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How To Make Chinese Takeaway King Prawn Balls With A Homemade Sweet And Sour Sauce

Delicious, tender and oh so tasty! These irresistible prawn balls are accompanied with a homemade sweet and sour sauce. The ultimate Chinese takeaway classic you can make from scratch at home.

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Marinated prawns coated in a simple batter and fried till golden and crispy, served with a homemade sweet and sour sauce. Are you drooling yet? Because I am! When I tell you I enjoyed every minute spent eating these prawn balls, I’m not even kidding! They are the best homemade king prawn balls that are very easy to make and is both crispy and irresistible. After trying prawn balls from my local takeaway, I knew this was a recipe I would have to make myself.

Just like my Chinese chicken balls and pork balls, these prawn balls use the same ingredients to make the batter and the sweet and sour sauce recipe is the same. The marinade ingredients are slightly different, but both are amazing recipes to try! Perfect for gatherings, as appetizers and the perfect addition to your fakeaway recipe collection.

What Are Prawn Balls Made Of?

There’s no doubt you’ll find prawn balls at your local Chinese takeaway here in the UK. If you’ve never tried prawn balls before or never even heard of them. They’re king prawns coated in a batter made of flour, water and salt which is deep fried until golden and crispy. Prawn balls are usually served with a tasty sweet and sour sauce just like this recipe.

Recipe Ingredients

Prawns: I used raw king prawns; I sometimes like to use jumbo king prawns as they’ll make bigger prawn ball pieces. The king prawns were peeled and cleaned before starting this recipe, you can buy them ready peeled and clean or do this manually.

Seasonings: The prawns are seasoned with salt, white pepper and a splash of Shaoxing cooking wine. The flavour of Shaoxing cooking wine really makes a big difference. After being seasoned the prawns are coated with self-raising flour.

The Batter: Self-raising flour is the main ingredient used to make the batter. Mixed with water and salt, you’ll get a thick batter resulting in deep fried prawn balls that are tender and have a golden outer coating. I also add a tablespoon of vegetable oil to the batter, it makes the prawn balls slightly shiny when fried.

How To Make Sweet And Sour Sauce

Sweet and sour sauce is very popular and is served in many Chinese restaurants and takeaways. It’s known to many and is a key flavour in dishes like sweet and sour chicken and sweet and sour prawns. I’m very confident in saying that you’ll find a sweet and sour dish or sauced served in pretty much all Chinese takeaways (well at least here in the UK!).

Sweet and sour sauce is made from basic ingredients that you’re likely to have in your kitchen cupboards at home. Though recipes can vary, I find the best copycat sweet and sour sauce is made by reducing a mixture of water, sugar, ketchup, vinegar, pineapple juice and cornflour over a medium to high heat until the sauce has thickened. See my recipe card at the bottom for full instructions.

The sauce comes out quite bright like an authentic Chinese takeaway sweet and sour sauce and is the perfect match for fried prawn balls.

Watch How To Make It

Below is a quick video on how to make king prawn balls just like the Chinese takeaway served with a sweet and sour sauce.

How To Make King Prawn Balls

Here’s a step-by-step guide on how to make prawn balls, full instructions are on the recipe card at the bottom, you can also watch the video for visual guidance.

Step One:

Place peeled and clean prawns into a mixing bowl. Add half a teaspoon of salt, a teaspoon of white pepper and a tablespoon of Shaoxing cooking wine to the mixing bowl and mix together until evenly combined. Add 2 tablespoons of self-raising flour to the mixing bowl and mix together until the prawns are coated in flour.

Step Two:

In a large mixing bowl add self-raising flour and salt, mix till evenly distributed. Pour water into the bowl and mix together. Leave the batter to rest for 5 minutes (helps to remove lumps). After 5 minutes, add a teaspoon of vegetable oil and mix together.

Step Three:

Heat oil in a wok or pan over a medium heat. Place a handful of prawns at a time in the batter (depending on your mixing bowl size). Mix each prawn into the batter to ensure it’s coated on all sides.

Step Four:

Add the battered prawns into the oil and fry for 4 minutes or until the batter is golden. Cooked prawn balls will float to the top, if they’re not floating cook for an extra minute.

Step Five:

Making-the-homemade-sweet-and-sour-sauce

To make the sweet and sour sauce, place water, sugar, ketchup, pineapple juice and vinegar into a wok or frying pan and heat over a medium to high heat.

Step Six:

After 2 minutes, mix a small tablespoon of cornflour and a tablespoon of water in a mixing bowl and mix together. Add the cornflour mixture into the sauce and mix together. Leave the sauce to simmer for a further 1 to 2 minutes or until the sauce has thickened.

My Top Tips

I like to place freshly fried prawn balls on a plate lined with kitchen towel, the kitchen will absorb excess oil and you’ll avoid having to wash a very greasy plate.

It’s so important to fry your prawn balls in oil that is at a high temperature, this will give you golden and crispy prawn balls and not ones that are pale, overly greasy and soggy. To test if the temperature is hot enough I either put a chopstick inside the oil. If I see fast and continuous bubbles appear, then I know the oil is hot enough for frying. Or I put a small drop of batter into the oil, if it starts cooking and bubbles appear then the oil is ready for frying.

If the prawn balls are browning too fast and becoming dark quite quickly, turn the heat down. An alternative is to add more oil to the wok or frying pan to cool down the overall temperature.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can I Change The Sauce Ingredients? You can make adjustments to the sweet and sour sauce in order to suit your pallet. For example, if you want to make the sauce sharper add extra vinegar or more sugar if you would like the sauce sweeter. Make small adjustments at a time to avoid overpowering the sauce with a particular flavour. It’s better to make small changes then to start from scratch.

How Long Do They Keep? Keep homemade prawn balls in the fridge in an air-tight container for up to 3 to 4 days.

What To Serve With Prawn Balls

Prawn balls is a dish that goes well with many other fakeaway dishes. Make a Chinese takeaway feast with these easy, delicious and quick recipes below:

Singapore Fried Rice: Stir-fried rice with vegetables, prawns, pork and chicken.

King Prawn Chow Mein: Chinese takeaway classic, king prawns and egg noodles mixed in a homemade chow mein sauce.

Crispy Chilli And Honey Beef: Deliciously crispy, this honey and chilli beef recipe is so easy to make.

Honey Chilli Chicken: Sweet and sticky honey chilli chicken coated in a light batter.

Chicken Vermicelli: Stir-fried rice noodles, chicken and vegetables. A super quick 20-minute meal that’s easy and packed with flavour.