Sweet and Sour Chicken

I took today off work because I have a cough and am generally having difficulty breathing. This spring I had a similar cough that lasted for about three weeks, and my doctor in Phoenix put me on two different inhalers. I was supposed to follow up with him a month later, but by that point I was well into the process of moving here and I had a lot going on a work that I couldn't miss. Besides, I had gotten better, so what was there to follow up on?

Now, the cough is back. It, however, may be an entirely different cough. One of my colleagues at work is just getting over whooping cough and has been contagious for the last couple of weeks. Do I think I now have whooping cough? No. But maybe. It takes one to three weeks before you start showing symptoms (it has been two weeks since I was first exposed) and starts out as a regular old cough (which I'd say I had yesterday) that then turns into a cold (which I may be getting now) characterized by a prolonged dry cough (which I definitely have). Either way, I need to go to the doctor, if only to get another one of those magical inhalers.

So today I am at home. Thankfully besides the wheezing (and the slightly runny nose that I am hoping is simply a byproduct of the change in weather) I physically feel otherwise okay--not achy or anything--so I will try to be productive today and get some cleaning done or something. I'll also hopefully get in at the doctor's office, but I won't know until 9:30 when the office opens.

In the meantime, I thought I would share with you this tasty recipe I tried out the other day:

3-5 chicken breasts

salt and pepper

1/2 c. - 1 c. cornstarch (depending on quantity of chicken)

2 eggs, beaten

1/3 c. canola oil

3/4 c. sugar

4 Tbsp. ketchup

1/2 c. white distilled vinegar

1 Tbsp. soy sauce

1 tsp. garlic salt

Rinse your chicken and cut into 1" cubes. Coat chicken pieces thoroughly in cornstarch before dipping them into your beaten eggs. Place your canola oil in a large skillet or frying pan and heat. Cook your chicken pieces until they are golden brown, like so:

Mix the remaining ingredients together and mix well, forming a sauce. Place your chicken in a 9x9 or 9x13 baking dish and cover pieces thoroughly in your sauce. (I might even consider adding a tiny bit of cornstarch or something to thicken the sauce as it bakes in the oven later, as my sauce didn't thicken like I would have liked it to while it was baking).

Bake at 350 F for 15 minutes. Turn the pieces, coating them again in the sauce, and bake for another 15 minutes. Then enjoy!

What I liked about this chicken is that it is baked rather than deep fried, and I get to control the quality of the chicken. I hope to experiment with some other, more complex sauce recipes that I found for this chicken, but in the meantime this is an easy go-to recipe that doesn't require ingredients you wouldn't already have on hand.