This sweet and sour chicken taste sensational. It’s so much healthier than take-out and my family thinks it taste amazingly better! Although this dish is usually made with breaded, fried chicken, to make it healthy, I’m using chicken breasts chunks, adding more vegetables and pineapple plus serving over brown rice. The skinny for each serving, 260 calories, 4 grams of fat and 7 Weight Watchers POINTS PLUS.  I won’t be surprised if you end up making it several times a month. I do!

Prep Time: 15 minutes
Cook Time: 12 minutes (not including cooking brown rice)

Ingredients

1 cup uncooked brown rice, I used brown Basmati rice, see shopping tip

2 teaspoons olive oil, divided

1 tablespoon fresh garlic, chopped

2 teaspoons ginger, from a jar, see shopping tip

¼ teaspoon crushed red pepper

1 pound boneless, skinless, chicken breast, cut into ½-inch pieces

1 cup chopped onion

1 cup chopped carrots

1 cup chopped celery

1 cup chopped red bell pepper

1 (20-ounce) can pineapple chunks in juice, undrained

⅓ cup reduced-sodium soy sauce

1 tablespoons seasoned rice vinegar

2 tablespoons flour

2 teaspoons brown sugar

2 packages Stevia, Truvia, Splenda or your favorite sugar substitute

Instructions

1. Cook rice according to package directions except you don’t need to add oil or salt to water, while cooking.

2. In the meantime, coat the bottom of a nonstick pan with cooking spray. Heat 1 teaspoon oil over medium-high heat. Add garlic, ginger, red pepper flakes, and chicken to pan; sauté 5 minutes or until chicken is done. Remove chicken mixture from pan; set aside.

3. Coat pan again with cooking spray and heat remaining 1 teaspoon of olive oil.  Add onions, carrots, celery and red bell pepper to pan.  Sauté 3-4 minutes until crisp-tender.  Drain pineapple, reserving ¾ cup juice. Add 1½ cups pineapple chunks to pan; cook 30 seconds (Reserve remaining pineapple for another use).  Combine the reserved ¾ cup pineapple juice, soy sauce, vinegar, flour, sugar and Stevia in a bowl, stirring with a whisk until smooth.

4. Return chicken mixture to pan. Stir in juice mixture; bring to boil. Cook 1-2 minute until sauce thickens a bit.

5. To serve: Spread ½ cup rice over each plate. Top each with about 1 cup sweet and sour chicken.

6. This dish freezes great. Mix together the chicken and rice and freeze in individual servings.

Makes 6 servings (1 cup sweet and sour chicken plus ½ cup rice)

Food Fact
Sweet and sour chicken is a dish frequently served in Chinese restaurants in various Western countries.  It’s common in Australia, Europe, and North America and is available at some restaurants in East and Southeast Asia.  This dish generally comprises cubes of white meat chicken deep-fried in batter and served with sweet and sour sauce.  Sometimes it is topped with pineapple, green pepper, carrot, or sweet pickles.

Shopping Tip

Basmati brown rice can be found in most supermarkets either in the rice aisle or health food aisle. I bought it at Trader Joe’s.

Ginger (in a jar) is a terrific product and can be found in the produce section of the supermarket.

Weight Watchers (old points) 5

Weight Watchers POINTS PLUS 7