When I was a kid, everybody thought I was Asian.
Spoiler alert: I’m not Asian. My signature Dorothy Hamil haircut coupled with my jet back hair made me a shoe in for those “Where are you from, originally?” questions. As a kid, I found this rather upsetting because, well, I wasn’t Asian.
Honestly though, I got pretty used to people being confused by me. With a name like DaNelle (thanks a heap mom & dad!), and my love for all things boy-ish, it’s no wonder they didn’t think I was a boy.
Oh wait. They did. MULTIPLE TIMES. Even Santa, bless him, thought I was a boy. Not gonna lie, that one stung.
Over the years I decided to embrace all the misconceptions about “who” or “what” I was, and just roll with it.
“Danielle?” Sure.
“Daniel?” Present.
“Danelleydalley?” Why not. (True story, you guys. This one ACTUALLY happened when they announced my name at my highschool graduation. Good times.)
Now that I have a blog, I can clearly state who I am. I am an urban farmer. I am a lover of real food. I am a mix of Irish & European with a hint of Native American. I am a mother, I am a woman, and yes, my name, as confusing as it is, is DaNelle (pronounced dah-nell).
What does all of this have to do with Sweet n’ Sour Chicken?
Absolutely nothing. But I can tell you that this recipe is sorta Asian (though probably more American than anything) and it’s amazingly delicious! It’s also made with actual REAL FOOD INGREDIENTS.
Remember those? Real food ingredients are real, whole, nutritious, nutrient-dense, and natural. We’re not perfect over here by any means, but we try our best to eat real food and lick our fingers when we’re done.
Because real food freakin’ rocks ya’ll!
Frequently asked question I’m going to address right now before I even give you the recipe because I know I’ll get a million questions about this:
Q. Why, oh why, do you have white rice in that picture? White rice is unhealthy! It’s nothing but empty calories! Do you even know that? Do you know anything?
A. Thanks for asking! Actually, we think brown rice sucks over here. Why? Well, it’s got a high amount of poly-unsaturated fats and other anti-nutrients, which causes inflammation. Because of this, traditional cultures have been knocking off that outer bran layer with a rock as far back as they have been harvesting rice. So, yeah. We also like to cook our rice in homemade bone broth (or storebought if I don’t have any on hand) which helps make the rice very nutrient dense. You can read here why we choose to eat white rice like Basmati or Jasmine.
Are we good? Can we still be friends? Let’s get to the recipe!
Sweet n' Sour Chicken
Ingredients
- 2 lbs chicken breast, tenderloin, or thighs (we use pasture-raised)
- 3/4 c arrowroot starch
- 2 eggs (we use pasture-raised)
- 1/4 c coconut oil
Sauce
- 1/2 c honey or unrefined sugar
- 4 TBS ketchup
- 1/2 c apple cider vinegar
- 1 TBS soy sauce alternative
- 1 tsp garlic powder
Instructions
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Dice chicken into 1-inch pieces.
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Place the chicken in a bowl & coat with arrowroot starch.
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Whisk eggs in another bowl. Dip coated chicken in eggs.
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Heat coconut oil in a pan over medium-high heat.
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Fry chicken until golden brown.
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In separate bowl, mix sauce ingredients thoroughly.
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Place chicken in baking dish and pour sauce over it.
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Bake at 325 degrees for 30 minutes, stirring every 10 minutes.
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Serve with a side of rice.
Recipe Notes
* I don't use soy sauce because it's not healthy unless fermented. Asian cultures only eat soy that has been fermented and not nearly in the amounts American eat it today. Read more here.
My family requests this meal on a regular basis! It is absolutely delicious!!
I have to double it because everyone eats so much!
Wow, thanks!
I’m confused about the brown rice comment, that it has “high amounts of poly-unsaturated fats.” Brown rice has 1.75 grams a fat per 1 cup serving and, yes, most of it is poly-unsaturated fats, but that is a healthy, natural fat, the same fat that is found in seeds and nuts and fish. I’m curious at why you would avoid it?
Hi Jessica, here’s some info for ya: https://www.ancestral-nutrition.com/why-white-rice-is-healthier-than-brown-rice/
These are the main reasons we eat white rice. Also, traditional cultures “beat” the bran off their rice to produce white rice:)
I can’t have eggs, do you if I could replace them with something else in this recipe? Thanks 🙂
I’m not sure, I think you’ll have to look up “egg replacements”, as I’m not familiar with them.
