My church has a tutoring program that they hold every Thursday nights. Teenage kids from the area come in, eat dinner and receive help with their school work from volunteers. I've been out of school a bit too long now to be much good with tutoring (especially when it comes to math, yikes!), but I have no problem cooking meals. So when I was recently asked to help out with the dinners, I thought about it for half and second, and happily agreed.
One of the fun parts about making dinners for tutoring is that it presents some fun challenges. How to make a healthy, delicious meal for a crowd, on a budget. Filet Mignon and Lobster night are definitely out, but I think it's going to be a lot of fun coming up with good dinners at low cost.
Last week I lucked out seeing as I had just made this meal the Sunday before, and had a ton of leftover ingredients. My mom used to make this for us, and it was one of my favorite dishes. The chicken is lightly breaded and bakes in a sweet and tangy sweet and sour sauce that is insanely easy to make, with ingredients you probably already have. It's also very versatile, you can forget the breading if you want a lighter version. You can also use whatever cut of chicken you like, and rather then baking it, you can throw it in your crockpot for a hands-off dinner. I love eating the chicken, but my very favorite part is pouring the sauce over the rice and scooping it into my mouth, so yummy! Nothing like a meal that takes you home!
Sweet and Sour Chicken
Courtesy of my Awesome Mom!
Ingredients
1 lb of chicken (cut of your choice, but I do recommend boneless)
2 eggs
1 cup flour
1 tablespoon seasoned salt
olive oil for cooking
SAUCE:
3 tablespoons ketchup
2 tablespoons soy sauce
1/2 cup sugar
1/4 cup vinegar (just white distilled vinegar)
1/4 cup pineapple juice
Directions
1. Beat eggs and place in pie pan or bowl. Combine flour and seasoned salt and also place in bowl or pie pan. Dip chicken in beaten egg, roll in flour mixture. Brown in olive oil, about three minutes on each side, chicken does not have to be cooked through. Place in casserole dish, or crockpot.
2. Whisk together sauce ingredients. Pour over chicken and either bake at 350 for 45 minutes, or cook on low for 7 hours, until chicken is cooked through. Serve with rice.
What is your favorite meal to feed a crowd? Any tips for cooking on a budget?
28 comments:
I like making veggie lasagne or chili as far as budget and crowd friendly meals are concerned! Your dish looks great!
Sweet and sour chicken sounds so good to me right now that I could eat a whole pot of it by myself. I am starving and now after seeing this my stomach is GROWLING, smiles.
What a terrific terrific idea for volunteers to tutor kids. I can't tell you how impressed I am with such a program. Kudos to all who participate and contribute!!
Cooking for a crowd to me means pasta dishes or beans and hot dogs or chili or soups, like church supper fare. I love meatloaf, and individual meatloaves, baked in muffin cups, are fun and delicious.
Hmmmm..let me think on this. I so adore a challenge like this.
Hugs to you for participating in fabulous program.
crock pot crock pot crock pot, you make a ton and either use it for two immediate meals or make enough to freeze the extra.
this sounds divine!
Sweet and Sour chicken is a favorite of mine:) Sloppy Joes-we make them alot for our church meals we usually feed about 300 people-its cheap and delicious:)
In case you are interested we are doing a CSN stores sponsored giveaway on our blog:)
Mmmm...I love sweet and sour dishes. Hand me a bowl of rice with that and I'll be happy :) That's great you're volunteering, I used to do that quite a bit at my church when I had a little more time on my hands. Hopefully I can volunteer again when things simmer down. :)
This sounds delicious. You can't beat recipes from Mom!
cooking on a budget requires building meals around the foods on sale (i love it when chuck beef is cheaper than ground beef! LOL). One of my favorite crowd dishes is shepherds pie!
your dish looks wonderful!!
Your description makes it sound so delicious! Love that you can cook it in the crockpot. What a sweet thing your doing for those kids - I bet they love your food!
You are SO adorable for taking part in this! How fun!
Lasagnas and baked ziti (stuffed with spinach or chard or kale or some other green) are my go-tos for serving large crowds. Everyone loves baked pasta after all! But I'm pretty sure everyone would love this as well...sweet and sour...and delicious.
Hmmm, pasta usually can be stretched and ground beef is pretty inexpensive. Also, if you can add a small salad and bread which would help with the filling of bellies. That's terrific that you guys do this. Good luck with your dinner!
~ingrid
I would make a huge basmati rice dish with some chicken kebabs and a huge fattoush salad; hummus too of course.
Are you sure that's baked! It looks nice and crispy, the way only the lovely deep-fried chicken can be! Oh that looks great and almost makes me wanna run out for Chinese take-out! Though it defeats the point of this awesome recipe, of course. ;-)
What a great program! My idea of feeding a crowd is ordering a pizza, so I'm no help :)
Super idea for your church to tutor kids....and feed them!
Really like your sweet and sour chicken recipe!
When I'm asked to cook for a crowd I usually go the lasagna route or more often, chicken or turkey tetrazini.
Looks and sounds absolutely wonderful. Love the flavors, and so simple to make!!
That is so wonderful that you're making meals for the tutoring sessions. This first one looks like a HUGE hit. Healthy homemade "takeout". Love it. Hooray for your mama- happy mother's day (almost)
So sweet of you to volunteer to make dinners! The sweet and sour chicken looks great and is even better because it brings back good memories!
I like Katy's idea of making meatloaf, which was also one of my first thoughts. I think any kind of casserole would be good too!
I love anything sweet and sour!
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I bet everyone loved this chicken. It looks and sounds great.
What a lovely recipe. It looks and sounds delicious and demands to be tried. I will! I Will! I hope you are having a wonderful day. Blessings...Mary
This sounds delicious! Way to go!
The way you wrote about this dish has my mouth watering! Great way to get teenagers to try other things besides nachos and pizza!
Chicken is eaten so often in my home. Your recipe looks so yummy!
It's great that you volunteer in the tutoring program. Your dinner guests had a delicious meal on Thursday.
Growing-up I loved sweet n'sour chicken. This was a great idea to serve up to teenagers, made even better because it was your awesome mom's recipe.
This does sound good! And I agree, there is nothing like cooking on a budget. Its amazing what can be done!
That calling is perfect for you, you're gonna have a blast being creative & cooking up a storm every week! Love it! This looks so good. I'm def gonna bookmark this one!!! YUM!
When my daughter was younger, I used to always bring baked potatoes to pot lucks. I could usually buy a 10 pound bag for under $2. I would bake them right before going, then wrap each individually in foil and put them in a basket with a small tub of butter and a package of bacon bits - it was always a hit!
Love your sweet and sour chicken!
Wow, that looks ridiculously easy and delicious. Moms know best that's for sure.
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