Easy Chinese Lemon Chicken?

The Best American Recipes 2000 says it found a recipe for Chinese Lemon Chicken that mostly eliminates the problem of spattering oil and burning honey found in the traditional recipe. I was skeptical mostly because I don't like ginger and the recipe called for 3 slices of fresh ginger but decided to risk it all and try it!

The good news! My kids loved it. They each ate an entire piece of chicken plus some of ours. The ginger/lemon combination was very subtle just giving a hint of flavor.

The not so good news. Despite the techniques listed in the recipe the honey still burned leaving a black coating on the bottom of the pan and lemon wedges making the sauce unusable for the chicken. While oil splatter wasn't horrible it was still enough to make my stove yucky. Also, I couldn't find rice wine and used rice vinegar instead. However, living in a small southern town does at times, limit what we can find.

I may try this again, however after stir frying the ginger and lemon I would cook the chicken on med heat instead of alternating between med and med high.

Chinese Lemon Chicken Serves 4-6

2 lbs chicken thighs, skin on

1 tablespoon rice wine ( i used rice wine vinegar)

1 tablespoon soy sauce

1 tablespoon honey

1 tablespoon oil

1 lemon

3 slices fresh peeled ginger

1/2 tsp salt

In med. bowl combine rice wine, honey and soy sauce, set aside. Slice 1/8 in of each end of lemon and then  halve lemon and divide each half into four wedges. Remove seeds. 

Heat large skillet and oil till hot but not smoking. Add ginger and lemon and stir fry for one-two minutes until lightly browned. transfer to a plate and set aside.

In same skillet carefully add chicken skin side down. Fry for 3-4 minutes to brown then turn over and brown other side for 3-4 minutes adjusting between med-high and med. heat. Sprinkle with salt and honey wine mixture and the lemon and ginger. Reduce to med heat, cover and simmer for 8-10 minutes, turn chicken and reduce to low heat, simmer for another 8-10 minutes until chicken is cooked.

Stir fry the lemon and ginger

Chicken was tender with subtle flavor but I found it hard not to burn the honey!