Easy Sweet and Sour Chicken

When I was 16 turning 17 my best friend’s family invited me to join them on a cross country trip. Equipped with R.E.M’s “Out of Time” album and C&C Music Factory’s “Gonna Make You Sweat”, we made our way to Texas to visit Beverly’s Friends the Robinson’s, New Mexico to visit her Aunt, a site seeing trip to the Grand Canyon, up to Utah to pick up my friend’s older sister, back through Arizona to visit another relative or friend (I can’t remember) and finally headed back to Florida. The man we stopped off to visit in Arizona was married to a sweet woman from Korea. We were treated to an endless pot of rice and her homemade sweet and sour sauce. The first thing I noticed was the sauce was not red it was clear. She said that is how it is supposed to be. Whenever I order sweet and sour chicken I always remember the bowl of clear sauce.

Five ingredients is all it takes to make this simple sweet and sour chicken. I usually use precooked left over baked chicken from the night before which cuts the cooking time in half adding the chicken after the sauce has simmered on the stove for 15 minutes.

Source:
6 pieces of chicken
1 cup packed brown sugar
1 (8oz) can pineapple chunks with juice, undrained
1/4 cup soy sauce
1 tsp dry mustard

Preheat oven to 300 degrees.
In a small bowl combine the brown sugar, pineapple, soy sauce, and dry mustard. Place the chicken pieces in a 9 x 13 inch baking dish. Pour the sauce over the chicken. Bake 60 minutes, turning the chicken halfway through. Bake until the juices run clear. To serve spoon the sauce over the chicken.

Variations:
Replace chicken pieces with chicken breasts. The cooking time will be less.
Simmer chicken in a skillet on the stove.
Grill the chicken and pineapple slices. Use the sauce to marinate the chicken in and brush on during grilling.