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I created this lemon chicken recipe earlier this year for a client and have since been making it quite a bit at home. Mr. Rasa Malaysia really likes the taste of the dish: chicken pieces deep-fried to golden brown with a light, refreshing, and addictive lemon sauce. He just can’t enough.
In my cookbook “Easy Chinese Recipes,” there is a similar recipe, but that version is mostly found in Chinese restaurants here in the US. This lemon chicken is a slight variation, which is more homey in my opinion. For the chicken coating, I usually use a basic combination of all-purpose flour and cornstarch. This will make sure that the chicken remains crispy and airy.
The lemon sauce should just lightly coat the chicken pieces so every bite of the chicken is complete with a crunchy texture, with a sweet, aromatic, and tart flavor from the lemon sauce. I also like topping the lemon chicken with some white sesame seeds. They immediately dress up the chicken with a nice presentation.
As with most Chinese recipes, this lemon chicken is just perfect with some warm and fluffy steamed white rice.
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I have to learn this. My children’s favourite.
One of my favorite dishes! Your lemon chicken looks delicious.
Cheers,
Rosa
Making tonight. Thank you!
This looks like a much nicer rendition of the overly sweet battered versions in western restaurants and I may *steal* the basic idea for my own blog sometime :)
A question: The technique of marinating ingredients in cornstarch and egg-white based marinades before deep-frying is called ‘velveting’ in most Chinese cookbooks… without the egg-white, as here, there is another name in Chinese… do you know what it is?
The technique is called “shangjiang” （上浆). I wrote about it in my cookbook. Velveting is the English word for it.
Velveting does not involve deep frying as in deep frying til crispy. A typical velveting process involves rice wine, salt, eggwhite and corn start marination. Then the chicken is poached in moderately hot oil for about 1 minute, they do this to “seal” in the proteins and help the meat stay tender. Many restaurants also use this technique, because meat that are not velveted for takeaways tend to “deteriorate” in texture quite quickly. It also helps to retain the texture when they add it to the overly saucy western chinese food.
Velveting can also be done with water. A chinese take out owner i visited had an open kitchen, he often velveted the chicken in simmering water with a bit of oil.
Personally, I prefer using oil sparingly, and avoid it wherever it’s possible. Which means lightly stir fried, in just enough oil to cook it and also make light cantonese style sauces for the dish.
No need to mask high quality ingredients with a bunch of “wei jing” (as we commonly described msg in mandarin when out traveling in asia).
Hi Bee,
You recipes are all superb. Can you please suggest what we can use instead of Shaoxing wine as we are Muslim & don’t use any alcohol. Thanks
Hi Zeenath, thanks for your sweet note. You can skip it. I will update the recipe as optional. :)
Zeenath A. Rahim
I don’t know if it’s concidered “haram” or not to consume alcohol after it’s cooked. But if alcohol is cooked long enough the alcohol will disappear, and the alcohol flavor will be gone. You could try to cook the rice wine, let it cool down and then use it for marinades etc, if that won’t interfere with your religious beliefs, which are fully respected on my side.
In malaysia, we visited a few “halal” restaurants with chinese items on the menu. I’m pretty sure they omitted everything called alcohol.
Hi Bee,
In your method you say “Coat the marinated chicken with the corn starch and flour mixture.” What is the recipe for this mixture? Thanks.
It’s here: 1/4 cup corn starch plus 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
Hi,
How much oil would you suggest to use for deep frying? Also, do I pour the sauce into the oil after chicken is fried?
Ali, I have updated my method, you can refer to the recipe again.
Love lemon chicken and never thought to make it at home. Ever. I don’t know why. Thanks for this simple and delicious recipe :)
I never thought this was an authentic Chinese recipe. But when I saw this dish on the meny in Chinese restaurants in China and Hong Kong I thought to myself that I have to try and cook it.
This recipe sounds good! Would adding ginger to the recipe spoil it? Just to boost the lemony flavor.
I really like the Shaoxing wine part of the marinade!
Yes, you can add a little grated ginger if you like, just a little bit. :)
Sorry tried but not crispy – Do I have to add water to the cornflour and flour mixture to make into a wet batter or just dry cornflour and flour mixture will do. Thanks
You can add some water to the flour mixture. But usually the chicken should be a little moist so should coat well. To deep fry until crispy, you can double fry t 300 F for a few minutes and then fry second time at 375 F to make it crispy.
The recipe was perfect, I didn’t have any problems and I love the cornstarch and flour mixture. The lemon sauce needs more sweet and a smashed ginger coin added complexity.
I grew up in my familiy’s chinese restaurant and our lemon chicken was similar but I couldn’t remember my dad’s recipe secrets. I only remember he used orange juice with a squeeze of lemon for the sauce.
There isn’t a whole lot of good chinese restaurants in my area – Thanks for a great recipe!
This was really good. I used 8 chicken thighs for my family of 5…you need to double everything…we ended up needing more sauce(according to the husband). Thx for the recipe!
Simply amazing recipe ! No much good Chinese restaurant here where I live in France ,I made this for dinner , feel so happy !! Thanks a lot !