Actifry Sweet and Sour Chicken Bites | Slimming Eats (2024)

Forget takeout, with this delicious Actifry Sweet and Sour Chicken Bites - the perfect dish for your Chinese Fakeaway night.

Walking with the kids this morning to catch their bus to school, my eldest (who is 11), turned to me and said "Mom, can we have Chinese Take-Out tonight?".

Lately, he has been loving coming in from school to see what recipes I have been working on. He really enjoy's being my taste tester and has been showing quite an interest in cooking and food.

So today, I said, "How about Mummy cooks your favourite Chinese Takeaway dish for you instead" and he seemed pretty happy with that.

I love trying to create some of our favouritestake away dishes at home. We still enjoy the occasional meals out or takeaways, but sometimes you just want to be in control of the ingredients you are eating and keep to plan.

His favourite dish is Sweet and Sour Chicken Balls with Egg Fried Rice. It's probably a popular dish with the majority of Kids when ordering a take out. That crispy batter coating and sticky sweet and sour sauce is just any kids delight.

The first dilemma was how to get that batter type exterior to the chicken without deep frying or using lots of oil.

Then I remembered thisFish and Chips Fakeawayand that amazing batter on the fish, as well as this delicious and very popular Salt and Pepper Chicken I cooked in the actifry.

I wasn't entirely sure if it would work without using some kind of oil to at least shallow fry. But it turned out perfectly.

The Actifry is a great option for foods that you would usually be deep fried. Perfect Chips and I love cooking my sausages for breakfast in mine too, it means they get a nice even colour.

We have the Tefal Actifry 1.7kg family size, because being a family of 4, we need that extra capacity.

In fact it turned out pretty darn amazing and served along with some stir-fried veggies and this Egg Fried Rice, Beef Chow Meinand that delicious side of Sweet and Sour Sauce, it was far better than any takeaway, because a) we knew exactly the ingredients that went into it and b) we knew it was made much more healthier.

My kids gobbled up the chicken pieces like they had never been fed, dipping them into the sticky sweet and sour sauce and my eldest looked at me, while grabbing another piece of chicken and said, "Mom, this is sooo good" - Receiving such amazing comments from my kids, has got to be the best compliment of all - sorry readers!!!, but it makes me so happy to see my kids loving my food, we all know how fussy and particular kids can be.

To cook the chicken in the actifry, I first take out the paddle, otherwise, it will mush and remove the coating on the chicken, Once the batter starts to set, you can then put the paddle back in for the last 10 minutes or so. This took a total of 20 minutes in my actifry.

Want some more Chinese Fakeaway Dishes? Check out these recipes:

• Chicken Chop Suey
• Chinese Chicken Curry
• Beef with Mushrooms in Oyster Sauce
• Chinese Lemon Chicken
• Hoisin Chicken
• Sweet Chilli Beef
• Chinese Pork
• Chicken Fried Rice

and if you need more recipe ideas - Head on over to my FULL RECIPE INDEX where you will find over 500+ delicious Slimming Eats recipes to choose from and all are searchable by meal type, ingredients etc.

I haven't yet had a chance to test these sweet and sour chicken biteS out in the oven, but I recommend using parchment paper to prevent it from sticking to the tray, add the battered pieces to the tray and bake at 200c/400f wait until the batter sets, before turning to brown the other sides.

HOW CAN I ADD A ⅓ SPEED FOODS TO THIS SWEET AND SOUR CHICKEN BITES?

I went for some stir-fried veggies - onion, carrots and peppers, but you could serve with any veg of choice or how about pairing it up with this Chicken Cauliflower Rice.Stir-fried bean sprouts are another great option, I love them with any Chinese Fakeaway Dish. I just blanch in hot water and then stir fry in pan with a little salt and black pepper or oyster sauce.

WHAT KITCHEN ITEMS DO I NEEDTO MAKE THIS ACTIFRY SWEET AND SOUR CHICKEN BITES?

Recipe Card

Actifry Sweet and Sour Chicken Bites

Yield: SERVES 4

Prep Time: 10 minutes

Cook Time: 20 minutes

See Also

Sweet and Sour Chicken

Total Time: 30 minutes

Ingredients

• 500g of boneless chicken breast
• 20g of plain flour
• 2 level tablespoons of cornstarch
• 1 egg white
• 1 tablespoon of water
• sea salt
• spray oil
• For the sweet and sour sauce:
• 1 tablespoon of tomato paste/puree
• 1 tablespoon of light soy sauce
• 1 tablespoon of rice vinegar
• ½ cup (120ml) of water
• 1 tablespoon of apricot or pineapple jam
• pinch of garlic powder
• pinch of onion powder

Instructions

1. Pat chicken dry with some kitchen paper and chop the chicken into bitesize chunks.
2. Add the flour, cornstarch, pinch of salt and egg white and water to a bowl and whisk till smooth.
3. Add in the chicken into the batter and toss to evenly coat.
4. Spray the actifry pan with spray oil
5. and then place the chicken in the actifry (with paddle removed) making sure you don't pile it all on top of each other, space it all out as well as you.
6. Set the actifry going for 10 mins, at this stage the batter should be set, so you can then add back in the paddle
7. Spray again over the top with a little spray oil and set the actifry for another 10 mins, it should have a perfectly golden light battered exterior, so leave it going for a few more minutes if not quite done.
8. Add the ingredients for the sauce to a small saucepan and simmer until thickened.
9. Serve with sauce and choice of sides.

Notes

Please see below for full nutritional info and additional details about recipe:

• Calories - scroll down to nutritional info box
• WW Points and other Slimming or Weight Loss programs - due to plans regularly changing and updating, we recommend calculating with the official tools you get as a member to those plans to ensure accuracy of values.

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• 

  Salter Digital Kitchen Weighing Scales

• 

  TOMORAL Measuring Cups and Spoons

• 

  Tefal AH960840 Actifry Genius XL (8 Portions), Healthy Air Fryer, 1.7 Kilograms, Black

Nutrition Information

Yield 4Serving Size 1 SERVING
Amount Per ServingCalories 203Total Fat 4.1gSaturated Fat 1.4gSodium 307mgCarbohydrates 11.3gFiber 0.3gSugar 3.4gProtein 29g

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