2 whole chicken breasts
1/3 cup water chestnut powder
1/3 cup lemon sauce
5 cup vegetable oil
1 tbsp water
1/2 tbsp sugar
1 cornstarch paste
Directions
Preparation: Pull chicken skin from breasts, then carefully pull
meat from breast bone, keeping meat intact. Thin inner filet will
come off separately. Cut meat across the grain into strips about 3/4"
wide by 1 1/2" long. Put water chestnut powder in bowl large enough
to hold chicken, & deep enough to keep powder from flying around. Add
chicken pieces a few at a time, tossing gently to thoroughly coat
each piece; they should be entirely white. Leave them in bowl while
you prepare sauce. Sauce: In small saucepan, mix prepared lemon sauce
(we suggest Mee Chun brand from Hong Kong), water & sugar. Bring to
boil; reduce heat & simmer for 2 minutes. Just before serving,
thicken with cornstarch paste to consistency of a fudge sauce.
Deep-frying: In deep-fryer or wok, slowly heat oil to deep-frying
temperature. (Don't let oil smoke.) Test with piece of chicken: it
should reach a medium brown in about 35 seconds. Fry chicken in
batches of 5-6 pieces at a time; drain. Place on serving plate,
keeping warm until ready to serve. Pour lemon sauce over chicken at
last minute. Serves 4
Servings: 4 servings
Lemon Chicken (04/26/93) Recipe brought to you by Recipe Ideas
Categories: Chicken; Fruit; Poultry
The History of Recipes
It is quite feasible to prove the history of transcribed cooking instructions far back into ancient history, in truth as far into history as the Egyptians, and possibly even further. In practice though, in the main part, these old cook books were just primitive pictorial recipes for preparing food.
In fact, the most ancient recipe discovered, according to food historians is a series of stone tablets in Sumerian which show the preparation of bread which is then used to make a drink, quite possibly a form of beer as it is recorded as having made those who drank it feel `wonderful`. Later on, there were two interesting recipe books from the 1300s ; a cookery book called `Forme of Cury`, and another named `Curye on Inglish`. The titles are a little misleading though, these books are not about the spicy food that is served today, but rather recipes for the types of food cooked for the upper classes of the period. For the centuries that followed, the rich and powerful families of the West tried to serve up the best banquets, and consequentially cooks and their recipe collections were at a premium. Notwithstanding that, it wasn`t until the nineteenth century that cooking and cookery books became really popular. The Famous Mrs Beeton in the UK, and the equally famous Fannie Farmer in the US, devoted their lives to collating, testing, and writing down the recipes of their peers. By the advent of the twentieth century, cookery books were increasing in popularity due to better eduction, more free time and having more money to spend. The introduction of the TV gave us celebrity chefs and the spin-off recipe books. And that brings us to the present day and the invention of computers and the internet, allowing everyone to access thousands of recipes like the ones you can find on this recipe site. |
We hope you enjoy this Lemon Chicken (04_26_93) recipe.
