Sweet and sour pork
Our sweet and sour pork recipe is a tasty and easy Chinese dish. Why head out for takeaways when homemade sweet and sour can taste this good!? This restaurant quality dish is a favourite of food lovers everywhere.
Ingredients
Method
Ingredients
- 300g pork, chopped into bite size
- 1 1/2 tbsp light soy sauce
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 2 tsp corn starch
- 1 tsp water
Sweet & sour sauce
- 2 tbsp white vinegar
- 2 tbsp sugar
- 2 tbsp tomato sauce
- 5 tbsp water
Coating
- 1 egg, beaten
- 3 tbsp corn starch
- 3 cups oil for deep frying
Stir fry
- 1 clove garlic
- 1/2 onion, cut into medium size pieces
- 1 capsicum, cut into cubes
- 1 pineapple can, chunks
- 1/2 tbsp vegetable oil
Cookware: Large pot or wok
Method
- Marinate the pork with soy sauce and salt then add corn starch and water. Cover and leave it to marinate in the fridge for 30 minutes.
- In a bowl, mix tomato sauce, white vinegar and sugar together until well combined. Add water then mix well. Set aside.
- Mix the marinated pork with egg then coat pork pieces with corn starch.
- Pour oil into a pot or wok and heat to 180°C. Add the pork and deep fry until the pork is lightly golden or about 80% cooked. Remove pork from the wok.
- Turn the stove up slightly and heat oil to 200°C. Add pork back in and fry the pork for another 2 minutes or until golden and crispy. Remove pork and set aside on a baking rack on top of paper towels.
- In another wok, heat oil over a medium heat. Stir in the garlic, onion, and bell pepper then season with salt and sugar. Cook until softened. Add pineapple chunks with juice and stir fry for 1 minute.
- Add sweet and sour sauce into the wok and cook until bubbling. Stir in cooked pork until well combined.
Serving suggestion
Serve with cooked white rice or fried rice and sprinkle with sesame seeds to garnish.
Recipe notes
Pork – The best cuts of pork to use in this sweet and sour pork recipe are pork scotch roasts or steaks. The fat from pork scotch will keep each piece of meat juicy with good pork flavour. Otherwise, you could also use pork shoulder or pork leg. We suggest against using pork tenderloin or pork loin – both tend to be very lean so prone to drying out from overcooking, or pork belly (too fatty!).
Soy sauce – some recipes call for a mixture of soy sauce and oyster sauce. While we’ve omitted oyster sauce in our recipe, there is no harm in adding a tablespoon for some extra umami flavour. If you don’t have light soy sauce, you can substitute plain soy sauce. But do not use dark soy sauce or sweet soy sauce! These will completely change the flavour of the recipe.
Oil – the taste of the pork is neutral enough that you can reuse the oil twice more. Just cool the oil, strain through a mesh colander, and store. Use for any savoury fried foods.
FAQ
What is the best cut of pork for sweet and sour pork?
See Recipe Notes – Pork
What should you serve with sweet and sour pork?
Like all good Chinese dishes, sweet and sour pork is excellent on top of Easy egg fried rice. You could also make it a Chinese banquet and create some of our other delicious recipes like the Chinese roast pork, Kung Pao chicken and Sweet soy pork and green bean stir fry,
Does sweet and sour pork make good leftovers?
Yes and no. The pork won’t retain its crispiness once it’s refrigerated. But if this isn’t an issue for you, it’ll still be delicious the following day