I use cornflour and I do not use egg’s and it’s great. sue
I made this tonight for just me and my husband. The whole house smelled like cider vinegar & my eyes burned every time I stirred it. It was definitely too sour for us. Do I have to use equal amounts of cider vinegar and sugar or can I reduce the vinegar?
Yes, feel free to reduce:)
use white vinegar and it’s equal I use a Tablespoon of each I hope that’s ok. sue
Made this tonite with my son for dinner. It was good but a little on the sour side and ours didn’t glaze well in the oven until I up the temp. I would use more sweetener or cut back on cider vinegar- thanks
I use brown sugar. sue
Just found your site…very informative and enjoyable! Will be visiting again.
I adore this recipe, I have made it at least a dozen times since you posted it. I usually serve it up with sautéed peppers and onions, so good! My husband pretty much drinks the sauce lol. My question is do you think this recipe would hold up using tofu? I have some vegetarian friends that I would like to try it for 🙂
Sure, I think it would be fine with tofu:)
I made this recipe tonight, and it was delicious! The whole family loved it, including my chicken-hating hubby. 🙂
Awesome!
I do not have arrowroot starch, can I use sometype of coconut or almond flour instead? Or is the just a totally different product all together?
The arrowroot starch acts as a coating and a thickener. You can use cornstarch instead, and I’d recommend buying organic when it comes to cornstarch.
Wow! I have made this a half a dozen times and I must say its foolproof and completely delicious! If you eat sweet and sour chicken from the Chinese take out, you never will again after this recipe, plus no stinky oil and bogged down feeling just real food, real good!!!
I made this recipe and loved it so much that I feel obligated to leave a comment. It was SOOOOPER GOOOD!!!!!! I hate coconut a whole lot and I couldn’t taste it at all in this recipe. Found another way to choke down coconut oil! Yay!
Hi DaNelle
I just love your blog and how you cook. I write, with two other gals, at 11MagnoliaLane.com. We focus on lots of home decorating but I have branched out into the cooking realm. I love the way you eat, I do the same in my house as I have three boys. Two with rare metabolic disorders (Galactosemia) and one who is very picky. It was a hard transition but the results are amazing when you stick with this eating lifestyle. I also cook meals for busy working mom’s to help them feed their families healthy alternatives to takeout and drive thru’s. I am adding this recipe to my meal plan next week and I cannot wait to share it with all the working mom’s and families I prepare meals for. Thank you so much! Love you photo’s, style and your blog!!
Terry from 11MagnoliaLane.com
THIS IS SO DELICIOUS!!!! I just made this and eating it right now! I’ve made your soaked wheat tortillas and now this! I LOVE your website! 😀 😀
Thank you thank you!
This was sooooo good and super easy! I sat a portion out for lunch I ate already! Oh well I’ll just have to make more!
Yay!
We tried this and it was delicious! My hubby, who is NOT a fan of coconut anything actually cooked these as I worked on dessert. And we used cornstarch since that’s what we had in the house. We ALL loved it — our 17-year-old son, hubby and myself. I was amazed that there wasn’t any grumbling about cooking with the coconut oil or eating it! A KEEPER!! Thanks!
Awesome!
Made this as written and it was WOW delicious! Closest thing I’ve had to Chinese Food since I’ve been gluten free. Even my husband who scrunched his nose when he read the recipe scarfed down two helpings and said it was “restaurant good”!
Haha, great!
do you eat corn starch? can that be used instead of the arrowroot starch if you eat grains anyway?
can it be sub-ed? i’ve never used that before, so don’t know if it will taste different. Thanks
Yes, you can totally use cornstarch, just try to use an organic version if possible since corn is mostly GMO these days.
What type of rice do you use? Do you soak rice?
I fully understand how people made you feel as a child and chances are you still get a lot of it as an adult. I am almost half white, half Cherokee, with a little mixture of others thrown in. I am the lightest skinned person in my family. I never fit into the white world, Cherokee world, black world or any other, yet when the race riots of the 70’s started, I was targeted as white, and to this day am still targeted in many ways.
