Name: Easy Chinese Lemon Chicken
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Easy Chinese Lemon Chicken

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×Jump to RecipePrint Recipefrom votesThis easy Chinese lemon chicken recipe has an incredibly flavorful crispy batter and is tossed with a perfectly balanced sweet and tangy, sticky lemon sauce. A classic Asian takeout dish you can easily make at home!Table of ContentsLemon chicken is a popular Chinese take dish made with crispy chicken drizzled with a sweet and sour lemon sauce.The Chinese takeout dish is a lot more common in Canada, Hong Kong, Britain, and Australia, but surprisingly, it's not as favored in the United States where orange chicken seems to popular one.For this recipe, I will show you how to make both the chicken filet version and the chicken chunks version. Feel free to switch it to how you like it! (I personally like the chicken chunks way more because its easier to make and there's more crispy batter surface area)If you love crispy deep fried chicken smothered in a sweet and sticky sauce, you definitely should also check out my other favorite dishes, Crispy Beef and Sweet and Sour Pork, but if you're looking for something with a bit more spiciness than Chicken Manchurian and Chilli Chicken might be up your alley.The first way to make Asian lemon chicken uses chicken breast (or boneless chicken thighs). You cut chicken into filets, deep fry it and cut them into smaller pieces. To serve it you can either dip the pieces in the lemon sauce or you can pour the lemon sauce on top.To filet the chicken breast, you will need to 'butterfly' it. This is just a fancy word to slice a piece of meat side ways with a knife because it ends up looking like a butterfly.To start, you put your hand snuggly on top of the chicken breast and hold it down. Then take the knife and place it about ½ down from the top side ways and cut side ways carefully.Cut the chicken about ½ or ⅓ way (like the photo) and then take the flap and fold it out open.From there you gently continue to slice the chicken in the same direction but it will be easier to see as you move the knife along because the flap will keep opening as you gently pull it. Do this until you reach the end.This method makes about 3 filets slices per breast.The second way is to cut the chicken into small bite sized pieces like Sweet and Sour Chicken, and then toss the deep fried nuggets with the sauce and serve.To prepare the chicken chunks, you simply cut them into small chunks. I like to cut them into irregular rectangle shapes, but you can cut the into 1 inch cubes as well.There is no right or wrong way, and the major difference is just how the chicken is initially cut.Whenever I make any type of crispy takeout foods that's coated in a sticky sauce, like sweet and sour pork, crispy beef, sweet and sour chicken and chilli chicken, I always use starch as its batter.Starch makes a crunchier and harder batter than can withstand the sauces better and makes the final dish less soggy.I personally use both cornstarch or potato starch for these types of recipes but potato starch is a lot more trickier to use because when heat is applied to it, it becomes gummy and sticky and if you have too many pieces close together they can potentially stick together, so you need to make sure you are only adding a few pieces at a time.Its because of this, I highly recommend cornstarch instead.Coat the marinated chicken with half the starch and let it sit until the starch absorbs the flavorful marinade. The starch will become thick and gummy.Put the other half of the starch on a plate and dunk each piece of chicken into the starch to create a white coating.To get the crispiest chicken batter, I use a Korean cooking technique called double frying. First you need to deep fry your chicken until it is fully cooked (about 3-4 minutes). Once the chicken is fully cooked, remove it from the oil and set it aside. At the very end when all your chicken has finished deep frying, add it back into the oil and fry it again for 30 seconds.To get that strong lemon flavor, lemon zest is a must. The rind is where all the lemon oils are, and its also where all that strong flavor comes from.The most common way to zest a lemon is to use a micro planer but if you don't have one, you can also use vegetable peeler as well.To use a vegetable peeler, you just need to gently and carefully peel the outer layer of the lemon. Make sure you are not pressing too hard, because you don't want to get the whites of the peel (the pith) which is actually very bitter. I like to slowly wiggle the vegetable peeler through the skin.Once you have enough, you can take a knife and finely chop it.To prepare the chicken, you can filet a boneless chicken breast, or cut the chicken into chicken chunks. Refer to the guide above on how to filet a chicken breast.Chop the garlic, and onion and blitz it in a food processor.If you don't have a food processor, you can grate or finely chop them instead.Add half the corn starch to the bowl of marinated chicken directly and mix it until everything is well coated with the marinade.Then using another plate, add rest of the corn starch and dredge the chicken