You can learn how to make lemon chicken at home if you’re looking for a delicious dinner that’s low-calorie but high in flavour. This delicious recipe has a tangy, lemony sauce that goes well with almost any side dish, from steamed rice to pasta. You can make the lemon chicken ahead of time, store it in airtight containers, and even freeze it for up to 2 months. To reheat the chicken, place it back in the oven or heat it in a saucepan.
If you want to serve this recipe to a crowd, you can marinate the chicken overnight in lemon juice. This marinade is packed with vitamins and antioxidants, so it’s good for you too! Make sure to separate the marinade for the chicken and vegetables, as it’s important not to cross-contaminate the two. Lemon chicken is a quick and easy dinner recipe that will delight even picky eaters. Besides, the ingredients for lemon chicken are easily accessible at your local grocery store, and you may already have them in your pantry.
What is Lemon Chicken?
Several chicken and lemon-based meals known as “lemon chicken” can be found worldwide.
It often comprises bits of chicken meat that are sautéed or battered, deep-fried, and covered with a thick, sweet sauce with a lemon taste. This is typical of Canadian and British-Chinese cuisine. The chicken pieces were coated in batter, then rolled in almond slivers and deep-fried before being served with the lemon-glaze sauce in the Chinese cuisine of the Panda Hotel in Tsuen Wan, Hong Kong.
A variant of lemon chicken well-known in Australasia involves battering the chicken, frying it, and slathering it in lemon sauce.
A whole chicken is pan-roasted with white wine, lemon juice, fresh thyme, and mirepoix in Italy (Pollo al Limone) and Greece.
Similar food, Pollo al Romero with limón y pines, is also made in Spain using pine nuts, rosemary, and ham.
The French poulet au citron sauce, served with roasted potatoes, contains Dijon mustard.
Recipe of Lemon Chicken at Home
Ingredients:
- Four peeled and deboned 1 1/2 lb. chicken breasts
- One salt shaker full
- 1/2 tsp. of pepper
- one-third cup of all-purpose flour
- split into four tablespoons of butter
- divided two tablespoons of olive oil
- 1/4 cup chicken stock
- Lemon juice, 1/4 cup
- Eight slices of lemon
- 14 cups of freshly chopped flat-leaf parsley
- Lemon slices as a garnish
Directions:
Step 1
Each chicken breast should be split lengthwise. Use a rolling pin or the flat side of a meat mallet to flatten the chicken between two sheets of heavy-duty plastic wrap to a thickness of 1/4 inch. Add salt and pepper to the chicken. Shake off extra flour after lightly dredging the chicken in it.
Step 2
In a big nonstick skillet, melt one tablespoon of butter over medium-high heat and one tablespoon of olive oil. Cook the chicken breast half in a skillet for 2 to 3 minutes on each side, or until browned and cooked through. Place the chicken on a serving plate and reheat as needed. Repeat the process with the remaining chicken, 1 Tbsp. Butter and olive oil.
Step 3
Stirring to remove any stuck-on bits from the bottom of the pan, add the stock and lemon juice, and boil for 1 to 2 minutes, or until the sauce has slightly thickened. Add eight slices of lemon.
Step 4
Turn off the heat and mix in the parsley and two tablespoons of butter until the butter melts. Add sauce to the chicken, and serve right away. If desired, garnish.
What is the Reason for Following Lemon Chicken Recipe at Home?
Greatly enhances the flavour of the chicken. Just picture flavours of citrus, garlic, and aromatic herbs—delicious!
The chicken becomes softer and stays moist, thanks to the lemon juice.
I can prepare it for dinner whenever I’m in the mood for grilled chicken because it doesn’t require an overnight marinade. The amount of time it should marinate shouldn’t exceed 3 hours because doing so could cause it to break down too much (see “Marinating with Citrus” below).
It is adaptable! Add fresh herbs, seasoning, mustard, honey, or other things to the marinade to make it your own.
You can use it for chicken wings, drumsticks, thighs, or breasts.
What are the Tips for Marinating or Not Marinating Chicken?
Chicken is not made more tender by marinating.
Whether you overcook the chicken completely determines how tender it will be. Or, to put it another way, whether you marinate your chicken has 0% to do with how tender it is.
The misconception that is marinating makes food more tender (including chicken) comes from the assumption that the acidic chemicals (such as vinegar, wine, lemon juice, etc.) in the marinade somehow “break down” or “soften” the proteins in the flesh, making it more tender.
But acid doesn’t make the meat softer. Conveniently, you are already aware of this because you are aware that raw fish and seafood are marinated in acid to make ceviche. How does that seafood fare? Because the acid denatures the proteins, the fish and seafood’s flesh becomes firm rather than more delicate. It cooks it.
Now, the collagen sheaths covering the protein fibres in the chicken are significantly thicker than those in fish, which is why acid cooks fish but not chicken. As a result, the acid cannot truly contact the chicken’s proteins; even if possible, it would have the opposite of tenderizing effects.
Avoiding overcooking chicken is the only way to achieve tender, juicy meat. Additionally, overcooked white meat chicken (chicken breasts) refers to cooking to an internal temperature greater than 165 F. It will be juicy and tender when cooked to 165°F. Anything cooked beyond that point will be stringy, harsh, and dry.
Chicken, after marinating, doesn’t get any moister.
