Sweet and Sour Chicken with Cherries
You can use either breast meat or thigh meat (or even thinly sliced pork). For a vegetarian version, substitute the meat with extra firm tofu cubes (still following the same recipe instructions)If fresh cherries aren't available, use fresh pineapple or mango chunks. Also, frozen cherries work well too. Canned cherries are too sweet.
Ingredients
- 6 ounces boneless chicken, cut into bite sized pieces
- 1 tablespoon soy sauce
- 1/2 teaspoon cornstarch
- 2 tablespoons cooking oil, divided
- 1/2 onion, cut into 1” chunks
- 1 1/2 cups fresh cherries (2 handfuls), pitted and halved
- 1/2 red pepper, cut into 1” chunks
- 1/2 yellow pepper, cut into 1” chunks
For the Sweet and Sour Sauce:
- 1 tablespoon grated fresh ginger
- 2 tablespoons honey or agave nectar
- 3 tablespoons orange juice
- 3 tablespoons ketchup
- 3 tablespoons white vinegar
Instructions
- In a bowl, toss the chicken meat with the soy sauce and cornstarch.
- In a separate bowl, whisk together the ingredients for the sweet and sour sauce.
- Heat a wok or saute pan over high heat. Swirl in just 1 tablespoon of the cooking oil. When hot, add in the marinated chicken. Spread chicken out all over the surface of wok in single layer. Let cook for 2 minutes, undisturbed, until browned. Flip chicken pieces and brown the other side, about 1 minute. Chicken should be browned but still uncooked in the middle. Remove chicken from wok and set aside.
- Keep the wok on stove and turn the heat to medium-high. Swirl in the remaining cooking oil. When hot, add the onions and stir fry for 1 minute. Add in the cherries, red and yellow bell peppers. Stir fry for 2 minutes, until the bell peppers are cooked, but still colorful and crunchy.
- Add the partially cooked chicken back into the wok and pour in the sweet and sour sauce. Bring to a simmer and cook an additional minute, or until the chicken is fully cooked through. Careful not to overcook the chicken!
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