Sweet and sour ketchup chicken hits 'all the right notes'

Ketchup is arguably the star of the condiment aisle: the perfect balance of sweet, sour and salty that, with added umami from the tomatoes, hits all the right notes.

As a condiment, ketchup is generally applied to finished dishes according to the eater's taste, rather than used as an ingredient in the dish itself.

But I recently came across a recipe by Mark Bittman in the New York Times for stir-fried chicken with ketchup, and the sauce was essentially ketchup: a cup of it, spiked with some garlic and cayenne, transformed into a sauce by the browned bits left by the chicken on the bottom of the pan.

It was delicious.

With a full five stars and almost 1,800 readers weighing in, it's very highly rated — the modern way of gauging whether a recipe is worth making — and so I gave it a go.

The result is, unsurprisingly, sweet and sour — very similar to sweet and sour chicken, in fact. Some chunks of fresh pineapple would work really well here.

I wanted to make it as Bittman suggested, without any radical changes or adaptations.

The only one was to add a splash of water to the pan along with the ketchup to help loosen the browned bits in the bottom of the pan, which gives the sauce so much flavour. It makes the ketchup a bit easier to handle (it's fairly thick and viscous on its own) but cooks off quickly, leaving the sauce as thick as it would have been without.

In our house (and in the radio studio) this quickly became known as "ketchup chicken."

Ketchup chicken

This couldn't be easier; bite-sized chicken is browned in a hot skillet and finished with ketchup, garlic and cayenne.

I also added some roasted cauliflower to the mix, which worked out quite well.

This recipe is adapted slightly from Bittman's Stir-fried Chicken with Ketchup in New York Times Cooking.

Ingredients

1½ lb (680 g) boneless chicken thighs or breasts,
cut into ½ to 1-inch pieces (1.25-2.5 cm)

1/3 cup flour

¼ cup canola or other mild vegetable oil

Salt and pepper

Two garlic cloves, slivered

¼ tsp cayenne pepper, or to taste

1 cup ketchup

Preparation

Toss the chicken with the flour to lightly coat.

Put two tablespoons of the oil in a large skillet and set it over medium-high heat. When the pan is hot, cook the chicken in batches (without crowding the pan).

Sprinkle with salt and pepper and turn as needed until it's browned and cooked through.

Transfer to a plate and let the pan cool a bit.

Add the remaining oil and set it back over medium-high heat.

Cook the garlic and cayenne for a minute or two, then add a splash of water (about ¼ cup).

Add the ketchup and stir, loosening any browned bits on the bottom of the pan. Continue for a few minutes or until the sauce bubbles, thickens and darkens slightly.

Return the chicken to the pan and stir to coat with the sauce.

Serving: Four people. Present hot with rice.

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With files from the Calgary Eyeopener.