How To Make Gluten-Free Chinese Lemon Chicken At Home

Chinese-Style Lemon Chicken is crispy bits of fried chicken in a lemon sweet and sour sauce. And yes, it is exactly as good as it sounds. The batter for the lemon chicken is the same as it was for the General Tso Chicken. The lemon sauce is almost identical to the sweet and sour sauce we used for the Sweet and Sour Chicken Balls, with two exceptions. There is no cherry juice for colour, and the vinegar is replaced with lemon juice. Despite that, you will be blown away by how different this lemon chicken tastes from those other dishes despite the similarities.

Jump to:

• Chinese Lemon Chicken Sauce
• The Chicken
• Battering and Frying the Chicken
• Putting the Lemon Chicken All Together
• Recipe
• Conclusion

If you enjoy making Chinese food at home, this recipe fits right alongside dishes like Take-Out Style Fried Rice or Homemade Egg Rolls for a full spread. The technique here is straightforward: make the sauce, batter and fry the chicken, then toss everything together in a hot wok. Let's get to it.

Chinese Lemon Chicken Sauce

To make this sauce, grate the zest of one lemon into a medium pot. Be careful only to grate the yellow rind as the white pith under it is very bitter and will make the sauce bitter. To the lemon zest, add the juice of three lemons, two tablespoons of soy sauce, one tablespoon of rice vinegar, half a cup of sugar, a pinch of crushed red pepper flakes and a pinch of salt. Boil the contents of the pot for one minute.

Whisk in a mixture of two tablespoons of cornstarch and half a cup of water. Turn the heat down to medium and cook the sauce, whisking until it is thick enough to coat the back of a spoon. Set the sauce aside until you are ready to use it. The whole process takes about ten minutes, and the sauce can sit at room temperature while you prepare the chicken.

The Chicken

It is easiest to use boneless, skinless chicken breast when making lemon chicken. I used three fairly large chicken breasts for my lemon chicken, which I diced into one inch by one-inch cubes (2.5 cm x 2.5 cm). These three chicken breasts made more than enough lemon chicken for four people. I made a lot intending to have leftovers.

Feel free to cut the amount of chicken back, or once the chicken is deep-fried, let half of it cool and freeze it. When you want to use it, cook it in a 400°f oven on a sheet pan for about twenty to twenty-five minutes from frozen. This is a great make-ahead strategy if you want crispy chicken ready to go on a busy weeknight.

Battering and Frying the Chicken

To batter the chicken, put three egg whites in a bowl and whisk them together with a big pinch of salt and white pepper. Put one cup of cornstarch in a separate bowl. In batches, coat the chicken in the egg whites, then in the cornstarch. Shake off the excess and deep-fry at 365°f for about five minutes or until the chicken is golden brown, crispy, and cooked all the way through.

Shake any excess oil off the chicken, then put it in a large metal bowl and repeat the process until all of the chicken has been fried. The key to a crispy coating that holds up in the sauce is making sure you shake off that extra cornstarch before frying. If you enjoy deep-frying at home, the same approach works well for dishes like stir-fries where you want a light, crunchy texture on the protein.

Putting the Lemon Chicken All Together

To finish the lemon chicken, heat a large wok or frying pan over high heat. Coat the bottom of the pan with canola oil and add in two tablespoons each of thinly sliced ginger and garlic along with three green onions cut into one-inch pieces. Cook just until the ginger and garlic start to brown.

Add the fried chicken to the wok and toss. Finally, add the sauce and cook it until it is hot. Toss the chicken to completely coat it in the sauce. Serve immediately while the chicken is still crispy on the outside and the sauce is hot and glossy.

Recipe

Conclusion

This lemon chicken is one of my favourite Chinese dishes to make at home, and the sweet-tart sauce never fails to impress. Whether you eat gluten-free or not, I genuinely think homemade beats takeout every single time with this one.