lemon chicken recipe

Preptime: - 75min
Cooktime: -15mim
Totaltime: -1hr 30min


Author: -Mridul dua
Recipetype: - Appetizer
Cusine: - Indian
Serve: - 3

lemon chicken recipe, an easy chicken starter recipe with step by step photos.

This lemon chicken recipe yields tender chicken bites with a dominant flavor of lemon juice, mint and mild spices. Slightly tangy, mildly hot with full of flavors. It makes a great starter for parties or get together and can also be served as a side to a main course.Since lemon chicken is a fusion food it pairs well with Indo chinese foods like veg fried rice, schezwan fried rice,egg fried rice, egg noodles or hakka noodles. It can also be served with any rice dishes like jeera rice, peas pulao, or with plain rice and rasam. I haven’t used lemon zest since i did not have. If you like the flavor you can add a pinch of the powdered zest towards the end.

 Ingredients (240 ml cup used)

marinade

• 300 grams boneless chicken cubes or breast
• 1½ tbsp. oil (do not reduce)
• 1 tsp ginger paste
• 1½ to 2 tbsp. lemon juice
• salt as needed
• ¾ tsp red chili powder
• ⅛ tsp turmeric

other ingredients

• ½ tbsp oil
• 1 tbsp. chopped or minced ginger
• ½ tbsp. garlic
• 1 green chili slit
• 1 large onion chopped
• ½ tsp sugar
• 1 tsp cajun spice mix or garam masala
• ½ tbsp. soya sauce
• handful of fresh mint leaves / pudina finely chopped

step by step photos on how to make lemon chicken recipe

1. Add chicken cubes or entire breast, ginger paste, red chili powder, salt, turmeric, lemon juice and oil. Do not skip oil, it is the key to tenderize chicken along with lemon juice. I used half of a large lemon. I suggest using fresh lemon and freshly ground ginger or grated ginger.

2. Marinate the chicken and set aside for at least 1 hour 15 minutes. If using a meat mallet or a metal meat tenderizer, marination time can be reduced to 40 minutes. It can also be left overnight in the refrigerator.

3. Add little oil to the hot pan, fry chopped ginger and garlic.

4. When ginger garlic begins to smell good, add onions, chili, sugar and salt.

5. Fry until the onions turn transparent.

6. Add marinated chicken along with lemon juice. Turn down the flame to low, Stir and fry till the chicken is half cooked.

7. Sprinkle garam masala or cajun spice mix. I used a flavorful garam masala powder. But earlier i have also made this with cajun spice that is used to make fried chicken and it yielded good results. Mix and fry until you begin to smell the masala good, for about 2 to 3 minutes.

8. Pour soya sauce and cook till the chicken is soft cooked. Sauce should be absorbed by now. Taste the chicken and adjust spice powder, red chili powder or salt as needed. Add more if needed. With an addition of all these the sourness from lemon juice gets balanced.

9. Add finely chopped pudina/mint leaves and fry until the leaves wilt.

10. Chicken should look moist, tender and soft cooked now. Switch off the stove.


Garnish lemon chicken with fresh mint leaves. Serve with onion wedges.