Name: Homemade Sweet and Sour Pork
Prep time: 30 min
Cook time: 60 min
Total time: 90 min
Ingredients: 1 1/2 pounds pork butt roast (cut into small pieces); 1 egg; 1/2 tsp garlic; 1/2 cup cornstarch; 4 cups vegetable oil (for frying); 1 carrot; 1 green pepper; 1/2 cup water; 1/3 cup vinegar; 2/3 cup brown sugar; 2 tbsp cornstarch; 1/3 cup ketchup (or alternatively tomato paste)

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Restaurant Style Sweet and Sour Pork Recipe

This sweet and sour pork recipe is devoured every time I make it. It’s based on a restaurant recipe and tastes even better than take out Chinese food. It takes some time to make, but if your wanting to treat your family I promise they will prefer this to take out. Best part its inexpensive enough to make for a crowd.

Sweet and Sour Pork Recipe Ingredients

1 1/2 pounds pork butt roast, cut into small chunks

one egg

1/2 tsp garlic salt

1/2 cup cornstarch

Oil for frying

Sweet and Sour Sauce Ingredients

1 carrot sliced

1 green pepper cut in small chunks

1/3 cup vinegar

2/3 cup brown sugar

1/3 cup ketchup (or tomato paste)

2 tbsp cornstarch

1/2 cup water

Sweet and Sour Pork Instructions

How to Make Crispy Battered Pork

If you want restaurant style you need to batter and deep fry the pork first.. If you want to skip the deep frying you can, just roast the pork in the oven at 400F until crispy and then make the sweet and sour sauce.

Start heating the oil over medium heat until it reaches 375 F. While your deep fry oil is heating up. Cut the pork into small bite sized pieces, place in a bowl and set aside.

In a large mixing bowl, add the egg, salt, and cornstarch. Mix the batter together.

Add the pork to the large bowl and stir until each piece of pork is very lightly battered. g

Chunks of lean pork being battered with cornstarch mixture before deep frying for chinese sweet and sour pork.

Be very cautious and only fry a few pieces at a time making sure the oil does not overflow the deep fryer. Deep fry the pork pieces a few at a time until golden, then remove from the oil and set aside on paper towel. Repeat in small batches until all the pork is cooked.

Once upon a time, a very long time ago before children, we went to this small family run chinese food restaurant, and became friends with the owner. He told me the base for his sweet and sour sauce was ketchup. Laughing I didn’t believe him so he took me behind the counter and showed me how to make it. The knack is mixing something sweet with something vinegary (sour), you can use substitutions as long as you remember that basic sweet and sour concept.

Homemade Sweet and Sour Sauce

A cutting board with carrots, and green pepper sliced up. There is deep fried pork in the background.

Using a wok or a very large frying pan over medium high heat. Add ketchup, brown sugar, and vinegar. Stir to dissolve the sugar.

Chinese restaurants will use tapioca starch to thicken their recipes, if you don’t have tapioca starch regular cornstarch works well. In a small bowl mix together the water and cornstarch, mixing well with a fork to dissolve the cornstarch.

Cut up 1 large carrot and 1 green pepper into very thin slices. Add to a wok or large pan. Let the vegetables cook in the tomato and brown sugar base for about 5 minutes. The vegetables should still be crunchy. Once you like the how your vegetables are done, add the cornstarch and stir. The cornstarch thickens the sauce quite quickly.

A wok filled with carrots , green peppers, and sweet and sour sauce.

Finally add the battered pork. Toss and serve.

A oblong dish full of battered pork thats smothered in a homemade sweet and sour sauce. There are also green pepper and carrots in the sauce.

Freezing Sweet and Sour Pork

This sweet and sour pork recipe freezes very well. I actually made two batches of this expecting to freeze the second batch but my family ate it all.

When making chinese food I purchase tin foil containers with paper lids at the dollar store. Once cooked placed the sweet and sour inside the tin foil. Let cool on the counter then cover with the paper lid and close. Place the tin foil pack into a plastic ziplog bag, and freeze for up to three months.

To reheat let thaw on the counter and then place in the over at 325 until hot. Take the lid off and serve.