Kid-Approved Sweet and Sour Chicken Sauce

Rating: 4.64 stars
28 Ratings
  • 5 star values: 20
  • 4 star values: 6
  • 3 star values: 2
  • 2 star values: 0
  • 1 star values: 0

This is an easy lunch or dinner that tastes just like take out! Very forgiving and allows for substitutions! This is enough for 4 kids, double for a family dinner! Serve this as a sauce for chicken nuggets and rice. You can substitute a can of orange soda for the pineapple juice.

By CHELLE

Gallery
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Recipe Summary

prep:
10 mins
cook:
10 mins
total:
20 mins
Servings:
4
Yield:
4 servings
Nutrition Info
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Ingredients

4
Original recipe yields 4 servings
The ingredient list now reflects the servings specified

Directions

  • Stir reserved pineapple juice, vinegar, sugar, and ketchup in a saucepan over medium heat until blended, 2 to 3 minutes.

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  • Whisk cornstarch and water in a bowl until cornstarch is dissolved; stir into pineapple juice mixture.

  • Stir pineapple and carrots into the sauce; bring to a boil, reduce heat to medium-low, and cook at a simmer until the sauce thickens, about 5 minutes.

Nutrition Facts

Per Serving:
284 calories; protein 1.1g; carbohydrates 72.9g; fat 0.2g; sodium 357.1mg. Full Nutrition
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Reviews (24)

Read More Reviews

Most helpful positive review

CHELLE
Rating: 5 stars
02/28/2012
I wrote this recipe! PLEASE disregard the vinegar! You can use vinegar or ketchup, but not both! Also, you can use orange/ lemon lime soda or ginger ale instead of pineapple juice and water. Cut the sugar way down if you use soda. It is also fantastic with brown sugar and/ or soy sauce. I make this almost daily. (with whatever combo of ingredients I have on hand).The recipe is so forgiving and it will whip up in a sauce pan in no time. . My kids dip everything in it! Read More
Helpful
(52)

Most helpful critical review

Tiffany Allen
Rating: 3 stars
01/26/2017
Way too sweet! I'll try it next time with less sugar! My son even thought it was sweet! Overall it was tasty. Read More
Helpful
(2)
28 Ratings
  • 5 star values: 20
  • 4 star values: 6
  • 3 star values: 2
  • 2 star values: 0
  • 1 star values: 0
Reviews:
Most Helpful Most Positive Least Positive Newest
CHELLE
Rating: 5 stars
02/27/2012
I wrote this recipe! PLEASE disregard the vinegar! You can use vinegar or ketchup, but not both! Also, you can use orange/ lemon lime soda or ginger ale instead of pineapple juice and water. Cut the sugar way down if you use soda. It is also fantastic with brown sugar and/ or soy sauce. I make this almost daily. (with whatever combo of ingredients I have on hand).The recipe is so forgiving and it will whip up in a sauce pan in no time. . My kids dip everything in it! Read More
Helpful
(52)
MaMaMary
Rating: 5 stars
04/28/2012
Easy and good. I ended up dissolving the cornstarch in pineapple juice because I started with a bigger can of pineapple. And I used brown sugar - didn't measure but tried to add a little less than a cup. Read More
Helpful
(15)
Yvania Contreras Figueiredo
Rating: 5 stars
05/01/2012
awesome recipe!! loved it just the way it is.. Read More
Helpful
(10)
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happywife05
Rating: 4 stars
07/20/2012
The flavor was great but it ended up very thick and jelly-like. i would cut the cornstarch next time. Read More
Helpful
(5)
Sarah Beets
Rating: 5 stars
03/31/2014
This sweet and sour sauce is better than even what restaurants serve. It doesn't taste very good at first but if you let it sit and cool down the flavor is much better. Read More
Helpful
(2)
Tiffany Allen
Rating: 3 stars
01/26/2017
Way too sweet! I'll try it next time with less sugar! My son even thought it was sweet! Overall it was tasty. Read More
Helpful
(2)
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Susan R Clark
Rating: 4 stars
05/23/2016
This was a very quick and easy recipe. Changes I made were to reduce the sugar to only 3 tablespoons. I also used only 1/2 of the ketchup and used Thai sweet chili sauce for the remaining amount. That added a nice kick without overwhelming. I used rice vinegar but feel that it needed the stronger flavor of apple cider vinegar. Read More
Helpful
(2)
Jessica Minden
Rating: 4 stars
03/11/2013
I was very skeptical of this recipe. I followed the notes to switch leave out the vinegar and substitute lemon-lime soda for the pineapple. This came out very well. I added a bit of soy sauce brown sugar and a touch of barbeque sauce. My kids loved it and it is way better than any of the bottled stuff in the grocery store. The novelty of ketchup and soda mixed together helped too I think. I will use it again when I need a sweet and sour sauce. Read More
Helpful
(2)
NMChef1
Rating: 4 stars
12/24/2012
This was pretty nice better than I expected it to be. I made it exactly as written but I skipped the optional carrots. (I probably would have liked them but I just didn't want to have to go buy them.) For the pineapple I used a can of crushed pineapple. I was a little worried the sauce would be "chunky" but the crushed pineapple softened up a lot. I'm not a kid but I ate this sauce as suggested over meals of chicken nuggets and white rice. I thought this made quite a lot though - those "4 servings" must be fairly large in my opinion. Read More
Helpful
(2)
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