rice in the freezer for just such an occasion)
3 Tbs sesame oil (do not replace this ingredient, it is important)
1 cup frozen peas and carrots (thawed)
1 small onion, chopped
2 tsp minced garlic
2 eggs, slightly beaten
1/4 cup soy sauce

      On medium high heat, heat the oil in a large skillet or wok. Add the veggies, onion and garlic. Stir fry until tender. Lower heat to medium low and push mixture of to one side, then pour eggs on the other side of the skillet and stir fry until scrambled. Now add the rice and soy sauce and blend all together well. Stir fry until thoroughly heated. (You could add ham or any other veggies to this rice and it would be delicious as well).