Lemon Chicken [Recipe]

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Here’s a recipe requested by a friend! Lemon chicken is quite a popular dish at most Chinese dai chows restaurants. 

In our view, a good lemon chicken dish should have lovely crispy fried chicken in thick, tangy lemon sauce. The chicken must not be soggy and the sauce must have a good balance of sweet and sour.

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We followed Chef John Zhang’s recipe from Taste (see video here) and made some adjustments of our own. We loved that he added julienned lemon rind to the sauce, and used the back of the knife to tenderise the chicken.

We also used mirin and sake as an alternative to Shaoxing wine, as they give the dish a ‘lighter’ touch. 

KEY TIPS: 
* The lemon rind adds a nice touch to the dish, but feel free to skip this step if you don’t have time. 
* We loved the idea of tenderising the meat with the back of the knife. Our breast meat was tender and cooked evenly. 
* The sauce should be thick enough to cover and coat each piece of chicken. Adjust with water if it is too thick. Also, adjust your sauce so it has the perfect balance of tangy and sweet. The sauce should complement the salty batter for the chicken. 
* We used all-purpose flour for our batter. Alternatively, you can mix 1:1 ratio of all-purpose flour and cornstarch, sifted. 

(Check out our Instagram stories for detailed step-by-step process with videos here).

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