The main ingredient in a marinade is oil, and it may also contain wine, vinegar, or citrus juice, all of which are largely made of water with a tiny bit of acid. Additionally, we’ve already demonstrated that acid doesn’t chew through the meat. What about the oil, though? No, oil doesn’t penetrate the flesh either, unfortunately. Since chicken is a water-rich food, oil physically repels water.
In fact, why is there oil in the marinade at all? Later, we’ll discuss that.
Thus, water is left. Additionally, meat cannot be penetrated by water. Keep in mind that raw chicken is already hydrated. Millions of protein cells, each containing water, make up a chicken. In that regard, chicken is similar to a sponge that has already absorbed all the liquid. A saturated sponge cannot be dropped into a bucket of water and allowed to continue absorbing the water. The same is true of chicken. It won’t absorb any additional liquid, regardless of what you soak it in or how long you soak it for.
Chicken Doesn’t Take Flavors Well.
This means that the chicken won’t pick up tastes. The marinade’s flavours won’t flavour the meat if it doesn’t penetrate it.
A small amount of the liquid is applied to the surface of your chicken throughout the marinating process. When you remove the chicken from the marinade, most of the liquid drips out, but a small bit remains. If your marinade is flavorful, that small quantity will add flavour to the chicken.
But it won’t taste much better than simply brushing some of the tasty liquid onto the chicken in the last few minutes of cooking or hastily dipping the chicken in the marinade before cooking it.
This last technique is arguably the most successful.
But using a dry rub for seasoning your chicken is much more efficient. When you remove the chicken from a dry rub, the seasonings will stick to the surface of the chicken rather than simply oozing off like they do with a marinate.
What are the Health Advantages of Lemon Consumption?
Lemon consumption has many health benefits, including preventing kidney stones, a lower chance of developing cancer, improved digestion, a defence against anemia, and assistance with weight control.
Kidney Stone Prevention
Lemons are quite acidic; because of this, they can prevent kidney stones since the acid raises the pH and volume of urine, making it less likely that kidney stones will form.
Lowering the risk of cancer Scientists have discovered that certain components in lemons, like limestone, have anti-cancer properties. Another study demonstrates that these substances guard against colon, lungs, and tongue cancerous tumours.
How to Make a Lemon Marinade?
Lemon juice and olive oil can be used in an excellent lemon marinade. Utilize the lemon zest in addition for more lemon flavour. Freshly ground black pepper and one or more herbs, such as rosemary, sage, parsley, thyme, and garlic, are added to the marinade as seasonings. You may make the lemon marinade hotter by exchanging the herbs for parsley, black pepper, and cayenne. Mix lemon juice with soy sauce or tamari sauce and omit the olive oil for a more Asian-inspired lemon marinade. Garlic minced is used to season it. For every pound of chicken, you need roughly 1/2 cup of marinade.
Refrigerate the chicken while it marries in a plastic bag or other covered containers. The chicken is thoroughly covered with marinade when the air is pushed out of a sealed plastic bag, making it the best option. Never marinate food in metal because the acid in the marinade may cause the metal to react. Chicken can be marinated in a lemon marinade for up to two hours. Moreover, two hours of lemon juice marinating on chicken might cause it to degrade, altering the texture of the cooked meat. After usage, discard the marinade.
What are the Surprising Things Lemons can do that you Never Knew?
Your fruit and vegetable produce won’t turn brown if you use lemon juice.
Lemon juice is just acidic enough to stop the oxidation that causes fruit to turn brown so that a few squeezes can work wonders for avocados, apples, bananas, and peeled raw potatoes. The next time you prepare meals in advance or when you set out a platter of fresh fruit slices, give this tip a try.
Lemon Juice Prevents Sticky Rice.
Do you struggle with clumpy rice? You’re lucky since a few drops of lemon juice in the water you use to cook the rice will help keep the grains from sticking together. Try this advice with our recipe for Healthy Fried Rice.
Brown sugar is kept soft by lemon peel, saving you from having to sift it.
The peel of the lemon, which is incredibly juicy and tasty, is just as valuable in the kitchen as the juice. To prevent your box of brown sugar from clumping and hardening, add a slice of the skin (with the pulp fully removed). This will save you time the next time you make our Healthified Peanut Butter Cookies by eliminating the need for sifting.
Lemon Juice Recreates Crispy Lettuce
There’s no need to throw out that limp lettuce! Your leaves can be revived with a little water and lemon juice. Put limp leaves in a basin with cold water and 1/2 cup lemon juice, and then chill for about an hour. The leaves will emerge revitalized and prepared for consumption. Make our Healthified Layered Vegetable Salad to see this trick in action.
Conclusion
Consider this easy recipe for chicken breasts if you’re wondering how to make a lemon chicken at home. The chicken breasts simmer in a pan of lemon garlic sauce, which tastes like the chicken you order from your favourite Italian restaurant. Best of all, this recipe only requires thirty minutes! And you can prepare it for a crowd in no time! There’s nothing better than a tasty meal for your family! There’s nothing better than a warm bowl of lemon chicken with a dish of mashed cauliflower or lemon rice pilaf.
If you don’t want to invest the time in a full-fledged recipe, you can always try a quick marinade for a meal that’s as delicious as your favourite Chinese takeout. Lemon chicken is a popular dish in Chinese restaurants and is perfect for a weeknight meal or as a take-out dinner. It pairs well with any rice dish, so it’s worth trying.
