Lemon chicken is a popular dish around the world, with variations in different cuisines. Simple recipes involve pan-frying or baking chicken with lemon, garlic, and herbs, while fancier versions add white wine, olives, or mushrooms. Marinating chicken in soy sauce and lemon juice produces a healthier version. The dish is versatile and can be customized with different ingredients, such as sherry, raspberries, or herbs.
Home cooking around the world knows that nothing cheers up a chicken like a little lemon. Lemon chicken means different things to different cooks. To a Greek, it might suggest the delicious avgolemono tart, or egg lemon soup, while to a Chinese cook it means fried chicken in a sweetly rich lemon glaze. Italian cooks have perfected the holy trio of breaded chicken cutlets, capers and a lemon wine sauce, and French cooks have created incredibly delicious lemon cream chicken recipes.
There are 1,000 ways to make lemon chicken, and 1,000 variations on each of those ways. The simplest recipes call for bone-in or boneless chicken, lemon, maybe some garlic and onion, and any herbs the cook desires. The chicken is pan-fried or baked along with the onions and garlic, with lemon squeezed over the chicken and herbs sprinkled. A slightly fancier version sautés garlic and onion in butter or olive oil and a little white wine, and might add olives or mushrooms to the sauce.
Once the home cook has mastered these easy approaches, a craving for lemon chicken in all its forms is likely to arise. A lemon chicken dish that has remained popular for decades for both its ease of preparation and delicious flavors calls for flattening boneless chicken breasts between waxed paper, dredging the breasts in egg and flour, then lightly sautéing them in olive oil. ‘olive. After the breasts are removed, the cook adds white wine or sherry to the pan and then the lemon, reducing this sauce by half. Butter or oil adds thickness, weight, and flavor; capers and fresh herbs added just before the sauce is poured over the chicken finish off the dish.
Calorie- and health-conscious cooks looking for a recipe that won’t leave anyone feeling overlooked can marinate chicken breasts in a mixture of soy sauce and lemon juice to which garlic, paprika and lemon zest have been added. Packing each breast in foil with a handful of roughly chopped herbs and cooking the packs until steamed chicken produces incredibly moist meat, with lemon and very little fat.
This food combo is a wonderful starting point for novice cooks interested in creating their own recipes. The two main ingredients, lemon and chicken, are willing to play with sherry or another sweeter wine instead of white wine. Throwing a few raspberries or pomegranate seeds into the sauce adds rubies of color and an unexpected, fruity taste. Mint, basil, or both make this dish sparkle.
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