Forget take-out and make this Lighter Sweet and Sour Chicken that only takes 30 minutes to prepare, is packed full of fresh vegetables and a homemade sweet and sour sauce. You will come back time and time again to this recipe!
Lighter Sweet and Sour Chicken
I love getting take-out Asian food, especially Sweet and Sour Chicken but I know that it isn’t always the healthiest option and can be packed with sodium, fat and lots of calories. That is why creating your favorite take-out, like today’s Lighter Sweet and Sour Chicken, at home is a great option because not only is it homemade meaning you control the ingredients including the sodium, but you save money. That is a win-win, right?
Lighter Sweet and Sour Chicken comes together in 30 minutes and uses fresh vegetables, pineapple, chicken and a homemade sweet and sour sauce. That sauce is one of my favorite parts of the dish. I love the sweet and sour flavors mixed with the crunchy vegetables, tender chicken and the sweet pineapple.
A lot of my readers have mentioned wanting more easy weeknight meal recipes and I couldn’t agree more. Lately my life has been really busy and finding time to cook elaborate meals just isn’t happening. With today’s Lighter Sweet and Sour Chicken you can save yourself even more time by prepping your ingredients ahead of time.
- The night before you are going to make the dish you can chop your peppers, onion and carrots and put them into a ziplock bag or a tupperware container.
- You can also cube you chicken ahead of time and put that in a tupperware container along with whipping up the sauce and keep that in a mason jar.
Then when you get home from work you can easily cook the sauce, then coat the chicken in the cornstarch mixture, cook the chicken and vegetables and add in the pineapple and sauce. You can cut your time in the kitchen in half just by prepping ahead of time.
I like to serve this Lighter Sweet and Sour Chicken with brown rice but you can also use white, basmati or jasmine rice. All of those are great options. I also like to sprinkle sesame seeds over the finished dish for a little extra flavor.
If you are a lover of spice I suggest adding more crushed red pepper or even a few drizzles of sriracha. I love adding heat to dishes so I always have a bottle of hot sauce on the table.
Keep this recipe on hand for those nights you are craving take-out! This offers you a healthier alternative and is simple to make. My family went crazy for this recipe so I know it will be on my menu rotation for months to come.
Nutrition facts do not include the rice.
This recipe makes 8 cups of Sweet and Sour Chicken.
Recipe adapted from Little Spice Jar
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Totally making this! Always need easy and flavorful dishes for dinner. It’s getting tougher and tougher to cook each night!
Hope you like it! This is one of my favorites. I love the sweet and sour mixed together.
Looking forward to making this. Great to see nutritional information with the recipe.
Thanks! I hope you enjoy it!
I am always looking for easy weeknight meals! My kids do love Chinese, but we almost never do takeout…now I can do this instead!
You should try it! It was a huge hit in my house.
Dear Julia, I’ll take homemade over takeout any day of the week especially when it comes to your sweet and sour chicken! What a marvelous meal…looks delicious! xoxo, Catherine
I love homemade takeout too! This one is so easy and tastes awesome..hope you try it out!