This is my Chinese lemon chicken recipe. You can substitute the lemon sauce for orange sauce to make an orange flavoured chicken if you wish. I personally prefer the tanginess and bitterness of the lemon but I can tell you that both are really good.
Lemon chicken is another one of my favourite Chinese takeaway dishes. I’m not sure how you could classify this dish as authentic Chinese but it actually goes really well with fried rice. Heres a link to my own versatile and easy fried rice dish.
Chinese lemon chicken is really easy to make and taste delicious. I got this recipe from a friend of mine who runs his own Chinese takeaway and this dish sells really well!
Ingredients:
- Chicken Breasts – 1 per person is the normal portion size. Try to get free range too if you can
- 500ml of Robinson’s Lemon Juice (You can use Orange Juice if you want to make Orange Chicken)
- 2 Tablespoons of Corn Flour
- 100 grams of flour
- Salt and Pepper for Seasoning
For the batter, you will need:
- Salt and Pepper
- 250 grams of plain flour
- 250 ml of water/beer or ale
- 1 tablespoon of baking powder
Method:
- Turn on your deep fat fryer
- Make up your batter first
- Add the flour, liquid and baking powder into a blender and mix until smooth
- Cover and leave the mixture in the fridge for at least 30 minutes
- For my beer batter recipe, please see here.
- Butterfly the chicken breast.
- Lay the chicken flat on a chopping board
- With a knife, make an incision along the side of the breast and cut until you nearly reach the other side but don’t go through
- Open up the meet so as to resemble a butterfly
- Doing this helps the chicken cook faster in the deep fat fryer
- Season the chicken with salt and pepper
- Add the flour in a bowl and cover each side of the chicken
- Place the chicken into the batter recipe and make sure it is completely covered
- Carefully put the chicken into the deep fat fryer and fry until golden brown
- Once ready, remove and set aside
- Put the lemon juice into a pan and bring to the boil
- Add a little water to the corn starch and mix until all lumps are removed
- Add the corn starch mixture to the lemon juice and thicken
- If you want to thicken it more, just make more of the corn starch mixture and add to the lemon juice
- Place the chicken onto a place and cover with the lemon sauce
- Enjoy your Chinese lemon chicken!