Honey Lemon Chicken

A healthy dinner for two.  Crispy honey lemon chicken with thick tangy lemon sauce.  This is healthier version of Chinese Lemon Chicken as the chicken is marinated and baked to get a golden crunch coating and it takes less then 30 minute to make, like my Healthy Teriyaki Chicken.

The lemon sauce is sweetened naturally using a little honey instead of sugar.  This is a Asian takeout dish big on flavour and once you've had this healthy lemon chicken, you’ll be saying bye bye to buying it.

The problem with many lemon chicken recipes is that they use alot of oil, are often deep fried and contain lots of white sugar to get the lemon sauce perfectly balanced. Not this one though.

Why Make This Recipe?

• There's no deep frying and no white sugar. Uses minimal oil only.
• Its quick and easy to make and can be on the table in under 25 minutes
• The sauce is sweet, tangy and thick and can be used as a dipping sauce or over the chicken and tossed through
• It makes for great leftovers the next day
• Its a perfect date night dinner as it serves two, but is easy to scale up for four or six people.

Ingredients for Perfect Crunchy Chicken

Lemon Sauce Ingredients

How To Make

Chicken

1. Marinate Chicken:   In a large bowl, add the egg, soy sauce, Rice Wine Vinegar and whisk together. Add chicken strips and coat in the marinade.

2. Prepare flour mix: Add cornflour/cornstarch and Chinese five spice powder to a bowl and mix together.
3. Coat Chicken Strips in Flour: Remove chicken strips from marinade one at a time, shake off excess and dip in cornflour/cornstarch, until coated.  Place strip on a large oiled baking tray. Repeat until all chicken strips are done.  Discard the marinade.

4. Lightly Spray Chicken Strips with Oil: Spray chicken strips again all over with a quick 3 second spray, making sure there are no big white spots of cornflour/cornstarch visible.

5. Bake for 15 minutes.  Make sauce whilst chicken is baking.
6. When chicken is cooked, use a spatula to lift the pieces off, making sure to scrape up all the crunchy bits – you want to keep those.  Put chicken into a large bowl ready for the sauce.

Lemon Sauce

1. Heat Sauce Ingredients: Add lemon juice, rind, chicken stock/broth, honey and rice wine vinegar to a pot on high heat. Stir through until it reaches a simmer and is gently bubbling.
2. Thicken Sauce: Combine cornflour/cornstarch with  water in a small bow and mix.  Pour into the lemon sauce whilst it is still hot and on the stove.  It will thicken quickly.  Remove from heat once desired consistency is reached.

Expert Tips

• Thickening Sauce: The lemon sauce must be very hot (just bubbling, not boiling) before you thicken it.  If you attempt to thicken the sauce and it is not hot enough, the thickening process will not occur.
• Other uses for sauce:   This lemon sauce would also work well as a finishing sauce with grilled or lightly pan fried chicken breast, salmon or firm white fish.

Serving Options

• Rice: steamed jasmine rice, or brown rice work well. Using pre-cooked rice that you heat in the microwave for a minute or two works wonders and is great if you're short on time.
• Noodles: precooked packet noodles thrown in at the end of cooking while the wok is on medium heat, along with the lemon sauce and chicken
• Steamed Greens: some of my favourites are steamed broccoli, zucchini, and green beans
• Stirfry Veg: add some quick cooking veg to the wok with half the sauce to cook for a few minutes. Some suggestions include thinly sliced capcisums/bell peppers, baby spinach, snow peas, sliced red onion, thinly sliced green cabbage, or any other sliced vegetable that will soften and cook in a couple of minutes.

Honey Lemon Chicken is on our dinner menu regularly because its quick to make, there’s no fussy ingredients. Its like healthy homemade chinese lemon chicken, and you know exactly what has gone into it.

Its juicy, crispy and perfect with the sweet and source tangy lemon sauce.

You might also like to check out this Chinese Garlic Chicken with a healthy twist. Its quick to make and is great for meal prepping.

More Quick Dinners

• Healthy Gochujang Chicken
• Quick and Healthy Chicken Teriyaki
• Easy Szechuan Style Chinese Beef and Greens (Low carb!)
• Clean Eating Thai Green Curry
• Deliciously Authentic Clean Butter Chicken
• super simple Thai Cashew Nut Chicken.

