posted by Fruffy 09-21-101 6:00 AM
Chinese Lemon Chicken
Cookin' Dad's recipes
4 to 6 whole breast halves (skin included)
1 cup water
1/2 cup low sodium chicken broth
1/4 freshly squeezed lemon juice
1/4 cup plus 2 tbsp. sugar
4 tsp. ginger, finely grated (the finer the better)
1/2 tsp. Salt
Ingredients used to fry chicken:
cornstarch
oil
eggs
Mix sauce ingredients (everything except cornstarch, oil and eggs) at least several hours before making this dish to allow flavors to mix. Rub some salt (to taste--between 1/4 and 1/2 tsp. per breast) on the breasts so that the thicker meat on breasts will have a good flavor. If you don’t do this, you will have a tasty sauce and the meat on the surface of chicken will taste good, but inner part will be very bland. Chicken should be salted at least 12 hours, preferably 24 hrs. in advance to allow maximum penetration of flavors.
Place a good amount of shortening or a combination of shortening and liquid vegetable oil in wok or deep fryer. Wait until you have breaded your chicken before heating shortening. Next, beat two eggs with about 1 1/2 cups water. After that, add about 2 tbsp. veg. oil to mixture and beat lightly.
You are now ready to bread chicken breasts with cornstarch. Dip each breast in cornstarch making sure it is thoroughly covered. Lightly shake off excess cornstarch and dip in egg mixture. Allow breasts to drip excess liquid before redipping in cornstarch mixture. This time, you want a good coating, similar to that of crispy beef--solid coating , but not too thick. Set aside breaded breasts and heat oil.
Oil should be heated to 360 degrees. You do not have to be exact, but oil should be good and hot, but not so hot that the batter on chicken will have a burned off-flavor from excess temp. during frying cycle. Depending on the size of your fryer or wok, I would probably fry 2--definitely no more than 3 breasts at a time. To fry more than that would risk excess oil penetration because of a slowed oil temp. recovery. Fry breasts for about 12 min., or slightly longer if you are frying very large breasts. If you discover that breasts are browning too quickly during fry cycle, you can turn flame down after breasts have fried for about six minutes. By that time, there should be a good crispy shell to protect chicken from oil penetration.
Shortly after you have started frying chicken, heat up sauce and allow to simmer for a minute or so before adding about 1 1/2 tbsp. (approximation) cornstarch mixed with water. Once sauce thickens, add about 2 tbsp. Hot oil and mix well. Remove sauce from fire and set aside.
When fried chicken breasts are done, allow them to set for about 2 min. to ensure meat closest to bone is fully cooked. Next chop each chicken breast into about 3-4 pieces and pour some of lemon sauce (to taste) over chicken. Remaining sauce can be used to dip fried chicken pieces.