Lemon chicken

[grasscarp]

Does anyone have an easy Lemon chicken recipe please? I like this in Chinese restaurants and would like to try making it myself.

[Clanad]

Well... fancy meeting you here grasscarp... While not the easiest Lemon Chicken recipe on the block we do this one often and find that everyone likes it:

4 Whole chicken breasts
1/2 Cup cornstarch
2 Tbs Water
1 Tbs Light soy sauce or oyster sauce
4 Egg yolks (~50g eggs)
Salt to taste
Pepper to taste
6 Green shallots (spring onions), chopped
Oil for deep-frying

Sauce:
150ml Lemon juice
3 1/2 Tbs Cornstarch
1 1/2 Tbs Sherry
3 Tbs Light runny honey
2 1/2 Tbs Light brown sugar
240ml Water
2 Cube chicken stock, crumbled
1 Tsp Ginger, finely grated
Salt to taste

Method:
1. Cut the chicken breasts in strips. Reserve.
2. For the sauce, combine the lemon juice, cornstarch, sherry, honey, sugar, water, chicken stock and ginger together in a saucepan.
3. Stir over low heat until all the sugar has melted. Then let the sauce boil and thicken. Reserve.
4. Beat the egg yolks, soy sauce and two tablespoons water together. Put the cornstarch into a bowl, gradually add the egg mixture and mix well. Salt and pepper to taste.
5. Heat up the oil.
6. Dip the chicken breast strips into the batter.
7. Put a few pieces of chicken into the hot oil and fry until golden. Drain on absorbent paper.
8. Keep warm in a moderate oven (~160�C/325�F) while frying the remaining chicken strips.
9. Arrange the chicken on a serving plate, spoon hot sauce over and sprinkle with the chopped green shallots.
(Add the sauce just before serving, otherwise the crispy batter will soften)
Although I've used this recipe for a long time, we retrieved it from a site called Rosa's Yummies...

[grasscarp]

Well we meet again! Thank you so much Clanad. I will try this tomorrow night.
(By the way, my daughter lives in Chicago and has just had a son, so I am a rather long distance granny now!)

[Clanad]

You have my sympathies! Congratulations on the grandson... it must be difficult not seeing him. (We live in the intermountain west and the blizzard we're experiencing today and tomorrow is heading for Chicago...)

[Nautilus]

note for Brits.........Cornstarch = cornflour

[grasscarp]

Oh dear I will warn her. They seem to have very changeable weather which can go from deep snow to positively warm overnight! I was moaning one day that our temperature in London was down to minus four, and she said they were hoping it would go UP to minus four!
All the best Clanad.

[WhiteBear]

grasscarp,

my dads a chef....the lemon sauce you get is made with White Vinegar, some lemon zest, ginger, lots and lots and lots of sugar and some other herby stuff cant remember ... to thicken the sauce you need corn flour.

[grasscarp]

Thank you Whitebear. Clanads recipe has sugar, honey and sherry (and cornflour and ginger) so sounds as though it is on similar lines. Am road testing it tomorrow!

[grasscarp]

Clanad, the recipe worked out really well, and I will definitely be doing this again. Thank you for taking the time to write it out for me.

[Clanad]

I'm glad you liked it... we've done it for a number of years... I occaisonally add a splash or two of sesame oil and some of our friends make the dish using about a teaspoon, (less than an ounce) of Chinese Chili Oil... just enough to spark the lemon sauce a little...
I always serve it in the winter time with a pot of Hot and Sour Soup, but then I like things spicy...

Bon appetit!