Baked Sweet and Sour Chicken with Fried Rice
You can enjoy amazing Chinese food at home with this Baked Sweet and Sour Chicken with Fried rice recipe. This is one delicious dinner!
I have a DELICIOUS recipe for you all! I am so excited to share this one. My family and I LOVE this dish. It has such a great flavor. You could probably trick your family into thinking you picked up Chinese food at a gourmet restaurant. It is that good, I promise!
I found these recipe one million years ago on Mel’s Kitchen Cafes website. Her site is filled with incredible recipes. I made this last night for dinner and I think we all ate it up within 10 minutes! It’s so good. I hope you give it a try soon. 🙂
Baked Sweet and Sour Chicken
Delicious sweet and sour chicken baked in the oven. This recipe beats any take-out Chinese!
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Ingredients
Chicken
- 3 to 4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
- salt and pepper
- 1 cup cornstarch
- 2 large eggs beaten
- 1/4 cup vegetable oil
Sweet and Sour Sauce
- 3/4 cup granulated sugar
- 1/4 cup ketchup
- 1/2 cup distilled white vinegar
- 1 Tablespoon low sodium soy sauce
- 1 teaspoon garlic salt
Instructions
Chicken
- Preheat the oven to 325 ℉. Cut the chicken breasts into 1-inch pieces. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Place the cornstarch in a gallon-sized Ziplock bag. Place the chicken pieces into the bag with the cornstarch and seal, tossing to coat the chicken.
- Whisk the eggs together in a shallow pie plate.
- Meanwhile, heat the oil in a large skillet over medium heat until very hot. Dip the cornstarch-coated chicken pieces in the egg and place them carefully in a single layer in the hot skillet.
- Cook for 20 to 30 seconds on each side until the crust is golden. (The chicken will finish cooking in the oven.)
- Place the chicken pieces in a single layer in a 9×13-inch baking dish and repeat with the remaining chicken pieces.
Sweet and Sour Sauce
- Mix the sweet and sour sauce ingredients together in a medium bowl and pour evenly over the chicken.
- Bake the chicken, uncovered, for 40 minutes, tossing the chicken once at the halfway mark. Serve over warm rice and enjoy!
Notes
Serve this delicious chicken with the fried rice recipe below!
Tried this recipe?Mention @lifeinthelofthouse or tag #lifeinthelofthouse!
Recipe time updated to 40 minutes on 8/4/25
Ingredients
- 1 Tablespoon sesame oil
- 1 Tablespoon vegetable oil
- 1 cup frozen peas and carrots
- 1 small white onion chopped
- 2 teaspoons minced garlic
- 2 large eggs slightly beaten
- 3 cups cold cooked white rice (important it is pre-cooked cold rice)
- 1/4 cup low sodium soy sauce
Instructions
- Heat the sesame oil and vegetable oil, over medium-high heat, in a large skillet or wok. Add the peas/carrots mix, onion, and garlic. Stir fry until veggies are tender.
- Lower the heat to medium low and push the mixture off to one side, then pour eggs on the other side of skillet. Stir fry until scrambled.
- Add the cold, cooked rice and soy sauce. Stir and blend all together until thoroughly heated. Serve and enjoy!
Tried this recipe?Mention @lifeinthelofthouse or tag #lifeinthelofthouse!
can I use flour instead of cornstarch?
Delicious! Have made it several times, its a family favorite. But the recipe says cornstarch and then egg, is that right? I have always done it egg then cornstarch, because it seemed the way to do it.
Joni, it’s the cornstarch first, then the egg! 🙂
I found this recipe over the summer and have made it at least 4 times now.. It tastes just like the unhealthy stuff you get from chinese restaurants but it’s so much healthier because you can control what goes in it!
Today, I went to make this dish and realized: I’M OUT OF CORNSTARCH.
I opted to sub part flour and part corn meal in its place, but to make it a hint healthier, I finely ground up some old fashioned oats to make oat flour. I used 1 cup oat flour and a handful of cornmeal. It came out wonderfully and I actually prefer it this way than with the cornstarch!
I also like to tweak the sauce for my personal tastes:
I decrease the sugar to ~1/4 – 1/2 c brown sugar and 1/8-1/4 cup raw cane sugar (though I’d like to use stevia sometime.. just didn’t have it on hand). I also use 1/2 apple cider vinegar and 1/2 white vinegar–the natural sweetness of the ACV makes up for the decrease in sugar without compromising the taste! I add freshly minced garlic, a few dashes of toasted sesame seeds, a some crushed red pepper flakes for a spicy kick. Today, I splashed a bit of my red wine in the sauce too and it was DELICIOUS!
