Sweet and sour chicken: crisp in potato starch, with pineapple and peppers
The version that actually crunches: chicken tossed in nothing but potato starch and fried in batches, vegetables given two minutes in the wok so they stay firm, and a sauce of pineapple, vinegar and sugar thickened with a slurry. Everything comes together in the pan at the last moment, because the coating starts to soften within seconds of meeting the sauce.
Your own work in that: 40 min.
- Chopping and sauce 15 min
- Frying the chicken 15 min
- Vegetables and finishing 10 min
Step by step
0 / 7 donePrep everything before the wok heats
Cut the chicken into 3 cm cubes, toss with the salt, pepper and a tablespoon of soy sauce and set aside. Cut the peppers into 3 cm squares, the onion into petals, the pineapple into chunks (keep the juice), chop the garlic, grate the ginger. Put the rice on. The cooking takes barely fifteen minutes and leaves no room for chopping.
Ingredients: 600 g chicken breast · 80 g potato starch · 1 tsp salt · ½ tsp black pepper · 1 tbsp soy sauce · 500 ml oil for frying
Everything in bowls before the wok is hotCoat the chicken in potato starch
Pat the chicken dry with paper towel, tip it into a bowl with the potato starch and toss until every piece is dry and white, with no damp patches. Shake off the excess in a sieve.
TipPotato starch is pure starch with no protein and no gluten. In hot oil it sets into a thin, glassy shell that stays crisp longer than a wheat-flour coating and doesn't turn rubbery under the sauce. It is the one substitution not worth making in this recipe.
Dry and white, excess shaken offFry in batches in hot oil
Heat a 1.5–2 cm layer of oil in the wok to 180 °C (a wooden chopstick dipped in the oil is immediately covered in small bubbles). Fry the chicken in three batches, 4–5 minutes each, turning halfway, until deep golden and firm to the touch; about 15 minutes in total. Lift onto a rack or paper towel.
TipThree batches, not one. The whole lot at once sends the oil temperature plummeting: instead of frying, the chicken stews in fat, the coating drinks oil and comes out soft and greasy rather than crisp.
Three batches, gaps between the piecesBoil the sauce
In a small pan combine the pineapple juice, vinegar, sugar, tomato paste, soy sauce, ginger and garlic. Bring to the boil and cook 3 minutes. Stir the potato starch into 2 tablespoons of cold water and pour it into the boiling sauce, stirring; cook another 30 seconds, until it thickens and turns glossy. Taste: it should be sharply sour and sweet at once.
Ingredients: 300 g pineapple · 150 ml pineapple juice or water · 60 ml rice or cider vinegar · 60 g sugar · 2 tbsp tomato paste · 2 tbsp soy sauce · 1 tbsp fresh ginger, grated · 3 cloves garlic · 2 tsp potato starch
TipAlways slake starch in cold water and pour it into boiling liquid, never the other way round. Starch tipped straight into hot liquid seizes into lumps that cannot be broken up. And cook it only half a minute: potato starch boiled longer breaks down and the sauce thins again.
Thick, glossy, coating the spoonGive the vegetables two minutes
Pour the oil out of the wok, leaving one tablespoon. Heat it over the highest flame and add the peppers and onion. Stir-fry 2 minutes, shaking the wok, until the edges char but the insides stay firm and bright. Add the pineapple for the last 30 seconds.
Ingredients: 2 pcs red and green peppers · 1 pcs onion · ½ bunch spring onion or chives · 1 tbsp sesame seeds · 250 g rice
TipTwo minutes is the goal, not a shortcut. Peppers stewed for five turn soft and watery, and their juice thins the sauce. In this dish the vegetables are meant to crunch against the soft meat.
Charred edges, firm centresCombine at the last second
Pour the sauce into the wok with the vegetables, bring to the boil, add the fried chicken and toss for 15–20 seconds, just enough to coat every piece. Take off the heat immediately and serve.
TipThe coating begins to soften the moment it touches the sauce. Fifteen seconds is enough to coat it; a minute is enough to ruin it. If you are cooking for guests, keep the chicken and sauce apart and combine them at the table.
Fifteen seconds, then straight onto the plateServe
Scatter with spring onion and sesame and serve with hot rice. Reheat leftovers 8 minutes in a 200 °C oven, not in the microwave: the oven recovers some of the crispness, the microwave turns the coating to glue.
Spring onion, sesame, rice alongside
Before you start
With fresh pineapple
Fresh pineapple is sharper and less sweet than canned: cut the vinegar to 45 ml and add a tablespoon more sugar. Cut out the core, it is tough and fibrous.
A lighter version without deep fat
Spread the coated pieces on a tray, drizzle with 3 tablespoons of oil and bake 20 minutes at 220 °C fan, turning once. Less crisp than frying, but the gap is smaller than you would expect.
With tofu or prawns
400 g pressed tofu in cubes or 500 g prawns, coated in potato starch the same way. Fry prawns for only 2 minutes and tofu for 4 minutes a batch.
