Chinese Lemon Chicken Recipe

Separate chicken pieces into two halves and 'open them by butterflying the thicker parts. This levels out the thickness so they will cook evenly. Marinate chicken 30 minutes. For the sauce slice the lemon into very thin slices. Remove seeds. Add the water, brown sugar and vinegar to a small sauce pan. Bring to a boil and simmer until lemon slices are soft. The skins will almost turn brown as they caramelize and are delicious. Thicken the sauce with a cornstarch/water mixture and cook until transparent. Break an egg over the marinating chicken and mix well. Dip chicken pieces in cornstarch and shallow fry. Remove chicken to chopping board and chop into pieces. Serve over a bed of rice and spoon the sauce over the breasts.

Notes: Chinese usually serve meat in bite size pieces as chopsticks are the utensil of choice. I don't know about today in China, but the chef's cleaver was at one time about the only knife in a Chinese household. Shallow frying is the technique of using just enough oil on the bottom of the skillet or wok to fry the chicken breasts. Deep frying is just not necessary; and if deep frying is not done just perfectly at the correct temperature, etc your chicken will absorb far too much oil than you need. I cook only with peanut oil. It has a high temperature smoking point, and is just next to Olive Oil in healthy anti-cholesteral attributes.