Chicken balls in sweet & sour sauce
Serves 4
Easy
Prep:
Cook:
plus chilling
Make a fakeaway supper of crispy fried chicken meatballs coated in a rich sweet and sour sauce. You can pre-cook and freeze the meatballs, if you like
Skip to ingredients
Units:
- 500g boneless, skinless chicken thighs
- 4 garlic clovesfinely grated or crushed
- 2 tbsp gingergrated
- 2 spring onionsfinely chopped
- 1 pinch ground white pepper
- 50ml Shaoxing rice wineor dry sherry
- 1 tbsp dark soy sauce
- 2 tbsp light soy sauce
- 1 tbsp toasted sesame oil
- 1 eggbeaten
- 3 tbsp cornflour
- 100ml rapeseed oil
For the sweet and sour sauce
- 100ml cold vegetable stock
- 50ml pineapple juicefrom a can (reserving some pineapple pieces)
- 1-2 tbsp light soy sauce
- 1 tbsp ketchup
- 2 tbsp clear rice vinegar
- 2 tbsp golden syrup
- 1 tbsp cornflour
- 1 garlic clovefinely chopped
- 2.5cm piece gingerfinely grated
- 1 red onionpeeled, sliced to make crescent moons
- 1 red chillideseeded and finely chopped
To serve
- chilli sauce(optional)
Nutrition: Per serving
- kcal473
- fat21g
- saturates3g
- carbs38g
- sugars22g
- fibre2g
- protein30g
- salt3.23g
Method
step 1
Tip the chicken thighs into a food processor and blitz until a fine paste forms. Tip into a large bowl along with the garlic, ginger, spring onions, white pepper, Shaoxing rice wine, both soy sauces, sesame oil, egg, cornflour and ½ tsp salt. Stir to combine well. Using wet hands, take a medium golf ball-sized mound and roll into a ball. Set aside on a plate and repeat until all the mixture is used. Chill for at least 30 mins, and reshape if needed before cooking.
step 2
Pour the rapeseed oil into a large wok or saucepan and put over medium high heat, slowly add the meatballs into the oil and brown until golden, cooking for 8-10 mins, turning halfway. Lift the chicken balls out and set aside.
step 3
Meanwhile, make the sweet and sour sauce. Pour the vegetable stock, pineapple juice, soy sauce, ketchup, vinegar, golden syrup and cornflour into a jug, mix well and set aside.
step 4
Pour all the oil from the pan into a heatproof bowl. Set the pan back over high heat until smoking, then drizzle in 1 tbsp of the drained oil. Give the oil a swirl and add the garlic, ginger, onion and red chilli. Stir-fry for 1 min, until the onion starts to caramelise. Add some pineapple chunks from the can, then pour in the sweet and sour sauce and bring to the bubble. Cook until the sauce has deepened in colour, reducing for 15 secs. Add the chicken balls back in, gently coat in the sauce and reduce the heat to low. Cover and cook for 5 mins before serving (take care not to leave the chicken in the sauce for too long or the meat may break apart). Serve immediately with some chilli sauce, too, if you like.
