Sweet and Sour Chicken

1. Coat the chicken with egg white:
2. In a bowl, combine the chicken with the egg white, 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt, and cornstarch. Stir to coat the chicken evenly. Let sit for 15 minutes at room temperature or up to overnight in the refrigerator.
   15 minutes
3. Make the sweet and sour sauce:
4. Whisk together the pineapple juice, vinegar, ketchup, 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt, and brown sugar.
5. Stir-fry the chicken over high heat:
6. Heat a large frying pan or wok over high heat until a bead of water instantly sizzles and evaporates. Pour in 1 tablespoon of cooking oil and swirl to coat. It's important that the pan is very hot.
7. Add the chicken and spread the pieces out in one layer. Let the chicken fry untouched for 1 minute, until the bottoms are browned.
   1 minute
8. Flip and fry the other side for 1 minute. The chicken should still be pinkish in the middle. Dish out the chicken onto a clean plate, leaving as much oil in the pan as possible.
   1 minute
9. Stir-fry the bell pepper and ginger:
10. Reduce the heat to medium and add the remaining 1 teaspoon of cooking oil. Let the oil heat up before adding the bell pepper chunks and ginger. Fry for 1 minute.
    1 minute
11. Add the pineapple, sauce, and then, the chicken:
12. Add the pineapple chunks and the sweet and sour sauce. Turn up the heat to high. When the sauce is simmering, add the chicken pieces back in.
13. Let simmer for 1 to 2 minutes, until the chicken is cooked through. Timing depends on how thick you've cut your chicken. The best way to tell if the chicken is done is to take a piece out and cut into it. If it's pink, add another minute to the cooking.
    1–2 minutes
14. Adjust the seasoning and serve:
15. Taste the sauce and add more brown sugar or vinegar to suit your tastes, if you’d like.
16. Serve hot with steamed white or brown rice.

Cooking notes

When scaling protein-led dishes, weigh the meat rather than counting pieces, and remember that the pan size limits how much you can sear at once.

For volume-to-weight conversions of any ingredient — flour, sugar, butter, salts — use the ingredient converter. To translate the recipe's oven temperature between °C, °F and gas mark, see the temperature converter.

When you scale this recipe up or down, remember that cooking time does not scale linearly. A doubled cake takes longer, but not twice as long; a doubled soup takes roughly twice as long. The cooking-time guide gives sensible starting estimates by dish geometry.