Lemon Chicken Stir-fry

I don't really like lemon with chicken, although I am forced sometimes to eat chicken flavoured with lemons. One of which was Hadi's lemon roast chicken (unblogged) that he was particularly proud of. A lot of people love lemon chicken, Hadi included. Even though I don't, I thought it might be interesting to use it once in a dinner, hehe. So here we go. :)

What you need:
6 chicken drumsticks, deboned
2 tablespoons light soy sauce
5 tablespoons cornflour
1 bunch spring onions
1 lemon
1 garlic clove, crushed (I used 1 tablespoon garlic granules)
1 1/2 tablespoons sugar
2/3 cup liquid chicken stock
Oil, for frying
Salt and black pepper, for seasoning

What you do:

1. Cut the chicken into 1 inch strips. Put in a bowl with the soy sauce and leave for at least 10 minutes. Sprinkle on 4 tablespoons of the cornflour and toss to coat.
2. Trim the roots and cut the spring onions diagonally into 1/2 inch pieces. With a vegetable peeler, remove the lemon rind (yellow bit of the lemon skin) in thin strips and cut into fine shreds. Reserve the lemon juice.
3. Blend the garlic, sugar, chicken stock, lemon juice and remaining cornflour into a paste, with water.
4. Heat about a tablespoon of the oil in a wok. Add the chicken pieces and pan fry until golden brown. (Or, alternatively and even better, deep fry the pieces in a lot of oil). Remove to a dish and keep warm.
5. Add the cut spring onions to the pan and fry for 2 minutes.
6. Add the remaining ingredients (lemon rind, and lemon juice mixture) with the chicken, and bring to a boil, stirring until thickened. Add more stock if necassary, and adjust seasoning. Stir until the chicken is evenly covered with sauce. Reheat for 2 minutes, and serve immediately.

I must say, peeling the lemon rind with our vegetable peeler was pretty hard, meh. Maybe because its really blunt, haha. Though why its blunt, I don't know, because we *never* use it. Oh well. I tried getting as much of the rind out as possible, but only did half the lemon before I gave up, haha. :D I also tried cutting it into as this strips as possible, but was lacking the patience.

Anyway, about frying the chicken, if you're hardworking enough with a large supply of oil, do deep fry it. It will drastically improve the texture. I was thinking of baking it in the oven, but was too lazy, meh. So I just shallow-fried it, which gave it some crunchy bits on the chicken, but not all over. Just places where it was "seared" by the pot, haha. Although, in saying that, this was a really easy dish. Less than an hour from cutting the chicken to serving it for dinner. Quite nice. :)

Hadi and Justin, of course, loved it. Hadi's first impression was that it was very "Chinese-y". But the boys have always loved chicken with lemons, for some reason. The lemons did give my *hands* a nice fresh smell, but I don't really like the way they tasted with the chicken, meh. It was nice, oh yes, just not my taste, hehe. I was able to have the chicken, but the sauce was way too much for me.

I do remember though, a few years ago, Hadi and Ka Anum were fans of this particular lemon dish.... hmm... what was it called? It had honey and lemon, so honey lemon chicken maybe? I never had it, but it sounds nice, hehe. You could probably substitute the sugar here with honey if you want. I might even sprinkle on some roasted sesame seeds (if I ever make this again) just to give it extra decoration. Its a beautiful dish! Golden pieces of chicken, with yellow strips of lemon rind and green spring onions, hehe.

Hmmmm.... I miss air limau kasturi... *drool* The limes here aren't the same as limau kasturi, it seems. They're huge! o.o But I should try making lemonade once... It won't be so bad as a drink, I think.

Quote of the day: When fate hands you a lemon, make lemonade.