pieces in cornstarch until everything is well coated and set it aside.When you are deep frying, it is crucial that you don't add too many pieces at once because it will drop the temperature of the oil and the batter won't turn out as crispy.Deep fry the chicken in batches and set them aside.Once everything has been deep fried once, wait for the oil to get hot again and add them back in to deep fry again (double fry) for about 30 seconds. This will get the batter extra crispy.Using a micro planer or vegetable peeler, grate some zest and set it aside.Then squeeze the lemons for the juice and set it aside.In a small bowl, mix together the corn starch slurry and set it aside for later.Set a small pot over medium low heat and add the lemon juice, sugar, water, soy sauce and butter into it.Mix it until all the sugar has dissolved.Once the sugar has dissolved, re-mix the corn starch slurry (the starch may have settled at the bottom of the bowl) and slowly pour it into the sauce while you are stirring.Keep stirring until the sauce starts to boil and thicken.Turn off the heat and mix in the lemon zest.If you are using a chicken filet, cut them into thin pieces and spoon the sauce on top and garnish with lemon slices!If you are using crispy chicken chunks, add it directly into the pot with the sauce and mix well until all the chicken pieces have been coated with the sauce.Garnish with sesame seeds and green onions and serve!I personally like to keep it simple and enjoy my lemon chicken with a side of plain white rice.That being said, when I have friends over, I will usually serve it with a lot more Chinese dishes to stay on theme, kind of like I am having a Chinese takeout party.For an appetizer, I like to either serve it with something crispy like Crispy Fried Wontons with a Sweet and Sour Sauce or I will serve it with a simple Corn Egg Drop Soup.For a side dish, I will serve it with Beef Chow Fun or Egg Fried Rice, depending on if I feel like serving noodles or rice.More Takeout Recipes &gt;&gt;Where did Chinese lemon chicken originate from? Lemon chicken originates from Hong Kong but is most popular in Canada, Britain and Australia. Why is your Chinese lemon chicken not yellow? Most Chinese lemon chicken recipes that are yellow, have food coloring in it. Since I don't think adding food dyes in our food add anything to it, I don't add it in. Instead, it has a beautiful golden brown color from the soy sauce. What type of oil do you use to deep fry? I like to use canola, vegetable or corn oil to deep fry my foods. I also like to use peanut oil, but it is a very expensive oil compared to canola, vegetable and corn oil and you need to make sure no one has any allergies to peanuts before you use it.If you made this&nbsp;Vietnamese lemongrass chicken recipe, I want to see! Follow&nbsp;Pups with Chopsticks on Instagram, snap a photo, and tag and hashtag it with @pupswithchopsticks and #pupswithchopsticks. I love to know what you are making!Stay connected and follow along on&nbsp;Facebook,&nbsp;Pinterest, and&nbsp;Instagram&nbsp;for all of my latest recipes!PrintPinEmailRatefrom votes*Nutritional information is calculated using online tools and is an estimate*Disclaimer: We are a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon.com and affiliated sites. While I appreciate the support – please try to buy your items locally if possible to support your local shops (chances are they are cheaper locally as well!)I made this chicken dish last night for dinner, it was fantastic. My whole family loved it. It is the best gluten free fried chicken that I have ever had. I also used coconut aminos to make it soy free. Better than take out with no gluten or soy. I will definitely be making this again and again.Thank you so much for sharing the recipe. So yummy!!!ReplyThe chiquen was really crunchy with the double fry method and double flour and not sogyPerfect combination with the garlic Chinese wine and soya sauce sugar and cornflour for the sauceMy husband loved itReplyMy family loves this spicy sesame Lemon Chicken. Most of the time when we go to a specific Chinese restaurant, we must order this Dish. It's so tasty and delicious!! Now, I can easily make one at home with your recipe. Thank you so much.ReplyHi I’m Joyce Lee and Welcome to Pups with Chopsticks! Good eats and cooking is my passion! Join me in my kitchen as I create, test and share traditional and Asian fusion recipes with step-by-step tutorials. Read More…Join my free email list and receive and update whenever there's a new post!

×Jump to RecipePrint Recipefrom votesThis easy Chinese lemon chicken recipe has an incredibly flavorful crispy batter and is tossed with a perfectly balanced sweet and tangy, sticky lemon sauce. A classic Asian takeout dish you can easily make at home!Table of ContentsLemon chicken is a popular Chinese take dish made with crispy chicken drizzled with a sweet and sour lemon sauce.The Chinese takeout dish is a lot more common in Canada, Hong Kong, Britain, and Australia, but surprisingly, it's not as favored in the United States where orange chicken seems to popular one.For this recipe, I...

Easy Chinese Lemon Chicken

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