Sweet and Sour Chicken (Sheet Pan)

Sheet Pan Sweet and Sour Chicken

Chicken dressed in a sweet and tangy sauce with pineapple and veggies, provides a complete meal that is fast, fun, and filling with no side needed. Serve over rice, and enjoy!

Sheet Pan Sweet and Sour Chicken is a simple, yet flavorful sweet and sour chicken recipe that the whole family will love. It tastes like take out! And make a night of it with Fried Crab and Cream Cheese Wontons with Lemon Dipping Sauce and Egg Drop Soup!

Don’t worry if you’ve never made  sweet and sour chicken before. This Chinese sweet and sour recipe is so easy to make that you will become a pro on your first try.

Sheet Pan Sweet and Sour Chicken is the perfect meal for a busy weeknight and you can enjoy leftovers for a fun lunch option. 

We love sheet pan meals over here from a fancier Roasted Halibut Sheet Pan Dinner to something as simple as a Chicken Nugget Sheet Pan Dinner! But this one is one of our favorites.

What Do You Need For Sweet And Sour Sauce?

Sweet and sour sauce is one of my faves.  It’s not hard to make, it’s quick to prepare, and has a delicious tangy flavor that even your kids will like.

The base for a sweet and sour sauce includes ketchup, sugar (brown or white), vinegar, and soy sauce.  Every recipe is a little different with proportions and additional ingredients used, giving each recipe its own personal distinction.

After recipe testing this dozens of times, and getting feedback from family, friends, and the occasional neighbor, I can confidently say this sauce is the best!

I have incorporated a few additional add-ons that really make this sauce sing, like for example pineapple juice and fresh ginger, among some other treasures.   I also use brown sugar opposed to white sugar because I find it provides a richer flavor to the sauce.

What You Need To Make This Sweet And Sour Sauce:

• Ketchup
• Apple Cider Vinegar
• Brown Sugar
• Pineapple Juice
• Soy Sauce
• Minced Garlic
• Fresh Ginger
• Red Pepper Flakes

Boy oh boy are you in for a treat with this sweet and sour sauce.  It has the perfect amount of sweet and sass. You are going to love it!

How To Make Sweet and Sour Chicken:

Want to dress up your basic chicken without spending tons of time in the kitchen?  Enter your new favorite chicken recipe, Sheet Pan Sweet and Sour Chicken.

• Dice Chicken and Bake:  Dice and season chicken with salt and pepper, and bake for 15 minutes and then flip chicken over.
• Make the Sauce: Combine sauce ingredients and mix them together.
• Add Sauce and Ingredients To The Pan:  Add peppers, pineapple, onions to baking sheet, pour sauce on top, stir and combine.
• Bake:  Finish baking the chicken with other ingredients and sauce for 30 minutes.
• Add Sugar Snap Peas:  Add sugar snap peas to the dish.  Stir and let sit for 5 minutes.
• Garnish and Enjoy:  Serve over rice and garnish with green onions.

Super simple, family friendly, tasty treasure that will make dinner easy and fun.

Note:  For more specific directions, see recipe at the end.

Can This Be Made Ahead?

Who doesn’t just love a dish that can be made in a pinch the night of or can be made ahead of time?  

That is one of my favorite combos to a dish, easy to make and can be made ahead of time.  What a low maintenance meal?!  Unfortunately because the chicken is coated, it isn’t the best recipe to reheat. It can get soggy, and lose some of the sauciness. 

BUT…

There are a lot of components that can be done ahead to speed up cooking on the night you want to make this.

1. Pre-dice chicken. You can freeze it already diced up, so you don’t have to do that.
2. All of the vegetables can be pre-cut and frozen, or even purchased frozen.
3. Mix up the sauce ahead of time. It freezes really well too!

So while you  can’t make it and reheat it and  get the same results, you can do a lot of prep-ahead, and still cook it fresh the day you want to serve it.

Can Sweet and Sour Chicken Be Frozen?

If you want to make this sweet and sour chicken recipe way in advance, you can.  This recipe is really is such a flexible friend.

Prep the sweet and sour chicken the night of, a couple days before, or a couple months in advance and throw it in the freezer.  You have options for this dish. 

How To Freeze:

• Prepare all of the components of the recipe, but do not assemble or cook. 
• Place chicken in a quart sized freezer bag. Sauce in another. And peppers, onions and pineapple in another. 
• Transfer all the bags to gallon sized freezer bags. 
• Put in the freezer.
• When ready to make, simply pull out of the freezer and let defrost, then assemble as stated in the recipe.

