This is the Chinese takeout classic
my dad’s made over 10,000 times:
Lemon Chicken.
My dad’s spent over 50 years perfecting this recipe,
so if you’re about to cook this for the first time,
or if you’ve tried making it before and have been disappointed,
we’re about to share the battle-tested techniques
restaurants use
so you can avoid the most common mistakes.
From getting uniform cuts of chicken,
to understanding how to tweak your batter,
to achieving ever-lasting crunchiness,
this video is packed with tips
to take you a few steps closer on your journey
to becoming a Takeout Master.
I'll cut the lemons first while the cutting board is clean.
Some of these are for garnish.
We’ll first cut one lemon into 8 wedges for the garnish.
All right.
Set them aside for now.
We'll use them later.
Now, we'll cut the chicken.
I'm cutting the chicken into strips today
instead of dicing it.
Cut it down the middle to halve it.
Halve it here again.
I'm using about 14 oz of chicken breast.
Now, we'll cut into strips.
Now we’ll cut the chicken breast into similarly-sized strips.
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cutting all kinds of ingredients,
check out our comprehensive masterclass on knife techniques
in the Canto Cooking Club!
To get access, check out club.madewithlau.com.
Do they usually use chicken breast at restaurants?
Yes, they usually use chicken breast these days.
This piece is too thick.
We'll halve it horizontally.
Halving the breast horizontally
will help keep our strips in a uniform size.
Why do restaurants use chicken breast?
It's easy to handle and it looks nice,
and lots of people prefer to eat chicken breast.
We'll put the chicken in a bowl.
After cutting the chicken,
we’ll start to create the marinade,
adding everything first to the side of the bowl.
1 tsp of salt,
1 tsp of sugar,
1/4 tsp of white pepper,
1 tbsp of cornstarch,
1 tbsp of oyster sauce for umami,
and 1 tbsp of water.
Mix it well.
Notice how he mixes the water with the dry ingredients first
so they can dissolve
then mix better with the chicken after.
Now we’ll beat an egg, and add just half to the chicken.
That's enough.
Mix it well.
Now, we’ll mix everything together with the chicken.
We have all of these ingredients listed on our blog at madewithlau.com
along with step-by-step instructions and video clips
to guide you as you make the recipe at home.
With this marinating step, my dad likes to get hands-on.
Massage the meat so it can absorb the flavor.
Squeeze the chicken like you're massaging it.
Set it aside.
With the chicken marinated,
we’ll craft the appetizing lemon sauce.
Now, we'll squeeze the lemons.
First, we’ll cut two lemons in half.
Then we’ll juice them into a bowl.
My dad uses a hand juicer here,
but anything works, even your bare hands.
Shirley from the Canto Cooking Club asked,
"Is this similar to Orange Chicken?"
It's the same method, but using lemons instead of oranges.
On that note, JJ from Patreon asked,
"In addition to lemon and orange,
is there any other fruit you can use in the same way?"
You can use anything you like, even apple juice!
Apple?!
Sure, if you like it.
No problem!
2 oz of lemon juice should be enough.
We'll add more water later.
Do people often cook with lemons in China?
Very little.
There's lemon chicken in China.
But I never cooked it in China.
Adjust the flavor.
We'll add 4 tbsp of sugar.
5 tbsp of water.
We're adjusting the flavor for sweetness.
We want a good balance of sweet and sour.
Whenever we make anything sweet & sour, add some salt.
Salt really enhances the sour flavor.
1/4 tsp of salt.
"What is the secret to perfect sauce?"
Some people like it sweeter, some people like it more tangy.
It should suit your preferences.
Make sure the flavor's to your liking before you cook it.
Where is lemon chicken from?
Legend has it that Chinese lemon chicken,
or ning mung gai in Cantonese,
debuted in the 1960s
at Pearl’s Chinese Restaurant in New York City.
Another says that this dish came out of
the cha chaan teng or diners of Guangdong or Hong Kong.
Wherever it came from,
Chinese chefs likely created it to cater to Western palates
as lemons are not commonly used in Chinese cuisine.
Like orange chicken, lemon chicken is known
for being a popular American Chinese takeout dish,
but my dad’s going to show you
how to make his own homestyle version.
