Sticky Lemon Chicken

Since starting this blog 2 of our favourite dishes have been the Caramel Lime Chicken and the Chicken and Basil stir-fry so I got to thinking about a bit of a fusion dish.  I loved the way the chicken was cooked in sugar in the Levi Root's recipe and wanted to use this method but get a more oriental taste.

We decided that rather than using lime we would use lemon (and more of it as we like sauce) so it became sticky lemon chicken.   The oriental flavours came from stir-frying garlic and shallots in fish sauce and soy sauce then adding it to the lemon juice and chicken.

Sticky Lemon Chicken

Here is what we did:

You will need: (for 2)

2 Tablespoons of Olive Oil
2 Tablespoons of Granulated Sugar
4 Chicken Thighs
4 Cloves of Garlic
Handful of small shallots
1 Tablespoon of Fish Sauce
1 Tablespoon of Soy Sauce (we use Gluten-Free)
2 Tablespoons Freshly Ground Black Pepper
Salt
Juice of 2 lemons

Serve on:

Stir fry veg and beansprouts

Method:

Roll Chicken thighs in the black pepper and a little salt.
In a heavy based pan, heat the oil over a medium heat and sprinkle the sugar evenly.
Leave to brown for about 5 minutes without stirring but do not let burn.
Put chicken in the pan skin down (upside down if skinless) and cover.
Cook for 10 minutes, turn chicken and add the lemon juice, re-cover and cover for a further 10 minutes.



Meanwhile in a hot wok, stir-fry the shallots and garlic in fish sauce and soy sauce for 5 minutes.

Add the garlic mix to the main pan and mix a little - leave for a further 5 mins.
Remove the chicken and keep warm.
Increase the heat and cook the sauce and juices till it thickens.
Meanwhile stir-fry the veg to serve the chicken on.

Build the dish with veg followed by chicken and spoon over the sauce, mmmmm








For us the sweet and sour flavours really worked.  If we were to improve it we would add a little chilli to the garlic and use boneless thighs.