If you do make the dish  and want to freeze it already cooked, let it cool completely, then transfer to air tight container and store up to 3 months. Reheat in oven to crisp chicken back up.

Note:  I like to freeze in gallon sized freezer bags and put the date it was prepared on the bag, so I know how long it has been in the freezer when I am ready for it.  

Serving Suggestions:

Serve Sheet Pan Sweet and Sour Chicken over rice or noodles.  This dish makes a great stand alone meal or you can further impress family and friends and add a great side and dessert into the mix, providing a real crowd pleasing experience. 

Baked or Fried Shrimp and Veggie Egg Rolls and end the evening with a citrusy treat like Lemon Short Bread Cookies.

Then sit back, enjoy, and get ready for the outpouring of compliments.

Other Ways to Cook Sweet and Sour Chicken:

• Instant Pot Sweet and Sour Chicken with Rice
• Baked Sweet and Sour Chicken
• Easy Sweet and Sour Chicken

Other Dishes To Try:

• Asian Lemon Chicken
• Sheet Pan Beef and Broccoli
• Egg Roll in a Bowl
• Chicken Fried Rice
• Honey Walnut Shrimp

Sheet Pan Sweet and Sour Chicken

Sweet and tangy sauce, over chicken, with tender vegetables and pineapple, make this take-out fake-out a fast family favorite. Tender bites of chicken, and the best sauce! And only one pan, making it quick to make and clean up.

4.75 from 4 votes

Print Pin Rate

Course: Main Course

Cuisine: Asian

Keyword: sheet pan meal, sweet and sour, sweet and sour chicken

Prep Time: 15 minutes minutes

Cook Time: 50 minutes minutes

Total Time: 1 hour hour 5 minutes minutes

Servings: 4

Calories: 477kcal

Author: Rachael

Ingredients

Chicken

• 1 1/2 lbs boneless skinless chicken breasts cut into 1 inch cubes
• 1/3 cup corn starch
• 1/8 teaspoon each: salt & pepper

The Veggies

• 4 bell peppers cut into 1 inch pieces (use a variety of colors, red, green, yellow, and orange)
• 20- ounces pineapple chunks drained
• 1/2 cup red onion cut into 1 inch pieces
• 1 cup sugar snap peas
• chopped green onions for garnish

Sauce

• ½ cup ketchup
• 2 Tablespoons apple cider vinegar
• ¼ cup brown sugar
• ¼ cup pineapple juice
• 2 tablespoons soy sauce
• 1 teaspoon minced garlic
• 1 ½ teaspoons fresh ginger minced, or ¼ teaspoon ground ginger
• 1/4 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes

Instructions

• Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.
• Cut chicken into 1 inch pieces and season with salt and pepper to taste. Add chicken to a large zip lock bag along with 1/3 cup corn starch, seal and shake to coat.
• Place diced chicken, on a cooking sheet, and spray with an olive oil cooking spray.
• Bake for 15 minutes, then flip.
• Meanwhile, combine all sauce ingredients and whisk to combine.
• Add peppers, pineapple, and onions to the baking sheet.
• Pour sauce over the top, and stir to combine.
• Place in oven on middle rack and bake for 30 minutes
• Add sugar snap peas, and stir to combine. Let sit for 5 minutes, to let sauce set up, and snap peas to become tender. Optional: Broil for 3-5 minutes to crisp up veggies and caramelize sauce.
• Garnish with green onions.
• Serve over white rice and enjoy!

Notes

Cooking time can vary depending on how large you dice your chicken. 1 inch pieces is best, but if you make them smaller, shorten time. 

How To Freeze:

• Prepare all of the components of the recipe, but do not assemble or cook. 
• Place chicken in a quart sized freezer bag. Sauce in another. And peppers, onions and pineapple in another. 
• Transfer all the bags to gallon sized freezer bags. 
• Put in the freezer.
• When ready to make, simply pull out of the freezer and let defrost, then assemble as stated in the recipe. 

Nutrition

Calories: 477kcal | Carbohydrates: 67g | Protein: 40g | Fat: 5g | Saturated Fat: 1g | Cholesterol: 109mg | Sodium: 1061mg | Potassium: 1285mg | Fiber: 6g | Sugar: 49g | Vitamin A: 4305IU | Vitamin C: 186mg | Calcium: 71mg | Iron: 3mg

Our recipe card software calculates these nutrition facts based on averages for the above ingredients, different brands, and quality of produce/meats may have different nutritional information, always calculate your own based on the specific products you use in order to achieve accurate macros for this recipe.

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