After the sauce is ready,
we’ll create the frying batter for the chicken.
We're using 3 tbsp of all-purpose flour,
2 tbsp of cornstarch.
Why both?
Using only flour would make it too soft,
and only cornstarch would make it too hard.
Mixing the two evens it out.
So you use a 3:2 ratio?
Yeah.
Season it with a little bit of salt.
1/2 tsp of salt.
Baking powder will help the crust puff up a bit.
1 tsp of baking powder.
Once all that is in, I'll add water.
We'll add the water gradually, starting with 2 tbsp.
We'll make this slowly, stirring well.
If you add too much water, the batter will be too thin.
That's why we add water gradually.
Now, I'll add the 3rd tbsp of water,
and a 4th tbsp.
As my dad says,
we’ll add the water progressively
to get the perfect consistency.
So he adds another two tbsp of water here while mixing.
Mix well.
We'll add the egg.
1/2 an egg should be good.
Mix until no lumps remain.
This is too thin.
We'll add more cornstarch.
Seeing that the batter is too thin,
my dad adds another 3 tsp (or a tbsp) of cornstarch
and 2 tsp of flour to the batter.
This looks good.
When you pour it, it shouldn't flow as easily as water,
but it shouldn't be too thick either.
We'll add some oil.
It will make the crust shiny and smooth.
1 tsp of oil.
We’ll mix in the oil,
making sure all the dry ingredients have dissolved.
The result should be a smooth batter.
We should note here
that my dad was really attentive to the consistency of the batter
and continued to adjust it right up to
when we were about to deep-fry.
Our batter is still too thin.
I'm adding another 1/2 tbsp of cornstarch to thicken it.
Pay attention when you add water to the batter.
Don't add too much at once.
If it's too thin, add cornstarch and flour.
If it's too thick, add more water.
That's how you adjust it.
You can't rely strictly on a ratio.
What happens if you use batter that's too thin?
The crust won't be as strong and sturdy when you fry it.
There won't be enough batter coating the chicken.
If the batter is too thick, the crust will get too hard.
You’re looking for the approximate consistency of pancake batter;
when you scoop some up in your spoon and let the batter fall,
it should create faint ribbons that melt back down into the bowl.
If it runs quickly like water, it's too thin.
If it falls slowly in heavy clumps, it's too thick.
This is about right.
Now,
heat on.
Heat up the wok, then add the oil.
While heating the wok on high,
we’ll add in roughly 12 fl oz of corn oil here,
but any high smoke point neutral oil
such as peanut, vegetable, or canola oil
would also work.
While the oil's heating up, we'll put the chicken in the batter.
Put all the chicken in.
Mix well.
We’ll mix the chicken in with the batter,
making sure each piece is coated well.
How hot does the oil need to be?
About 325° F.
325° F for now, then we'll fry again.
We fry twice
because after the first fry,
the chicken's moisture soaks into the crust and gets soft,
so we fry it again to make it crispy.
Almost there.
If you don't have a thermometer,
use a wooden chopstick.
If it bubbles in the oil, the oil is ready.
All right, it's at 325° F now.
Lower the heat.
When the oil is at 325°F,
we’ll turn the heat to low and start to add the chicken by hand.
Put each piece in individually.
How do you do this safely?
Bring your hand closer so it won't splash.
If you drop it from high above, the oil will splash up more.
But you can't add all the chicken at once?
If you do, it'll all stick together.
We'll split this into two batches.
We can't fry it all at once.
It was on low heat earlier, now we'll turn it up to medium.
Give it a stir with chopsticks.
Separate the pieces.
Once they turn golden, we can take them out.
"How do you make it tender yet crispy?"
Make sure there's a bit of water in the marinade.
That'll make the chicken tender.
For crispiness,
you have to fry it twice,
and eat it soon after you finish frying.
Eat quickly.
The longer it sits, the more sauce the crust soaks up.
which makes the crust soft.
Yeah, Mui Mui!
Want some?
For the first fry,
we’ll try to maintain our temperature at around 325°F.
330° F.
It's starting to turn golden.
Look at the crust.
Let's scoop it up.
