How to cook Sweet and Sour Pork

Sweet and Sour Pork, the ubiquitous and arguably the most well-known Chinese recipe in the world, is a classic Cantonese dish. Called “咕嚕肉” or “goo lou yok” in Cantonese dialect, sweet and sour pork is very pleasing to the palate because of the flavorsome sweet and sour sauce—the sweetness from sugar plus the tangy ketchup and sharp rice vinegar—with the crispy fried pork pieces. (You can check out my sweet and sour chicken recipe.) The green and red bell peppers and pineapple pieces are just icing on the cake.

The secret of an authentic sweet and sour pork dish lies in the perfect balance of the sweet vs. sour taste of the sauce. To master this dish, it’s not about the technique of stir-frying nor the use of the freshest ingredients, although both are equally important and wouldn't hurt. To me, the sweet and sour sauce is the soul of this dish. If you fail the sweet and sour sauce, you fail the dish. With that in mind, I will teach you how to make that perfect sweet and sour sauce and share with you the secret ingredients I use.

While traditional Chinese/Cantonese sweet and sour pork recipe calls for the use of rice vinegar and ketchup to bring out the sour taste, I also use plum sauce to add some extra zing, plus a few dashes of Lea & Perrins Worcestershire Sauce and oyster sauce to complete a harmony balance. They are my secret ingredients and do make a nice difference in terms of taste, in my honest opinion.

Other than the sauce, the frying batter is no less important. A great batter recipe promises crispy and crunchy coating for the pork. In my recipe below, you will also find the instructions and exact measurement to make the batter. It is simply awesome!

Rasa Malaysia’s Secret Ingredients for Sweet and Sour Pork:

1. Plum Sauce

2. Lea & Perrins Worcestershire Sauce

3. Oyster Sauce (my not-so-secret seasoning medium)

So, discard the canned pineapple juice or orange juice in the Americanized sweet and sour pork recipe. Do try out my secret ingredients above the next time you prepare sweet and sour pork.

Anyway, once you master the techniques of making sweet and sour sauce, you can pretty much whip up any sweet and sour dishes in a jiffy: pork, chicken, fish, or shrimp…just don’t tell Panda Express my secret recipe!

How to make spice chicken(La Zi Ji)

Ingredients:
1 lb chicken breast/tender--cut into small cubes
6 tablespoon vegetable oil
6 pieces of ginger
3 cloves garlic--cut into thin slices
2 green onions--cut into 2 inch lengths
10 to 15 dry chili pepper--cut into small pieces
10 Sichuan pepper corns
2 teaspoon Sichuan Bean sauce
2 tablespoon toasted sesame seed
1 tablespoon Sichuan Pepper Corn oil

Marinade:
1 teaspoon rice wine
2 teaspoon dark soy sauce
1 teaspoon light soy sauce
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon sugar

Marinate the chicken for 30 minutes or longer.

Heat up the vegetable oil until you can feel the heat above it. Put in the chicken. Keep frying the chicken until the water come out of the chicken (you will see it become smaller and the surface become golden brown). This will take up to 20 minutes. Make sure to stir the bottom once in a while, so that the chicken will not stick to the bottom of the pan. (If you have a deep fryer, feel free to use it. I tend not to deep fry the chicken)

Take the chicken out, there should be a little oil left in the pan. If not, add a tablespoon of vegetable oil.

Put in the  bean sauce, ginger, garlic, dry chili pepper, and Sichuan Pepper corn. Stir fry everything for about a minute, until you see the dry chili pepper turn dark red.

Put in the chicken. Stir everything evenly, so the chicken will be coated with the sauce. Some oil may come out of the chicken, so there should be enough liquid to cook everything. 

Put in the sesame seed, stir everything evenly.Pour in the Sichuan Pepper Corn oil, stir it evenly.

You are ready to serve.

 I sometimes save about one teaspoon sesame seed and put it on top when I transfer the chicken to the serving plate. It just gives a better presentation that way.