Honey Lemon Chicken

Kim MorrisKim

Crispy honey lemon chicken with thick sweet and tangy lemon sauce.  This is healthier version of Chinese Lemon Chicken as the chicken is marinated and baked to get a golden crunch coating.

4.87 from 15 votes

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Course Dinner

Servings 2 people

Calories 427 kcal

Prep Time 10 minutes mins

Cook Time 15 minutes mins

Total Time 25 minutes mins

Ingredients

 

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Chicken

• ▢ 300 grams skinless chicken breast - sliced into strips
• ▢ 1 medium egg
• ▢ 2 tablespoons Soy sauce
• ▢ 1 tablespoon Rice Wine Vinegar
• ▢ ½ cup cornflour/cornstarch
• ▢ 1 teaspoon Chinese five spice powder
• ▢ Spray Oil

Lemon Sauce

• ▢ ¼ cup Lemon juice freshly squeezed
• ▢ 2 tablespoons Lemon rind - finely grated
• ▢ ⅓ cup Chicken stock/broth
• ▢ 2 tablespoons Honey
• ▢ 1 tablespoon Rice Wine Vinegar
• ▢ 2 tablespoons cornflour/cornstarch
• ▢ 2 tablespoons tap water

Other

• ▢ 1 teaspoon white Sesame Seeds
• ▢ ¼ cup Spring onions/scallions - sliced
• ▢ 2 cups Cooked Jasmine rice

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Instructions

 

Chicken

• Preheat oven to 180 degrees C. or 320 degrees F. In a large bowl, add egg, soy sauce, 1 tablespoon of Rice Wine Vinegar. Whisk together with a fork, add chicken strips and coat with marinade.
• In a large bowl, add ½ cup of cornflour (or cornstarch) and 1 teaspoon Chinese five spice powder. Mix to combine.
• Remove chicken strips from marinade one at a time, shake off excess and dip in cornflour/cornstarch, until coated. Place strip on a large oiled baking tray. Repeat until all chicken strips are done. Discard the marinade.
• Spray chicken strips again all over with a quick 3 second spray, making sure there are no big white spots of cornflour/cornstarch visible.
• Bake for 15 minutes. Make sauce whilst chicken is baking.
• When chicken is cooked, use a spatula to lift the pieces off, making sure to scrape up all the crunchy bits – you want to keep those. Put chicken into a large bowl ready for the sauce.

Lemon Sauce

• Add the lemon juice, rind, chicken stock/broth, honey and 1 tablespoon of rice wine vinegar to a pot in high heat. Stir through until it reaches a simmer and is gently bubbling.
• To thicken sauce, combine cornflour/cornstarch with water in a small bow and mix. Pour into the lemon sauce whilst it is still hot and on the stove. It will thicken quickly. Remove from heat once desired consistency is reached. (see note 3)

Serving

• In a large bowl, add the chicken strips, and half of the lemon sauce and toss together. Add half the sesame seeds and spring onions and toss.
• Divide rice evenly between 2 bowls. Divide chicken and arrange on top of rice. Drizzle remaining lemon sauce over chicken, and sprinkle left over sesame seeds and spring onions.

Notes

1. Type of Chicken: in lieu of using chicken strips, you could use the same amount of chicken tenders instead, and cut them up afte they’ve baked, however you’ll end up with less crunch. 
2. Cooking Chicken: If you’re worried about the chicken sticking to the tray, line it with baking paper before putting down the chicken strips to prevent sticking.  (You’ll still need to spray the chicken before going into the oven)
3. Thickening Sauce: The lemon sauce must be very hot (just bubbling, not boiling) before you thicken it.  If you attempt to thicken the sauce and it is not hot enough, the thickening process will not occur.

Nutrition

Calories: 427kcalCarbohydrates: 87gProtein: 43gFat: 8gSaturated Fat: 2gFiber: 2gSugar: 8g

Note: Sugars contained in this recipe are from naturally occurring sugars in fruits, vegetables or other natural sweeteners. Calories have been calculated for your convenience using My Fitness Pal and are based on the ingredients listed in the recipe card.

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