I now live in an area that is about 75% black, 10% white and 15% “everything else”. Yet I still find about 25% of people look down on me because of my skin color and nothing else. We all experience life tainted by the people we have had the good or bad luck to deal with in our lives. What you felt is what you felt. It shows no hatred of anyone in explaining how it felt to you. Just as there is zero hate in my statements here. It is rather hard to hate any race when you have just about every race within your heritage. If you line us up by skin color from light to dark, I am at the very end of the light end and we have family members who are almost truly black skinned.
Everyone has to get over their sensitivities as it is physically impossible for anyone to be able to speak without touching upon a sensitive spot for someone, somewhere. We must look beyond the physical terms being used as every term has hundreds of meanings depending on whom you are speaking with and seek the purpose behind the words to know their intent.
I ask anyone who has a problem with what you wrote to define what the term “white person” means. No one can come close to defining it in a way that fits every person with white skin just as no one can define the term “black person” or “hispanic person” or “asian person” in a way that defines all people those terms would normally apply to.
I am very tired of people trying to define me by nothing more than the color of my skin and I know thousands of people with all skin colors who feel the same way. It is time to let all racism die. Period, end of story. But as long as people keep getting hung up on their idea of what words mean, rather than looking for the intent behind them, we will never see the end of racism.
Wow, Denise, I really appreciate you writing this! I completely agree.
Danelle: How can you have brown hair now?
It was jet black as a child and lightened as I grew older. Probably from all the hours in the sun growing up in Arizona:)
I made this for dinner tonight. Two of my four kids, my husband and I loved it! The other two kids, not so much. I will definitely make it again. It paired well with the white rice. I do have to say though, that it look a lot longer than 10 minutes to prep and fry 2 lbs of chicken! Thanks for the recipe!
Totally making this for dinner – TONIGHT. Thanks. You took the guess work out of my day. I think I’ll go lay down now, since dinner is taken care of. Maybe eat a bon bon or two. Woot!
Mmmm, looks good! I can’t have egg whites, do you think it will still work for me? Thanks!
Hey! I love your recipes and this one looks amazing! I bought arrowroot starch a couple of months ago but have been hesitant to use it. I’m definitely going to try this recipe and FINALLY use my arrowroot starch. Can’t wait to report back about how much I loved it! I think I’ll have it with cauliflower rice instead of white race, as I’m avoiding all grains as of now. Thanks for the recipe!
I do have a comment to make about the anecdote of this blog post. Your sentence, “Couldn’t they tell I looked exactly like my very-American-looking Mom?” is a tad offensive. What do you mean by “very-AMERICAN-looking mom”? What does an American look like, specifically? And the fact that you juxtaposed that phrase with the idea that people thought you were Asian makes it seem as if, to you, Asian people don’t look “American.” Race/ethnicity has nothing to do with nationality (American is used to signify nationality, not a race or ethnicity… there are tons of Asians who are American. And if an Asian-born person becomes an American citizen, that Asian-born person is now AMERICAN or Asian-American. The point is Asian identity does not automatically translate to non-American identity). Respectfully, I think you meant to say that you look white, just like your mom, and not Asian–which is completely fine; it’s the truth! However, implying that Asians don’t look American is just wrong and, again, offensive.
I hope you take this as it is intended, just an avid reader pointing out something that is significant to many people. As a person of color (black of Haitian descent) I’m sensitive to these issues. Many non-people of color (white people) are sensitive to these issues as well. I hope you take that into consideration while looking over this post and creating future posts.
Happy blogging!
Joanne
That’s true, Joanne. America really is a melting pot of all races. Instead of saying “American” I should have said “Caucasian”. I guess I was thinking from the viewpoint of my 7 year old self, who wouldn’t know the politically correct term. I appreciate the kind way in which you brought this up!
Thanks for considering my concern! I have to be honest; I was afraid I’d be dismissed or ignored. I’m grateful you took the time to read my response and make a change. 🙂
Still coming back to let you know how the recipe works out for me. I’m a busy student and barely have time to cook. I do have all these ingredients on hand, so I’m looking to make this within the next two weeks.
Thanks again,
Joanne
I forgot to check the little box to get notified. Whoopsie!
Is that supposed to be 1/2 cup honey, DaNelle? That’s my guess! It looks delicious!
Thanks!
Yes! Thanks for catching that!
Ohhhh I love the simplicity of this recipe. I love a good sweet and sour chicken recipe too, pinning this! Thanks.