After it starts to turn golden, which was about 2.5-3 minutes for us,
we can take out the first batch of chicken.
Let's fry the second batch.
Low heat.
Don't drop it in from up here!
Keep your hand low.
If you're scared of the oil, use chopsticks.
That's the safest way.
Use chopsticks to place each piece in the oil.
Or, you can use tongs.
We used up almost all the batter.
Now, turn the heat up to medium.
At restaurants, they fry these in big pots of oil.
The method is basically the same,
but they'll fry up faster at restaurants.
The pieces we fried earlier have softened up,
that's why we have to fry them again.
The second fry will make them crispy.
Once they're floated up to the surface, they're cooked.
So should the chicken pieces be not too big?
If they're too small, you don't get much meat.
You'd just get batter.
But they would fry up faster.
Big pieces take longer.
This is good for now.
Next, we'll turn the heat up to high.
Scoop these bits out.
These are bits of batter, scoop them out before we fry again.
With the first fry done and the heat on high,
we’ll wait for the oil to come up to 400°F for the second fry.
The oil is at 400° F now.
Now, we'll do the second fry in two batches.
We’ll add in half of the chicken and fry
until the pieces become a darker golden yellow,
or about 20-30 seconds.
Then we’ll scoop them out.
Now, the second batch goes in.
Now, we’ll add the second half of the chicken
and fry for 20-30 seconds.
Okay.
Done.
Okay, heat off.
Pour the oil out.
Now, we’ll pour out the frying oil into a bowl.
Set it aside.
My dad doesn’t throw it away,
because once cooled and filtered,
this oil can be used again for cooking.
Now, we'll give the wok a quick clean.
There are some charred bits at the bottom.
After a quick wash and dry of the wok,
we’ll need to make a slurry to thicken the sauce.
In a bowl, we’ll mix together
1.5 tsp of cornstarch and 1.5 tbsp of water.
Dissolve the cornstarch with a quick mix.
Add a bit of oil to make the sauce glossy.
Add the lemon juice.
It has to be tangy enough and sweet enough.
Heat on.
We’ll turn on the heat after we’ve added the sauce to the wok.
Once it boils, we'll turn it down.
Let it boil.
This has a very real lemon taste.
How do they do it at a restaurant versus at home?
Restaurants use bottled lemon juice.
A big bottle or jug.
I used completely hand-squeezed lemon juice.
Sometimes, the lemon juice they use in restaurants
is concentrate, less than 100% squeezed.
Make sure to stir the sauce a bit so it doesn’t burn.
It's boiling now, so turn the heat down.
Stir as you add the slurry.
Now we’ll drizzle in the cornstarch slurry a bit at a time
while stirring the sauce.
Mix it around.
Let it reduce and thicken.
After adding the slurry,
we’ll cook on high while stirring for just another minute
until it boils again.
Then we can turn off the heat.
All right, heat off.
For a proper restaurant style,
add yellow food coloring.
Just to make it look nice.
Okay, we'll add a bit of oil for gloss.
1 tsp.
Give it a taste.
Yes!
It's delicious!
"What's the best way to reheat this?"
Air fryer or oven.
Briefly bake it.
Would the air fryer make it dry?
Just don't cook it for too long.
Make the plate nice.
Now, we’ll arrange the lemon wedges nicely
on the outside of the plate.
Then, add the chicken to the wok
and mix it in with the sauce,
but be sure to do this right before serving.
Francesca from the Canto Cooking Club asked,
"How do you make the crispiness of the chicken
last longer after you mix it?"
Wait to mix the sauce in,
because when it's hot,
the crust will soften more quickly.
If you want to keep it crispy longer,
wait for the sauce to cool down before you mix it in.
Once the chicken is mixed well with the sauce,
we’ll plate into the middle of our dish.
Sprinkle on sesame seeds.
Finally, we’ll sprinkle on some sesame seeds
and quickly serve to our family.
All right, friends!
Our Lemon Chicken is complete.
I hope you all enjoy it.
Hong Doy, Mui Mui, come down and eat Lemon Chicken!
Cheers!
Yeah!
Tasty!
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Ding!
Should they turn on the bell?
Yeah!