Lemon chicken

This is a westernized Chinese take-out style lemon chicken, the kind that comes with a very sweet-tangy lemon sauce on the side.

The lemon sauce shown here is very colourless - if you want it to look like take out, add yellow food colouring til it's a neon, delicious looking yellow. 

Basic method is to slice the chicken into thin cutlets and marinade briefly. Make a batter and deep fry at a moderate temperature until cooked through and pale golden, let cool to room temperature, then fry again at high temperature to crisp the coating. So plan ahead accordingly, this needs a few rest times. 

The plateful shown above is a single chicken breast, sliced thin. You could probably do two very small chicken breasts with the batter amount given here, and there's definitely enough sauce for that much chicken. Otherwise, scale the batter and sauce up as needed.

Marinade 

1 tsp soy sauce
1 tsp oyster sauce
1 tsp Chinese cooking wine
2 Tbsp cornstarch 

Add wet ingredients to sliced chicken breast and mix in. Sprinkle on cornstarch and mix well. Marinade for at least 15 minutes. 

Batter 

1/4 cup flour 

1/3 cup cornstarch 

1/4 tsp salt 

1/4 tsp baking powder 

1/3 - 1/2 cup ice cold soda water 

Whisk together dry ingredients, then add 1/3 cup soda water. Whisk together and add more water if necessary to get a pancake batter like consistency. 

Frying method 

Heat vegetable oil to a low/moderate heat (325-350 deg F). Sprinkle a little flour or cornstarch over the marinated chicken to give a dry surface for the batter to stick to. Dip in batter and fry til light golden brown and cooked through. Drain on paper towels and let cool. 

To fully crisp - heat oil to high (375-400 deg F). Re-fry cooled chicken until deep golden brown and very crisp. Drain on paper towels and cool a little, then slice into thin strips to serve. 

Sauce 

Make this while waiting for chicken to cool between first and second frying. 

1/4 cup sugar 

3 Tbsp lemon juice 

1/4 cup water 

1/2 tsp chicken buillion powder 

1 1/2 tsp cornstarch mixed with 1 Tbsp water 

Mix together all ingredients except cornstarch slurry in a small saucepan. Heat til boiling then stir in cornstarch slurry. Stir until thickened, then take off heat. Add yellow food colouring if you want. Serve on the side.