Lemon Chicken

Got this recipe from Dorothy Ferreria's cookbook, volume 2. I saw a new cookbook in National Bookstore, by Dorothy Ferreria, but was disappointed that it's just a new release of her old cookbook recipes. I love the recipes from her cookbooks. I feel that they're well suited to the Pinoy tastebuds. I have tried many of her recipes, and not once have I encountered a palpak one.

I love lemon chicken. It's almost always the first dish I look for in Chinese restaurants, next to prawn salads. :0 For me, a lemon chicken dish is similar to a sweet and sour pork dish, although less common. Both have that sweet and sour taste that I like so much, and both go so well with Yang Chow fried rice. Mmmm... yum.

This lemon chicken recipe is not the typical lemon chicken dish you would expect to find in Chinese restaurants, where the sauces are bright yellow. Maybe the addition of soy sauce gave this dish's sauce a slightly dark yellow color. I prefer my sauce to be a bit on the sour side, so I added more pineapple juice until I was satisfied with it.

Ingredients:

1 kilo chicken breasts or thighs, skinned, deboned and cut into chunks.
1/2 c rock salt
oil for frying

Batter
1/2 c cornstarch
2 c sifted all-purpose flour
1 whole egg
2 cups water

Sauce
1/3 c granulated white sugar
1 1/2 t fine salt
1/4 c unsweetened pineapple uuice
2 T cornstarch
1 c water
1 t soy sauce
1 American lemon, washed and sliced thinly into rounds

Procedure:
1. Rub the chicken with salt, rinse and pat dry. Set aside. Heat about a cup of oil in a large frying pan. While waiting for the oil to heat up, prepare the batter.

2. To prepare the batter, combine the cornstarch, the flour, the egg and the water in a bowl. Mix with a wire whisk until smooth. Dip the chicken in the batter and fry over medium heat until golden brown. Drain on paper towels to blot out excess oil. Arrange the chicken pieces in a serving platter. Set aside.

3. For the sauce, combine the first 6 ingredients in a saucepan. Cook over medium heat until slightly thick. Remove from heat and quickly stir in the lemon slices.

Dorothy suggests serving the sauce separately to preserve the crispiness of the chicken. But I poured the sauce on top of the chicken immediately before serving.