This airy fried chicken in a sweet lemon sauce is clearly, as Joie Warner relates in her in Taste of Chinatown, "The World's Best Lemon Chicken." She's from Toronto, I think, - the world's largest Chinatown outside Asia - and did a huge amount of work to get this recipe even close to being made. The cooking doesn't take long, but there are something you should know before you start.
Before you Start
Make sure you have a lemon zester and a juicer - or a way to get fresh lemon juice. Lemon zest intensifies the lemon flavor without the acidity.
Do this - its worth the effort. There is no disputing that this is the worlds finest lemon chicken,
The good news: the prep for this dish is easy if you have all the ingredients at the ready, and, the chicken will cook in about 15 minutes and the sauce in 5
The bad news: the prep for this dish is significant - maybe an hour or two (especially if you fresh squeeze your pineapple like I do sometimes
This dish is demanding in the Chinses cuisine way - you must patiently work with ingredients to get ready
The chicken needs to be marinated overnight so plan accordingly
Use planning and marinating time to marshal all the ingredients
Also remember to account for your burners - because you will also need rice and a vegetable, 4 burners will be full, so plan in advance how your pots and pans will fit
1. prepare chicken
- get: 1 and 1/2 lbs chicken breast and cut it into 1 in cubes
- make marinade:
2 T water
1/2 t sugar
1/2 t potato or cornstarch
1/2 t soy sauce
1/2 t sherry
1/4 t sesame oil (or peanut for allergies)
- add to chicken and marinate overnight in a Ziploc or non-reactive bowl
2. assemble liquid ingredients
- assemble savory sauce base ingredients:
zest 2 lemons and keep separate
mash 2 cloves of garlic (on a small cutting board)
mince 2 t fresh ginger (can be saved on the same cutting board)
1 - 2 t hot bean sauce or more
1 - 2 t finely chopped fermented black beans
1 t vegetable oil
- make sweet sauce. Combine:
3/4 c fresh or unsweetened pineapple juice (trim pineapple, hand crush and strain)
1/2 c fresh lemon juice (hand juice and strain)
3 T sugar plus or minus
1/2 t sesame oil (or peanut for allergies)
add the lemon juice and sugar to 1/2 c pineapple juice, a little at a time, adjusting for taste for sweet and tart
whisk in the oil when done when satisfied with the flavor
- make thickener. combine:
2 t potato or corn starch
4 t water
- make batter:
1 c flour (or gluten free substitute)
1/4 c potato or corn starch
2 t baking powder
1 t baking soda
1/2 t salt
1 c water added a little at a time and stir it in to reach the right consistency (use significantly less water for gluten-free flour)
1 T vegetable oil
3. prepare the dish
- to fry the chicken:
heat 2 c oil in an iron skillet
add chicken on piece at a time and brown each side till golden
drain in a bowl lined with paper towels
work in batches till done
- to make the sauce:
get the savory sauce base ingredients ready
heat the oil, add the lemon zest for 30 seconds and remove half
then add the garlic and ginger till fragrant
add 1 t hot bean sauce and 1 t fermented black beans
stir in the sweet sauce, taste for heat depth and add more hot bean sauce as necessary
if the sauce needs more lemon but doesn't need more sugar, add back in more cooked lemon zest
if there's too much lemon/acid, add more sugar and/or pineapple juice
add more black beans as necessary for visuals
stir the thickener in its container and then pour and stir it in
bring to the boil
add more thickener as necessary
-to prepare garnish:
zest some long strips from a third lemon and toast the in a toaster oven
cut some decorative lemon slices or wedges for garnish that have the outer skin intact
4. Serve
- plate
some sticky white rice on half the plate
plate some chicken on the other half
drizzle sauce over the chicken
garnish with zest and/or lemon
- serve
if your guests don't spend much time in Chinatowns, consider recommending this dish as its a nice introduction to Chinese food if they don't know how to learn it
Footnote: This is a great dish. I have adjusted the ingredients enough where this recipe probably belongs to me, especially the gluten-free version, but this would not have been possible without the due diligence and hard work by Joie in her book in order to reproduce this classic. Hats off to Joie.