Wok-Fried Sweet & Sour Pork

This is the sweet and sour pork your local Chinese takeout has been making since the 1970s, minus the cardboard container. Cubed pork gets coated in an egg yolk batter and deep-fried in hot peanut oil until golden and crunchy, then tossed with pineapple, green pepper, and the classic red sweet-sour glaze at the very end.

A kitchen thermometer matters here. The oil needs to hold at 340°F (170°C) for the pork to fry crisp without absorbing grease. Too cool and the batter gets soggy; too hot and the outside burns while the inside stays raw. Wok thermometers are notoriously unreliable, so a clip-on candy thermometer is a better investment.

The sauce is pre-mixed cold. Water, cornstarch, ketchup, soy sauce, sugar, white wine vinegar, and optional hot sauce whisk together and wait until the last 90 seconds of stir-frying. Added to the hot pan, it thickens and glazes the pork instantly, coating rather than drenching.

Serve over steamed jasmine or glutinous rice to catch every drop.

Pro Tips

• Drain batter-coated pork before frying so excess coating doesn’t drop into the oil and burn.
• Fry in small batches to keep oil temperature steady.
• Add pineapple only at the end; long cooking makes it mushy and dulls the color.
• Clean the wok between steps (as the recipe says); burnt bits in old oil muddy the sauce.

Variations

• Swap chicken, shrimp, or firm tofu for pork.
• Add sliced onion and carrot to the vegetables for extra color.
• Use rice wine vinegar instead of white wine vinegar for a rounder acid profile.