Lemon Chicken
Updated Jan. 8, 2025
- Total Time
- 1 hour 15 minutes
- Rating
- Comments
- Read comments
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Ingredients
- 38-ounce skinless, boneless chicken breasts halves
- 2eggs
- 1½cups potato starch
- ½teaspoon baking soda
- 1½teaspoons salt
- 1½- 2 cups peanut oil
- ½cup fresh lemon juice
- 1teaspoon lemon zest
- ½cup sugar
- 1teaspoon rice wine vinegar
- ½teaspoon salt
- 1heaping tablespoon cornstarch
For the Chicken
For the Sauce
Nutritional analysis per serving (4 servings)
1365 calories; 101 grams fat; 18 grams saturated fat; 0 grams trans fat; 46 grams monounsaturated fat; 31 grams polyunsaturated fat; 73 grams carbohydrates; 1 gram dietary fiber; 26 grams sugars; 41 grams protein; 916 milligrams sodium
Note: The information shown is Edamam’s estimate based on available ingredients and preparation. It should not be considered a substitute for a professional nutritionist’s advice.
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Preparation
- Step 1
Butterfly the chicken breasts, then slice them lengthwise into ½-inch thick strips. Cut the strips in half, place in a bowl and refrigerate.
- Step 2
In a medium bowl, beat the eggs until smooth. Gradually beat in ½ cup of the potato starch. Mix in the baking soda and 1 teaspoon of the salt. Cover and refrigerate for 30 minutes. Place the remaining potato starch in a bowl, season with the remaining ½ teaspoon salt and set aside.
- Step 3
Prepare the sauce: Combine the lemon juice and zest, sugar, vinegar, salt and ¾ cup water in a saucepan and place over medium heat. In a bowl, stir together ½ cup of the sauce and the cornstarch. Transfer this mixture back to the pan. Simmer for 15 minutes.
- Step 4
Place a wok over medium-high heat and add the oil. Working in batches, cook the chicken: dredge a small portion of chicken in the egg mixture. Shake off excess egg from the chicken and coat it in the seasoned potato starch. Shake again. Lower the chicken into the hot oil one piece at a time. Cook until crisp, about 2 minutes per side. Drain on paper towels. Arrange chicken in a shallow bowl. Reheat the sauce and pour it over the chicken.
Private Notes
Comments
The recipe calls for "potato flour" but that is a mistake. Potato flour will become a solid lump when added to eggs and it is impossible to dredge chicken in the mixture. The recipe should call for "potato starch". Potato flour is made from whole potatoes that are dried and then ground into flour. Potato starch is just that - it is made only from the dried starch component of the potato and is silky and light, like cornstarch.
Potato flour works well as a coating, which is how I'm reading this recipe. It's not added to the eggs, but used to coat the chicken after it's dredged in the egg mixture.
Deeelicious! A bit much for a weeknight meal, but I will definitely be making this again.
I did not have potato flour or starch, so used regular flour. I cut back on some of the sugar in the sauce - 1/3 cup instead of 1/2. I liked the stronger lemon flavor.
After all the comments discussing potato flour vs. potato starch the recipe has been corrected, calling for potato starch. (Lucky break I’d just bought some to make Yachaejeon.) The one thing I don’t understand is when a recipe calls for a teaspoon of ingredients like soy sauce, vinegar, rice wine, etc. Rice wine vinegar is already less acidic than other vinegars so that lonely little teaspoon did nothing. I gave it some friends. (After test frying one piece of battered chicken.) I’m not a “cut the sugar” person so I upped the lemon juice instead. Delicious.
To make it easier, I used 4 chicken fillets, the kind used for chicken cutlets and didn't cut them up. I didn't have potato flour so just cooked the fillets like I would for cutlets -- eggs then flour, fried in olive oil. I made the sauce as directed but next time will use 1/3 cup sugar instead of 1/2 cut like another person suggested -- it was a little sweet. Simplifying the recipe totally worked!
I used 1/2 amount of sugar. Next time I’d omit it entirely.