Crispy Chicken Recipe Sandwich Wings Costoletta Salad Burger Chinese Crispers Chili's Strips Photos: Crispy Lemon Chicken Recipe Crispy Chicken Recipe Sandwich Wings Costoletta Salad Burger Chinese Crispers Chili's Strips Photos

Wednesday 18 February 2015

Crispy Lemon Chicken Recipe Crispy Chicken Recipe Sandwich Wings Costoletta Salad Burger Chinese Crispers Chili's Strips Photos

Crispy Lemon Chicken Recipe Biography

source (google.com.pk)

Lemon chicken is quite a common dish in Chinese restaurants in India and it’s always been one of my favorites. Although, I have seen the dish featured here in some Chinese places, it’s not as common and popular as its sister dish, Orange Chicken. I personally prefer it to orange chicken though, cos where orange chicken is just sweet, the tanginess of the lemon in this dish cuts the sweetness and gives the flavors more dimension. It’s tart, tangy, crispy, sweet and addictive.

PTR Lemon Chicken (Chinese Style)
I think this dish makes a great appetizer, although it’s mostly known as a main dish. For an appetizer I prefer making it a little drier, but if you’re making it as a main dish served with rice or veggies, I would suggest adding a little more chicken stock to the sauce to cut the tartness a touch and add all the sauce to the chicken.

PTR Lemon Chicken (Chinese Style) close-up
It’s a super easy recipe and one you can make ahead, as long as you don’t mix the sauce in till you’re ready to eat. Here’s the step-by-step picture recipe…

Ingredients
    2 large chicken breasts
    1 egg
    2 tbsp Soy Sauce
    2 tbsp Sherry (or Shaoxing Wine)
    1 tsp sesame oil
    2 lemons (zest + Juice)
    3/4 cup corn starch + 1/2 tbsp dissolved in a little water
    1/2 cup chicken stock
    1/3 cup sugar
    Salt as per taste
    vegetable oil for frying

Instructions
    – Crack one egg into a medium mixing bowl and add the soy sauce, sherry/shaoxing wine, sesame oil and the zest of one lemon to it. Mix it all well together. This is the marinade for the chicken.
    – Slice the chicken breast into strips and add it to the marinade and let it sit covered in the fridge for 20-30 minutes atleast or a couple hours.
    – Then, in a shallow bowl add the corn starch and season it generously with salt.
    – Dip each strip of the marinated chicken in the corn starch to coat it on all sides and lay them on a baking sheet lined with wax paper, ready to fry.
    – While you’re coating the chicken, get a pan on stove and heat up about 1/2 an inch of oil on medium-high.
    – When the oil is hot, fry the coated chicken strips in small batches for about 4-6 minutes, until it turns a light golden and the chicken is cooked through inside.
    – Remove the chicken with a slotted spoon and drain on paper towels. Break a big piece to check if the inside is cooked.Go ahead, give it a taste.
    – For the sauce, zest the other lemon into a sauce pan. Add to it, half a cup of lemon juice (roughly the juice of 2 lemons), 1/2 a cup of chicken stock and a 1/3 of a cup of sugar.
    – Put the pan on medium-high heat and bring the sauce to a boil while stirring to dissolve the sugar.
    – When the sauce starts bubbling, add the corn starch slurry (1/2 tbsp corn starch + 1 tbsp water) while stirring continuously.
    – The sauce will thicken fast and turn glossy. Turn off the heat and season it with salt.
    – Give it a taste-test by dipping a piece of the fried chicken in it. Good huh?
    – When you’re ready to eat…simply add the chicken to a frying pan and slowly spoon in some of the sauce. Toss the chicken to coat it in the sauce. Add as much sauce or all of it if you like.
    – Garnish the Lemon chicken with toasted sesame seeds and some sliced green onion. You can serve this dish up as an appetizer and keep it dry or sauce it up and serve over plain steamed rice.

I created this lemon chicken recipe earlier this year for a client and have since been making it quite a bit at home. Mr. Rasa Malaysia really likes the taste of the dish: chicken pieces deep-fried to golden brown with a light, refreshing, and addictive lemon sauce. He just can’t enough.\

In my cookbook “Easy Chinese Recipes,” there is a similar recipe, but that version is mostly found in Chinese restaurants here in the US. This lemon chicken is a slight variation, which is more homey in my opinion. For the chicken coating, I usually use a basic combination of all-purpose flour and cornstarch. This will make sure that the chicken remains crispy and airy.

The lemon sauce should just lightly coat the chicken pieces so every bite of the chicken is complete with a crunchy texture, with a sweet, aromatic, and tart flavor from the lemon sauce. I also like topping the lemon chicken with some white sesame seeds. They immediately dress up the chicken with a nice presentation.

As with most Chinese recipes, this lemon chicken is just perfect with some warm and fluffy steamed white rice.