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Chinese Chicken Balls Recipe & Homemade Sweet And Sour Sauce
Chinese chicken balls served with a homemade sweet and sour sauce; this is a quick recipe that’s also very easy to make at home. Find out how to make these tender, tasty and juicy battered chicken balls below!
Chinese chicken balls are a popular takeaway classic that you can effortlessly recreate at home in no time! The batter is beautifully golden, the chicken is ever so tender and let’s not forget the sweet and sour dipping sauce that compliments the chicken balls so well.
This is a dish everyone gets excited about (especially in my house), it’s a tasty side dish and a mouth-watering addition to parties, gatherings and buffet-style events. Making your own sweet and sour chicken balls from scratch can look quite intimidating, but trust me, this recipe is super easy and very simple to follow.
You can even make sweet and sour prawn balls, pork balls, king prawn chow mein and Singapore fried rice to go alongside this dish.
Why You’ll Like This Recipe
- It tastes just as if you’ve ordered it from a Chinese takeaway
- This recipe is easy to double or halve the number of servings
- The taste is exceptionally good!!
- You can use this sauce to make other Chinese takeaway dishes
What Are Sweet And Sour Chicken Balls Made Off?
Sweet and sour chicken balls are made by dunking diced chicken breast in a batter made from self-raising flour, salt, oil and water. Then, the coated chicken is deep fried until golden and crispy and served alongside a homemade sweet and sour sauce. You can see how to make both the homemade sweet and sour sauce and these Chinese chicken balls in this recipe video below.
Watch How To Make It
Recipe Ingredients
- Chicken Breast: I used two pieces of chicken breast that I diced into chunks, roughly 8 pieces per chicken breast.
- Seasonings: The chicken is seasoned with salt and white pepper before being coated with flour and dunked into the chicken ball batter. Feel free to add other seasonings like garlic powder or ginger powder to add even more flavour.
- Self-Raising Flour: Self-raising flour is mixed with water to make the batter and salt is added for extra flavour. I also like to add a teaspoon of vegetable oil for a shiny batter, though this addition is not absolutely necessary.
- Sweet And Sour Sauce: To make this you simply need to mix ketchup, vinegar, sugar and light soy sauce together – that’s it!
How Do You Make Sweet And Sour Sauce From Scratch?
To make Chinese sweet and sour sauce you only need to mix ketchup, vinegar, sugar and light soy sauce together then let it simmer for 30 seconds to thicken. Adding pineapple juice is an optional extra if you have more of a sweet tooth.
I like to serve sweet and sour sauce with chicken balls on the side, as many Chinese takeaway shops do. Some people like to drizzle the sauce all over the chicken balls, but I always dip it into the sauce. Either way, I’m sure it will taste delicious!
Before I used to reduce a mixture of water, sugar, ketchup, vinegar, pineapple juice and cornflour over a medium to high heat until the sauce had thickened. But actually, this way takes far too long, so I now make it how I explained above.
What Is Chinese Batter Made Off?
Alongside making chicken and prawn balls, there are so many Chinese takeaway recipes that use this exact batter. It only requires self-raising flour, salt and water! You can add a drop of oil into the batter mixture if you want the batter shiny (I always do this).
How To Make Sweet And Sour Chicken Balls
Here’s a step-by-step guide on how to make sweet and sour chicken balls, full instructions are on the recipe card at the bottom.
Step One:
Dice your chicken breast into chunks and place into a mixing bowl. Add a teaspoon of salt and white pepper and mix together until evenly combined. Add 2 tablespoons of self-raising flour to the mixing bowl and coat the chicken with the flour.
Step Two:
In a large mixing bowl add self-raising flour and salt, mix until evenly distributed. Pour water into the bowl and mix together. Leave the batter to rest for 5 minutes (this helps to remove lumps). After 5 minutes, add a teaspoon of vegetable oil and mix together.
Step Three: