Sweet and Sour Fried Chicken

Name: Sweet and Sour Fried Chicken
Yield: Serves 4
Cuisine: Australia
Ingredients: 50 g (2 oz) lemon grass, finely minced; 1 teaspoon ground dried chillies or 1 small red chilli pepper, minced (optional); 1.5 kg (3 lb) chicken, jointed; 1 tablespoon caramel sauce; 4 tablespoons fish sauce; 1 tablespoon caster sugar; 1 large onion, roughly chopped; 4 cloves of garlic, finely chopped; 250 ml (9 fl oz) cold water; 3 tablespoons vegetable oil; pinch of salt

Preparation info

Serves
4

Difficulty
Medium

Appears in

Floyd on Oz

By Keith Floyd

Published 1991

About

This is a Vietnamese-inspired dish that I have recalled to the best of my memory after my visit to Cabramatta, which no doubt you have read about earlier in the book.

You could use a whole chicken and joint it yourself or, equally, for an economical dish you could buy a bag of chicken wings and use them instead.

Ingredients

3 tablespoons vegetable oil
pinch of salt
1 large onion, roughly chopped

Oceania
Australia
Cabramatta
Gluten-free

Method

Heat the oil in a large frying pan or wok over a medium heat. Add the salt, then the onion and garlic and fry for about 5 minutes, until transparent. Pop in the lemon grass and chilli, if using. Fry for 1–2 minutes more, then add the chicken. Stir well for about 5 minutes or so. Next add the fish sauce, sugar and caramel sauce, mixing well.

Add the water, cover and cook over a moderate