Recipe This | Air Fryer Sweet & Sour Chicken Balls (2024)

Air Fryer Sweet & Sour Chicken Balls. How to cook your favourite take out style Chinese sweet and sour chicken balls from frozen in the air fryer. Beautifully crispy, never dry, and perfect for a Chinese fakeaway.

Air Fryer Sweet & Sour Chicken

Do you LOVE Chinese food? I know I do. Me and Chinese food go together like salt goes with pepper or a duck and water.

Though if I eat deep fried sweet and sour chicken balls, I will end up the size of a house.

I remember the first time my mum took me out for a Chinese. It was a classy Chinese restaurant with a massive amount of tables and it never ever seemed to get full.

Because I was a preteen, she did not try to excite me with anything fancy and instead ordered me duck and pancakes, followed by sweet and sour chicken balls with egg fried rice.

I thought it was the most amazing food and from that moment on I was hooked on Chinese food.

When a few months later a Chinese takeout opened a street away from where I lived, it became my favourite takeaway place.

I would have delicious sweet and sour sauce, fries and prawn crackers. It cost less than $2 and OMG I thought it was the business.

Even though I was 11 back then, I still love Chinese food now and have not grown out of my addiction to sweet and sour sauce.

Through adulthood Dominic and I have found some amazing Chinese Buffets, especially across the border in Spain and will eat out at them whenever we are in Spain.

I notice I am not alone with the love for sweet and sour Chinese food and was recently asked how to cook and reheat frozen Chinese sweet and sour chicken balls and here I am today to give you recipe instructions, tips and much more.

Air Fryer Sweet & Sour Chicken Balls

Frozen sweet and sour chicken balls was one of the first things that we cooked in the air fryer.

We loved the idea that you could take your favourite battered sweet and sour chicken balls and cook them with a LOT LESS calories in the air fryer.

The Chinese balls would be a lot less greasy yet taste just as crispy and yummy.

It then became our Christmas Eve tradition for a few years. It was perfect because we could pretend, we were having a Chinese takeout and not have to worry about cooking after spending all of Christmas Eve prepping in the kitchen for our Christmas dinner.

But we hadn’t cooked frozen sweet and sour chicken in the air fryer for some time and got ourselves a big batch to show you how it is done.

These are the 2 boxes of sweet and sour chicken balls that we bought:

Mainly because if you have ever bought Chinese takeout food from the freezer of a supermarket there is always a super small portion.

Not good when you want to quarter fill your air fryer basket with them.

How To Air Fry Sweet & Sour Chicken?

Cooking air fryer sweet and sour chicken balls in air fryer is EASY:

1. Load frozen sweet and sour balls into the air fryer basket.
2. Cook for 8 minutes at a medium heat.
3. Shake the chicken balls and place the sweet and sour sachet in the air fryer too.
4. Cook for a further 4 minutes on a high heat to help make your chicken balls crispier.
5. Serve with your sweet and sour sauce.

Reheat Sweet & Sour Chicken In Air Fryer

If you would like to reheat sweet and sour chicken in the air fryer from your fridge, you can do this too.

Simply cook for 4 minutes at 160c/320f and you will have piping hot sweet and sour chicken again.

Listen To Air Fryer Sweet & Sour Chicken Balls

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Air Fryer Frozen Sweet & Sour Chicken

Our verdict on air fryer frozen sweet and sour chicken is that there is not much difference compared to buying from the Chinese takeaway or loading onto your plate at a Chinese buffet.

I thought the price was a bit high and was probably cheaper to cook for a Chinese, but the taste is very good and you have control over how much you have and what temperature they are served to you at.

You also have the benefit of being able to grab however many you like from the freezer and cook them in small or large batches.

If you love cooking your favourite Chinese food in the air fryer, then give frozen sweet and sour chicken balls a go.

Can’t make it now? Then pin it for later!