Easy Chinese Lemon Chicken

Closeup of crispy Chinese lemon chicken on a green plate

5 from 18 votes

This easy Chinese lemon chicken recipe has an incredibly flavorful crispy batter and is tossed with a perfectly balanced sweet and tangy, sticky lemon sauce. A classic Asian takeout dish you can easily make at home!

Prep Time20

Cook Time20

Total Time40

Course: Main Course

Cuisine: Asian, Chinese

Servings:

Calories: 416kcal

Author: Joyce Lee

Ingredients

Lemon Chicken Marinade

1 lb chicken (chicken breast or boneless chicken thighs)
¼ onion (approx. 2 tablespoons)
2 cloves garlic (approx. ¾ tablespoon)
2 tablespoons light soy sauce (low sodium)
1 tablespoon water
½ tablespoon Shaoxing wine (optional. or dry sherry)

Batter

1 cup cornstarch (divided in half)

Lemon Chicken Sauce

¼ cup lemon juice (approx. 1 lemon)
1 tablespoon lemon zest (approx. 1 lemon)
1 tablespoon soy sauce
¼ cup sugar
1 tablespoons butter
2 tablespoons water

Cornstarch Slurry (To Thicken Sauce)

½ tablespoon cornstarch
½ tablespoon water

Garnish (Optional)

toasted sesame seeds
finely chopped green onions
lemon slices

Instructions

Method 1: Prepare the Chicken (Filet)

If you are making chicken filets, place a chicken breast on the cutting board and filet it by cutting the chicken sideways with the knife until you have cut it half way.
Pull back the top flap you have cut and carefully continue to keep slicing until you reach the end while peeling back the flap along the way.
You can make about 3 filets with a large chicken breast. Set the filets into a bowl.

Method 2: Prepare the Chicken (Chicken Chunks)

If you are making crispy chicken chunks, cut the chicken into 1-inch cubes or irregular rectangle shapes and place it into a bowl.

Marinate the Chicken

Chop 2 cloves garlic and ¼ onion into small pieces and add them to a food processor with 2 tablespoons light soy sauce, 1 tablespoon water, and ½ tablespoon Shaoxing wine. Blitz it until it is a thin paste.
If you don't have a food processor, you can grate or finely chop the garlic and onion instead.
Add the marinade into the bowl with the chicken and mix well. Let it set at room temperature for 15 minutes.

Batter the Chicken (Twice)

Add half of the cornstarch to the bowl of chicken and mix it well. Set it aside for a few minutes until the starch has absorbed all the starch.
Add the other half of the cornstarch to a plate, and dunk the marinated chicken into the cornstarch until there is a light coating on it. Shake off any excess starch and set it aside to deep fry.

Deep Fry It

Add oil into a tall pot and set the stove to medium-high heat. If you are using a deep fryer, set the temperature to 350f.
Wait for the oil to get hot.
To test if the oil is hot enough in a pot, put a wooden chopstick or spoon into the oil. If it bubbles, you're good to go.
Add the chicken into the hot oil and deep fry it for 3-5 minutes.
Make sure you don't overcrowd the pot or deep fryer because that will drop the temperature of the oil, which will make the batter not crispy.
Deep fry it in small batches and set it aside until all the chicken has been cooked.
Once all the chicken has been deep fried, add it back into the oil and deep fry them a second time for 30 seconds. This will harden the batter and make it crispier.

Prepare the Lemon Zest and Lemon Juice

Zest the lemon skin with a micro planer, grater, or vegetable peeler. Set it aside.
If you are using a vegetable peeler, gently peel the top layer of the skin. Try to avoid pressing too hard, you don't want to get the white part under the skin (the pith), which is bitter.
If you peeled the lemon skin with the vegetable peeler, finely chop it with a knife and set it aside.
Using the same lemon, cut them in half and squeeze the juice and set it aside.

Make the Sweet and Sticky Lemon Sauce

In a small bowl, mix together ½ tablespoon cornstarch with ½ tablespoon water to make a cornstarch slurry and set it aside. We will use this later to thicken the sauce.
Set a pot over medium-low heat and add ¼ cup lemon juice, 1 tablespoon soy sauce, ¼ cup sugar, 1 tablespoons butter, and 2 tablespoons water.
Keep stirring until all the sugar has dissolved.
Once the sugar has dissolved, re-mix the cornstarch slurry (the starch may have settled to the bottom of the bowl) and slowly pour it into the sauce while you are stirring.
Keep stirring until the sauce starts to boil and thicken. You'll know it's done when the sauce turns into a clear brown color and is no longer transparent.
Turn off the heat, and mix in 1 tablespoon lemon zest.

Put it Together and Serve

If you are using chicken filets, cut them into ½ thick pieces and set them on a plate. Drizzle the sauce on top of the chicken and garnish with sesame seeds, green onions, and lemon slices and serve with rice!
If you are using chicken chunks, add the chicken into the pot with the sauce and mix until it has coated every piece of chicken well.
Plate it and garnish with sesame seeds, green onions, and lemon wedges and serve with rice!

Notes

- Turn off the heat before you add the crispy chicken back into the pot to coat with the lemon sauce. This keeps the batter crispy so you don't get a soggy lemon chicken.

- When you are grating the lemon zest, make sure you don't get too much of the white part below the lemon rind. The white stuff (called the pith) is bitter.

- To get the most lemony lemon sauce, turn off the heat before you mix in the lemon zest. When you cook the lemon zest on high heat it cooks away some of the delicate lemon oils which takes away some of the lemon flavor.
- Always use fresh lemon juice for this recipe. It will taste better than bottled lemon juice, and you need the fresh zest from the skin of the lemons.

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