The recipe is AMAZING and so simple! It’s delicious the way it is–you can’t mess it up! But if you wanted to play around with it to suite your own tastes, it’s a great recipe to experiment with!
Thank you for this amazing dish! It’s by far my personal favorite dinner 🙂
Lady, you are a cooking goddess for sharing this recipe. I’m 15 years old and I told my stepmother about this, and she was skeptical, but we just finished and ate. IT WAS THE MOST AMAZING THING IVE EVER EATEN. chicken-wise, anyway. Thank you so much for this. God bless.
I am using cut up chicken breast tenders for the sweet and sour chicken recipe and was wondering how many ounces are the chicken breasts you normally use? I have 2lbs of chicken tenders and want to make sure I have enough sauce for it all. Thanks! BTW I have made this before but it’s been awhile and I used chicken breasts the first time. Can’t remember the size though. :/ Anyway, I am not a sweet and sour chicken fan but this recipe is amazing!!!! Thanks for sharing!
I made this a couple of weeks ago. It was so delicious. My daughter is an extremely picky eater and she loved this so much, she took leftovers to work the next day. Thank you! It’s going in my recipe file.
I SAW YOUR RECIPE FOR THE SWEET AND SOUR CHICKEN AND IT LOOKED DELICIOUS AND NOT VERY TIME CONSUMING. SO I MADE IT THIS EVENING FOR MY FAMILY AND THEY LOVED IT!!!! I ALSO MADE THE FRIED RICE AND THEY SAID THAT IT TASTE BETTER THEN THE PLACE WE ORDER CHINESE FROM… THANK YOU FOR SHARING…I HAVE PUT IT IN MY RECIPE LOG…..
I made this for the second time the other night when we had company. There were no leftovers for the 6 of us and my kids couldn’t stop eating it. I am thankful my oldest son helped me bread the chicken to make that go faster. I highlighted it in my Small Victories Sunday linky where I feature the books I read, recipes I cooked and other small victories being a mom of 3. I hope you will stop by my linky and share another great recipe (or two or three!) with me and my readers. I look forward to trying out more from your site!
https://momssmallvictories.com/small-victories-sunday-5/
I’m a huge fan of all of your recipes! My husband said tonight that the sweet and sour chicken was 100 times better than he imagined! My son ate 2 huge portions of the fried rice! Thanks for sharing!
… my 9 year old celiac daughter LOVES this recipe!!! 🙂
oh my goodness.. this is AMAZING!! Our favorite restaurant is PF Changs, but we currently live on Guam and there is not a great chinese option.. I swear this is BETTER than PF Changs! 🙂 Thank you!! Definitely a new favorite in our house!!
I made this for my family tonight. They love it.
I made a gluten free version of this tonight. We loved it! My husband said it was one of his favorite gfree dishes yet!! And he’s been gfree for 7 years!
This was delicious…thanks. P.S. Has anyone tried beef? If so, does the cooking time stay the same, and what cut of beef?
I have never replied on a blog but I have to because this was such a fantastic recipe! I found the rice on Pintrest and I’m so glad I did because we made the chicken too and EVERYONE at the table said it was the best sweet and sour chicken they’ve had. Soooo good! Will be starting a new tradition of not ordering out Chinese Christmas Eve but making these dishes instead. As if Christmas Eve wasn’t exciting enough already lol 😉
had this for dinner tonight. lots of clean plates and smiling faces! thanks for a great recipe… i’ll be putting this one in my regular rotation. 🙂
I made this for dinner tonight. It was SO good. The next time I make it, and I’m thinking it will be in the rotation from now on, I will have to double the recipe. I made it for myself and the kids when my husband was at work, and honestly, it was hard for me to make sure there was any left for him to try!
hi! im making this tonight! if I don’t have cornstarch at home can I use flour instead? if so how much? thank you!!
Shannon, I’ve never tried it with the flour, but I’d imagine it could work. I would use the same amount of flour as cornstarch. Please let me know how it turns out! 🙂
made this last night, my husband loved it. gona make this again. it’s a keeper.
One of my fav meals! It gets a little messy…. Not a quick meal deal. Oh my, it is so worth it though! Thanks so much!
I made the sweet and sour chicken for the first time ever tonight, and it turned out AMAZING. It was super easy to put together, and I would definitely make it again.
What would I do if I wanted to use my crock pot for the chicken part??
Made this for dinner tonight and it was delish!! My husband said it was one of the best sweet and sour chicken he’s had! Will definitely be making this again!