True Lemon Chicken

Barbs Miller's Note:

I wanted to make Lemon Chicken like the Chinese restaurants have. After trying many recipes, I found one that was OK. I played with the recipe and tweeked it to my liking...a Lemon Sauce that is lemony with a good balance of sweet. I hope you enjoy this as much as I do.

• Total Time: 25 mins
• Prep Time: 10 mins
• Cook Time: 15 mins

Ingredients:

Servings: 2

• 2 boneless skinless chicken breasts, cut into bite-size pieces
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• salt and pepper

SAUCE

• 1 lemons, juice of or 3 tablespoons bottled lemon juice
• 1 cup water
• 1/8 cup lime juice
• 1/8 cup lemon juice
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 1 pinch salt
• 2 drops yellow food coloring
• cornstarch, mixed with
• water, to thicken

Directions:

1. CHICKEN: Saute cubed chicken in olive oil until done.
2. Set aside.
3. SAUCE: In a small sauce pan, combine first 7 ingredients and bring to a low boil.
4. Slowly stir in cornstarch solution.
5. Depending on how thick you want the sauce determines how much cornstarch solution you use.
6. Careful- sauce tends to boil up when cornstarch solution is added.
7. Serve chicken over a bed of rice.
8. Pour sauce over chicken& rice.
9. Enjoy!

Reviews

[Love2Eat]

Delicious Barb! I, too, have been searching for a lemon chicken sauce and have finally found it. Just the right touch of lemon/sweet. I doubled the recipe because I didn't think I'd have enough sauce (cause I doubled the chicken), but a single recipe would have been plenty. This was great!

[ColCadsMom]

Aug 26, 2007: The BEST Lemon Chicken ever! I sprinkled my chicken breasts with lemon pepper and onion powder with the salt and pepper, and lightly floured them before frying them. This made it a little less like Chinese restaurants, and a little more like down home cooking. I might play with battering the chicken pieces in a cornstarch tempura next time. I made extra sauce...it is JUST TOO GOOD! I agree with another reviewer, it would be a great dessert sauce too, so I might get double duty out of it EVERY time I use this recipe! Thanks for taking the time to get it perfect, and posting it for all of us to enjoy! UPDATE: April 21, 2008. I used this recipe to make an orange sauce tonight that was just perfect! I used 1/4 cup freshly squeezed orange juice, the juice of one lime, and 2 tablespoons of thawed orange juice concentrate. I cut the sugar back to 1/2 cup since oranges are sweeter, and added about 1 teaspoon of orange zest. I just LOVE this recipe!!!!!

[Bhujia]

I was confused at how the lemon juice was listed twice, so went with the total amount indicated. I thought 3/4 cup sugar was entirely too much so I subbed 5/8 of a cup of Splenda and 1/8 of a cup sugar. I made a mixture of a couple of tablespoons of cold water and 1 tablespoon cornstarch and only added about half of the mixture, stopping when I got the right consistency. Now, about the flavor. It was very lemony, which was great and the recipe makes a generous amount of sauce. I *personally* did not care for the blend of sweet and savory, however I can see how this recipe is deserving of four stars. I cooked the chicken in panko for crispness and served it with jasmine rice that was cooked with grated orange rind (try that for an aromatic treat!) I bottled the rest of the lemon sauce and gave it to my boss who said it was better than the lemon sauces she'd had back at the Chinese places in NYC.