Meal Prep For The Week In Under An Hour _ Sweet and Sour Chicken

Today on the meal prep series we're making sweet and sour chicken, this is a high protein dish and tastes absolutely incredible. Starting out we're going to get our rice on, I know I do rice quite often on these meal preps and you can change it up which I'll leave a few details about in the description but we're going to go with 300g of washed basmati rice, 600ml of cold water and a bit of sea salt flakes to taste. Give it a stir to break up any clumps and then bring it to a boil. Place on a lid, reduce the heat to low and then just let this simmer away for 14 minutes undisturbed. The prep for the sweet and sour chicken is really simple, we're going to need 3 bell peppers or capsicums for my Australian friends. These can be sliced in half and then just pick out the seeds and the pith with your fingers, give it a bang on the bench to remove any excess seeds. As for these just give them a quick slice up, rotate them 90 degrees and then dice into large chunks, leaving us with all of this and this can just be placed in a bowl and mixed together. Next is 1 brown or yellow onion, this is about medium size, just slice off both ends, slice it in half and then just peel off that skin, you can save all of these scraps for a stock. Place it on a half moon position and then just thinly slice the whole way across, laying it flat about 3 quarters of the way through just to continue slicing it safely. The onion can also be added to the bowl with the bell peppers or capsicums and then just give this a good mix with your hands just to break up any of the layers of onion. Moving on we're going to need 4 cloves of garlic and 15g of ginger, both of these can be ran along a fine microplane to create a paste and you can mix these together which is completely fine and I will also mention that all of the weight conversions are in the description as well. Now as for the protein I went for chicken breast, it was a lot cheaper at the time, you can definitely use chicken thigh for this recipe which I'll leave details about in the description, this weighs 1.4kg and these are quite big breasts and we can just slice these into strips, rotate them 90 degrees and then just dice into large even sized pieces just making sure that they are the same size, that way they'll cook at the same time. As for the sweet and sour sauce, add 125ml of light or low sodium soy sauce to a mixing bowl for that nice umami flavour, 80ml of store bought pineapple juice, don't use fresh for this recipe, the enzymes in the fresh pineapple will break down the cornflour and won't allow it to thicken, 80g of honey to add sweetness, a lot of recipes use sugar but I'm going with the healthier option instead, 40ml of Worcestershire sauce for an increased depth of flavour and a really nice umami touch. To increase the acidity, add 40ml of apple cider vinegar or white vinegar if you can't consume alcohol, we're then going in with 40ml of tomato sauce, this is going to add a really nice tangy flavour and a nice little subtle sweetness and then finally our thickening agent which is 12g of cornflour and you can use cornstarch as well. With that all together we can then give this a whisk for those flavours to become friends just ensuring we break up the cornflour or starch and then just pop this aside. Going back to the rice that was doing its thing whilst we were prepping all the other stuff, this can then be turned off the heat but leave the lid on for a final 4 minutes, then we're going to remove the lid and then fluff this up with a fork or spatula just to break up all the individual grains making sure nothing's stuck together and then remove it from the stovetop. Like always this is the macros or the nutrition for the basmati rice including the portion weights as well. Moving on we're going to make the sweet and sour chicken, place a large pan or pot over a high heat, we're going to add in 30ml of grapeseed oil or any neutral flavoured oil of your choice, add in the onions and bell peppers, sprinkle of sea salt flakes to taste and then we're going to sauté this for about 4 minutes moving it around regularly. During this time we're going to get a nice colour onto this, the bell peppers are going to add that nice smoky flavour that they add and the onions will start to caramelise. Then we can remove this from the stovetop and then just transfer it into a plate, placing the same pan or pot back over a high heat. Add in another 20ml of grapeseed oil or any neutral flavoured oil, add in the chicken when the pan or pot is nice and hot, along with a nice pinch of sea salt flakes to taste and then spread this out just so the chicken's not sitting all on top of one another. If your pan or pot is too small I recommend doing this in batches as well and this can then just be seared for 3 minutes to get a nice brown colour on the outer edges. After 3 minutes this can then be given a good mix around and we're just going to continue cooking for another 3 minutes, the colour doesn't matter too much because the sauce will add a really nice colour to it. Also you might get a little bit of water in the bottom of the pan, if this does happen I do recommend draining it off otherwise the chicken will steam and then it will become like rubber. Like I said you can use chicken thighs which I'll leave all of the details about in the description. After 6 minutes in total add in the garlic and ginger paste and mix this around to cook for 45 seconds, all we need to do here is just break up that, making sure that it's not clumped up, just to get the infusion into the chicken. Next add in the sautéed or stir fried veggies, mixing it again for another 30-40 seconds just to get the flavour of those veggies mixed into the chicken, or in other words the flavours can become friends. With that all done we can then add in the sweet and sour sauce, making sure to give it a little whisk before we add it in because the cornflour can sit at the bottom. Then we're just going to bring this to a boil and cook for 2 minutes which will make the cornflour or starch react, thickening it up really well and getting everything coated in that delicious sauce. There's not a whole lot to this, it's really really simple, just mix and stir until the sauce has thickened up. Lastly this is completely optional, just add in a couple of sesame seeds, honestly I didn't even weigh them, it's probably about a tablespoon's worth. Just give these a quick mix through until everything's mixed really well and then we can turn this off the heat and remove it from the stovetop and like always, the sweet and sour chicken macros as well as the portion sizes. As for serving up, you would have seen in the macro cards throughout the video I did actually put the portion weight in there but if you want to make your life easier just portion everything by 5. If you have a little bit of leftover sauce make sure to top it off between the 5 and then we can garnish with spring onion or scallion, chilli or even more sesame seeds, it's up to you but we're then left with these absolutely delicious sweet and sour chicken and that soft fluffy basmati rice. The macros are for the complete dish, you can see the weights and all of the calories, fats, carbs and proteins. Storage on these, they'll last up to 4 days in the fridge and 4 months in the freezer. If you're using the meal prep containers that I have they do come with a vacuum pump and this will actually extract the air, reducing oxidisation and they will last an extra day in the fridge which is really cool. Not trying to sell you something but there is a link in the description if you are interested, I just want to help you guys out. Once all of that's done we're then left with the best part and we can then dig in. You probably never guessed this but it is actually sweet and sour, this is a really good recipe, tastes really really nice, super easy to make and it's quite cheap as well and will last you the week or the weeks ahead depending on how you store it. Once again I just want to thank you all so so much for all of the love and support, we hit 500,000 subscribers, it is literally a dream come true for me every single day and I can't thank you all enough. So thanks for watching and I'll see you in the next one.