Guest Chefling: Lemon Chicken with Garlic Rice

August 5, 2012

Live. Laugh. Love. Cook!

An architect by profession, I have always found cooking to be therapeutic and fun. It is incredibly iterative, just like design; no recipe is sacrosanct – can be bettered, simplified and adapted to evolving palates. The result may well be a failure but more often than not the end product will surprise, thrill and make those who have the pleasure of enjoying it, come back for seconds! *a proud moment for any chefling* I learned cooking from my mother, whose careful attention to detail made me learn how to improvise with all the recipes that I try. I cook from whatever is available at home and focus on retaining the individual flavors/ aromas of all the ingredients while creating a perfect blend.

One of my most favorite is the Lemon Chicken recipe which is really simple n easy to make, has this really perfect fusion of sweet & sour and tastes YUM! It goes great with garlic rice.

Lemon Chicken and Garlic Rice

For garlic rice:

Take 1.5 cups of rice, boil and drain them with water.
In a separate wok heat some cooking oil and add 3-4 cloves of crushed garlic along with 3 thinly sliced green chillies.
Cook till the garlic turns light brown and then add 2 Tablespoons of soya sauce.
Stir well.
You can add fresh coriander leaves and cashew nuts or almonds in as well.
Mix in the rice and let it steam so that all the rice get the aroma & flavor of the ingredients.
Keep aside.

For lemon chicken:

Boneless chicken 1″ cubes, roughly about 2 lbs. (I took about 4 breast fillets and cut them into cubes)

Marinate the chicken for 30 mins in:

2 Table Spoon Soya Sauce
1.5 Tea spoon Sugar
1/2 Tea spoon salt
1/2 Tea spoon black pepper
a little oil
I mix in some mixed herbs & oregano as well for taste

Make some batter with:

2 eggs
1 Tea spoon Baking powder
1 pinch of black pepper
Cornflour (takes about 3-4 Table spoons but you have to check the consistency if its very runny then add a little more)

Mix all the above ingredients well and dip the marinated chicken into it & deep fry in a heated wok of oil till chicken is golden brown. Keep aside.

For the lemon sauce:

Take 2 Table Spoons of Sugar
1 Table Spoon of Soya Sauce
A little salt (to taste)
Take 3-4 lemons and cut them into halves & squeeze the juice (shouldn’t be less than 2 Table spoons). Save one half of the lemon and cut it into thin round slices
Thinly sliced green chillies (2-3)
Take about 2 cups of water. Bring it to boil & add 2 knorr chicken cubes in it. Keep this aside. (Alternatively you can use chicken yakhni as well)

Mix the chicken broth with sugar, soya sauce, salt & lemon juice + slices and the green chillies. Let it boil for some time. (if you wanna make it more sour, add more lemon juice or a little vinegar)
In a separate cup mix 1 Table spoon of Cornflour with a little water.
Add this to your sauce and keep stirring till the sauce thickens.
Let it cook for a little while.

For serving:

Take the rice in a small bowl and press them a little to take the mould’s shape.
Invert the bowl in your serving plate.
Put your fried chicken pieces on top and pour the lemon sauce on top of it. Add some roasted almonds on top (optional)
(You can also mix the chicken pieces with the lemon sauce and serve in a big serving bowl, but I prefer to present it this way)

Enjoy!