This Sticky Chinese Lemon Chicken Recipe Is So Good You Will Want to Make It Every Night for Dinner
This Chinese lemon chicken is one of my favorite Asian chicken recipes. It’s simple to make and tastes absolutely amazing. It’s loaded with flavors.
With a simple ingredient list, this Chinese chicken dish is a delicious weeknight meal that comes together effortlessly. It’s zesty, tangy, and savory. It far deviates itself from the bland chicken dishes you have on repeat.
Not to mention, it’s a budget-friendly dish that costs a fraction of Chinese takeout.
Chicken is a healthy and delicious protein that is versatile, and this healthy lemon chicken recipe showcases it. The sauce, made of ginger, honey, garlic, sesame, and lemon, brings vibrancy to the dish.
This chicken dish can be enjoyed by itself for a keto, low-carb option, or over rice for a complete and filling meal any time. Once you try making this healthy chicken dish, you will quickly add it to your recipe rotation.
This healthy, low-carb chicken recipe is excellent as it is but can easily be modified to accommodate a vegetarian or vegan diet by replacing the chicken with tofu.
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How to Make This Chinese Lemon Chicken Recipe
To begin, gather all of your ingredients for your Chinese lemon chicken recipe. Mince your garlic and grate your ginger. Measure out your sesame oil, honey, lemon juice, and coconut aminos.
Add your sesame oil to a small saucepan and heat. To your sesame oil, add your minced garlic and grated ginger. Cook your garlic and ginger in the sesame oil until fragrant, about a minute.
Once the garlic and ginger are fragrant, add the honey, lemon juice, and coconut aminos to the saucepan. Whisk all of the ingredients together until completely incorporated and bring to a boil. Next, reduce the heat to medium-low and simmer, stirring occasionally so as not to burn the sauce. Continue cooking the sauce until it reduces to a thicker consistency, about six minutes.
Set the finished sauce to the side while you continue on with the next steps.
Chicken Breasts
Now that your sauce is prepared, move on to the chicken. Cut your chicken breasts into one-inch chunks and place them in a bowl with arrowroot flour or cornstarch. Toss the chicken until it is evenly coated on all sides.
Using a non-stick skillet, place your coconut oil in the pan and turn the heat to medium. When the oil is hot, add your chicken. Saute the coated chicken in the coconut oil until it is lightly browned and crispy on every side.
Be careful not to overcrowd the pan so that the chicken does not steam instead of brown, you may have to do it in batches. Remove the chicken from the pan once it is cooked completely through to a temperature of 165 degrees.
Now that all the chicken is cooked through, add it back into your non-stick skillet. Add your sauce to the chicken and toss together to coat completely. Turn on the heat to low and allow the chicken to absorb the sauce, being sure not to overcook the chicken.
Plate your chicken by serving it over rice, or for a low carb or keto option, keep it on its own or serve with vegetables like sauteed green beans or bok choy. Top this Chinese lemon chicken recipe with sesame seeds and sliced green onions. Enjoy!
Chinese Lemon Chicken
This Chinese lemon chicken recipe is a delicious weeknight meal that will deviate from the same bland chicken dishes you have on repeat.
Ingredients
- 1 lb chicken breast
- 2 tbsp corn starch
- 2 tsp sesame oil
- 1 clove garlic, minced
- 1 tbsp fresh ginger, grated
- 2 tbsp honey
- ⅓ cup chicken stock, preferably low sodium
- 1 tbsp lemon juice
- 2 tbsp soy sauce, use coconut aminos for vegan or tamari for a gluten free option
Instructions
- Using a small saucepan, heat the sesame oil on medium-low heat. Once the oil is hot, add the garlic and ginger and saute until fragrant, about a minute.
- Measure the honey, chicken stock, lemon juice, and coconut aminos (or soy or tamari sauce) and add them to the saucepan. Whisk all the ingredients together until they are combined and bring to a boil.
- Reduce the heat and bring the sauce to a simmer, stirring occasionally to make sure that the sauce does not burn. Continue to reduce your sauce until it is a thick glaze, about 6-7 minutes. Remove the pan from the heat and set it aside.
- Cut the chicken into one-inch chunks and place it in a bowl with cornstarch or arrowroot powder. Make sure to get each piece completely covered with the powder.
- Add coconut oil to a non-stick skillet and heat over medium. When the oil is hot, add the chicken in batches, making sure not to crowd it. Brown the chicken on each side until crispy and remove from the skillet.
- Once all of the chicken pieces have been cooked, wipe the leftover oil and any burnt pieces out of the pan. All your chicken back into the pan along with the sauce from earlier.
- Toss the chicken and sauce together over low heat to allow the sauce to fully coat the chicken and be absorbed.
- Top with sliced green onions and sesame seeds. Enjoy!!
Notes
If you would like to make this recipe vegetarian, use tofu instead of chicken. To prepare the tofu, remove it from its packaging and press all of the liquid out of it.
You can do this by layering paper towels or kitchen towels around the tofu and resting a heavy pan on top of the tofu to extract liquid from it.
Leave it for about an hour in order to get as much liquid out of the tofu as possible. Cube the tofu into one-inch chunks and follow the same directions for the chicken preparation, coating it in cornstarch or arrowroot, and saute in a non-stick skillet.
Be sure not to crowd the chicken when coating it in starch as it will not get evenly coated.
Nutrition Information:
Yield:
4Serving Size:
1Amount Per Serving: Calories: 273Total Fat: 7gSaturated Fat: 2gTrans Fat: 0gUnsaturated Fat: 4gCholesterol: 97mgSodium: 827mgCarbohydrates: 15gFiber: 0gSugar: 9gProtein: 37g