Unemployed Sweet & Sour Chicken

Several years ago, the economy tanked, thousands of people lost their jobs, including Lydia and me.

Lydia had been working as the Community Relations Manager for Barnes & Noble for several years and was making decent money. I had been working as a commercial escrow assistant for several years for First American Title, and was making slightly better than decent money.

So when Lydia came home one day and said she had been let go, it was a blow of course, but nothing we couldn’t handle. She was given a generous severance package, and insurance to go with it.  And I was still making good money. Two weeks later, I had taken Lydia to lunch, and then about an hour after lunch I was home with the same news, minus the severance package.  I was shoved out the door with two weeks pay and a handful of papers on unemployment. OK, so it wasn’t that unceremonious. My manager actually felt really bad about having to let me go, and apparently had fought to keep me on.  But by then, it was all down to seniority.
So, two people, two weeks, and both out of work.  Luckily, Lydia found a great gig shortly after that, and unfortunately, I am still looking for my great gig.

In the meantime, Lydia had a craving for some Chinese food one night. Obviously we could no longer afford to go get any. So, I took it upon myself to find a recipe and cook an approximation of what you might call sweet and sour chicken.

The dish actually turned out nicely, but that’s not the point. We were both in a tough situation, and I managed to make it a little easier, even if only for one night. This is a modification of that recipe I used all those years ago, which is still pretty good. I’m not a fan of the breaded fried chicken, so I skipped that part. If you find a version with all that deep fried thing going for it and you want to incorporate the two, feel free.

Onions, Bell Peppers & Pineapple – the Sweet & Sour Trio

I hope you enjoy it, and not just because someone is out of work.

Sweet & Sour Chicken:

Ingredients:

3 to 4 boneless skinless chicken breasts
1 cup pineapple, cut into chunks
1/2 cup fresh pineapple juice
2 green bell pepper,chopped
1 onion, chopped
3 tbs coconut sugar (optional)
2 tbs red wine vinegar
1/4 cup stock, chicken, veggie, or other
salt and pepper to taste
1/4 tsp cayenne (optional)
oil for cooking

Most of the recipes available have you battering the chicken, but I wanted to go a little healthier than fried. You can, however, easily make a batter for frying with a few ingredients. And keep in mind, this isn’t the day glo orange sauce you would get at a Chinese restaurant. It will, however, taste much better.

Don’t expect the day-glo orange sauce here. But it will be sweet and sour and spicy

Method:

Heat a little oil in a pan and saute the chicken until cooked through.
Set the chicken aside.
Heat some oil and saute the onions. Once the onions are beginning to be translucent, add the bell peppers and saute for another two minutes or so until they start to soften.
Stir in the pineapple, juice, stock, vinegar, sugar if using, and salt and pepper and cayenne.

Unemployed Sweet and Sour Chicken

Simmer until sauce thickens. A tablespoon of that tapioca starch will speed this process.

Add the chicken into the sauce and heat through. About 5 minutes.
Serve with steamed rice, and don’t forget to pull out your chopsticks for this one.

Greg