Thursday, May 08, 2008

Lemon Chicken

Carlos and I are not a fan of Chinese take-out as we find their food tasted bland, loaded with MSG and too oily. Since moving to PA we can’t find a good decent Chinese restaurant around our area. So if we want good Chinese food I will normally cook it myself or we drive all the way to Delaware for it.

I was invited by Rita of Mochachocolata to take part in her first virtual party to celebrate her 88th post at her blog. She wanted us to prepare a dish that resembles a Chinese take out. I actually had to crack my head to think of what to cook so I went through my kitchen drawers to see if I have a take-out menu there. Lucky I found one and look through it and decided to cook this dish.

Ingredients :
3 pcs of chicken breast - pound thinly
1 tbsp of soy sauce
1 tbsp of cooking wine
1/2 tsp of salt
1/2 tsp pepper
2 egg white
5 tbsp of cornstarch

Sauce (combined)

Juice of 2 lemons
3/4 cup of chicken broth
1 tsp of corn starch
3 tbsp of honey or sugar (more if you like it sweeter)
Salt and pepper to taste

1 clove of garlic - chopped
some lemon slices

1. Marinate chicken with the cooking wine, soy sauce, salt and pepper and let it marinate for 15 minutes
2. In small bowl, beat eggs and mix in cornstarch to form smooth batter (if it is too day add a bit of water). In wok or large skillet, heat up some oil.
3. Coat chicken with batter; fry until brown. Drain the oil on paper towel. Remove oil and leave about 1 tablespoon of oil in the wok.
4. Add in garlic and stir fry until lightly brown. Add in the sauce and bring to boil. Add in the lemon slices. Cook until sauce thicken. Check seasonings and see if the sweetness is to your likings. Turn off the heat.
5. Slice chicken and pour the lemon sauce over chicken. Serve immediately.

Rita, thank you for inviting me to your Chinese Take-out Party and hope you like the dish I prepared. For those of you who are interested in participate do check out her blog. Closing date is on the 12th of May.

Note : You can add in more honey or sugar if you want a sweeter sauce.

23 comments:

Little Corner of Mine said...

Wow, so yummy looking and I totally love your presentation!

p/s I posted the pie crust recipe for you. :)

Unknown said...

hi gertrude...wowww i used to eat a lottt of this when i was in australia (food court in chinatown hehe), it used to be AUD4.99 per set...i bet now the price has skyrocketed!

and i always wanted to know how to make this at home! coollll!!! thanks for bringing this to the party! party onn!!!

Zue Murphy said...

Gert, What is it in that last picture? A napkin? It looks pretty.

Beachlover said...

Gert,nice presentation with chinese take out box too:)sudah lama tak makan lemon chicken,mesti sedap home cook one!!

SIG said...

I love that lemon honey chicken. Delicious!

Cat Cat said...

Wah, ada virtual party pulak ya Gert... Great idea.. But I'm so lousy in cooking.. takut nak join lah... nanti malu aje.

Mulan said...

drooling.. drooling.. wanna try the honey lemon chicken, also the siew mai, also the nonya chicken.. must try all lah..!! thanx for sharing..

Kiersten said...

Wow this is a beautiful dish! The pilot's favourite too! I will definitely give this a try. Thanks for the recipe. :)

Aiyah Nonya said...

Now I know what to prepare this evening. Thaks for the recipe. :)

tigerfish said...

When I go to a Chinese take-out in the US, this is something I will pile up in my box! I'm guilty of Chinese take-out! Woops :(

Unknown said...

that looks so yummy.. thanks for the recipe.

Yatie_T said...

Lemon chicken here doesn't look as good as yours. Yours look like Chicken Francese. Thanks for sharing the recipe.

ICook4Fun said...

LCOM, thanks for the recipe :)

Rita, I think is cheaper to cook this yourself :)

Zue,that is a tableset that will be given away in the Lucky draw by the blog owner.

Lesley, memang sedap. Try lah this dish and I am pretty sure Elliot will like it.

Singairishgirl, you too like lemon chicken :)

Cat, don't worry just join in the fun. This is not a contest to see who make the best dish :)

Mulan, you are most welcome :)

Pinky, make sure you remember to take some picture before digging in :)

Nonya, hope your family enjoy this dish.

Tigerfish, you are busy with work so it is normal to have take-out once a while :)

Mindy, thanks for stopping by. Hope to see more of you here :)

Yatie, you are welcome :)

Big Boys Oven said...

Honey! I like this chicken! lol!

ranji said...

oh wow!!this is sooooo yummy..perfect entry!!!my 1st time here...love ur collection of recipes...will come back for more:)

Anonymous said...

This looks fantastic-my mouth is watering!

ICook4Fun said...

BBO, glad you like it :)

Ranji, thanks for you comment. Will go over to your blog later :)

Rebecca, thank you and thanks for your e.mail.

test it comm said...

This sounds really good. I like the honey and lemon combo.

Anonymous said...

Wo0ow!!! This is mhy favorite Chinese dish and I've been spending some money just to eat it! So I decided to look around for recipes and I think I'll try this one later.. Thank you so0o much for sharing!

Kajal@aapplemint said...

we are'nt very fond of takeouts too,
like your recipe for honey lemon chicken, its such a wonderful dish.

Christelle said...

I used to be a moderate fan of lemon chicken (in a good restaurants in Manchester):
I liked the taste, but it was too sweet and too artificially thickened until I went to Hong Kong and had the dish in a street restaurant in temple street.
What a revelation!
However, it inspired me to cook it at home, it was good, better than the restaurant version, but not quite like the one i'd tasted in Hong Kong. So your recipe is high on the list of the dishes I must cook soon!
What a pity we only have 3 meals a day only!!

Chun Har said...

I tried with juice of 2 full lemons but it turned out way too sour. Did I get it wrong that it should be wedges instead or??

Wordsmith said...

Hi, I am a longtime admirer of your food blog and I have just posted your recipe in my own new blog. Please have a look and thanks so much for your fantastic recipe :)

http://aiyobaby.blogspot.com/2012/08/lemon-chicken.html