Servings
Font
Back
0.0 from 0 votes

Chinese Lemon Chicken (Better-Than-Takeout)

Chinese lemon chicken is battered crispy chicken breast smothered in delicious sweet and tangy lemon sauce. Move over take-out, we got a better version made at home with crunchy chicken and amazing fresh lemony sauce!

Prep Time
25 mins
Cook Time
25 mins
Servings: 4 servings
Calories: 384 kcal
Course: Main Course , Dinner
Cuisine: Chinese

Ingredients

  • 1 lb chicken breast cut into bite sized cubes
  • ½ cup chicken stock
  • 1 ½ cup plain flour
  • 1 ½ teaspoon vegetable or canola oil
  • 2 tablespoon sugar
  • 1 ½ tablespoon light soy sauce
  • 3 cloves garlic minced
  • 1 teaspoon ginger minced fine
  • 1 whole egg
  • Zest of 1 lemon
  • 3 tablespoon lemon juice
For Marinade:
  • 2 tablespoon light soy sauce
  • 1 tablespoon Chinese Shaoxing I used vinegar
  • salt and pepper to taste
For Garnish:
  • white sesame seeds
  • green onions
  • lemon slices

Instructions

    Cup of Yum
  1. To chicken add light soy sauce, Chinese Shaoxing (I used vinegar), salt to taste and fine ground pepper to taste and 1 whole egg.
  2. Break egg slightly and start mixing all the marinade into chicken.
  3. Cover it and marinade it for 20 to 30 minutes refrigerated or at room temperature.
  4. While chicken marinates, prep the sauces.
  5. Mix chicken stock, light soy sauce, sugar. Mix well to dissolve the sugar. Leave it aside until use.
  6. Zest a lemon. Add it to a bowl Squeeze out 3 tablespoon of lemon juice. Discard any seeds. Mix and keep aside.
  7. Spread plain flour on to a wide plate. Add all marinated chicken into the flour(with the liquids).
  8. Use glove if you prefer. Rub chicken into the flour to ensure it coats evenly.NOTE: I found 1.5 cups of flour just enough for coating all the chicken. If you end with very liquid mix, add extra flour to coat evenly.
  9. Alternatively remove just the chicken pieces from the marinade and add it to flour. This way you won’t need much flour.
  10. Shake off excess flour and leaves coated chicken pieces on a baking tray.
  11. In a deep bottom pan heat vegetable or canola oil for deep frying. When oil is hot, add few pieces of chicken. Fry until golden brown.Pro-Tip: do not crowd the pan. To achieve crunchy chicken with golden brown crust, fry in small batches.
  12. Remove golden brown chicken from oil on to a plate lined with kitchen paper to absorb excess oil.
  13. Repeat this for rest of the chicken.
  14. Arrange golden fried chicken, prepared sauce, lemon juice-zest mix and corn starch and rest of the ingredients near the stove.
  15. Heat cooking oil in a wok. When wok turns very hot add minced ginger and garlic to the oil. Give it a quick stir.
  16. Pour prepared sauce. Stir and let it cook for 2 minutes. Keep stirring.
  17. Then add lemon juice-zest to the wok. Simmer cook for 30 seconds.
  18. Meanwhile mix corn-starch with 1 tablespoon water. Pour it into the wok.
  19. Cook for another 30 seconds or until the sauce thickens.
  20. Add fried chicken pieces and toss to coat evenly.
  21. Transfer to a serving plate. Sprinkle with sesame seeds, green onions and few lemon slices.
  22. Serve hot with rice.NOTE: if serving it with rice you may want to make extra sauce so it soaks up in rice. Double the sauce than mentioned.

Notes

  • Nutritional Info – Please keep in mind that nutritional information provided is only a rough estimate and can vary greatly based on products used.

Nutrition Information

Calories 384kcal (19%) Carbohydrates 46g (15%) Protein 33g (66%) Fat 6g (9%) Saturated Fat 1g (5%) Trans Fat 1g Cholesterol 114mg (38%) Sodium 1071mg (45%) Potassium 574mg (16%) Fiber 1g (4%) Sugar 7g (14%) Vitamin A 95IU (2%) Vitamin C 7mg (8%) Calcium 28mg (3%) Iron 3mg (17%)

Nutrition Facts

Serving: 4servings

Amount Per Serving

Calories 384

% Daily Value*

Calories 384kcal 19%
Carbohydrates 46g 15%
Protein 33g 66%
Fat 6g 9%
Saturated Fat 1g 5%
Trans Fat 1g 50%
Cholesterol 114mg 38%
Sodium 1071mg 45%
Potassium 574mg 12%
Fiber 1g 4%
Sugar 7g 14%
Vitamin A 95IU 2%
Vitamin C 7mg 8%
Calcium 28mg 3%
Iron 3mg 17%

* Percent Daily Values are based on a 2,000 calorie diet.