Hong Kong-style lemon chicken

Name: Hong Kong-style lemon chicken
Cuisine: Asian, Chinese
Ingredients: 3-4 boneless and skinless chicken breasts (500g); 750ml vegetable oil, plus 1 tbsp extra for the pak choi; 3 baby pak choi (120g), quartered lengthways; 1 tsp sugar; 2 tsp Shaoxing wine; 2 tsp soy sauce; ½ tsp white pepper; fine sea salt; 1 tbsp vegetable oil; 1 garlic clove, peeled and smashed with the flat of a large knife; 4cm piece ginger, peeled and finely sliced into strips (15g); 1 tsp bouillon powder, a chicken one, ideally; 3 tbsp sugar; 1 tsp instant custard powder, or milk powder; 2 lemons, halved – zest finely grated to get 1½ tsp, juiced to get 45ml lemon juice, and one half-lemon thinly sliced into half-moons; 1 red chilli, thinly sliced; 1 tsp cornflour; 140g cornflour; 2 eggs

Instructions

This will be nostalgic for anyone who automatically defaults towards this dish when ordering a Chinese takeaway. There are all sorts of variations in the way the batter and sauce are made, but this one, I find, just seems to taste better every time I make it.

Updated at: Fri, 09 Jan 2026 14:05:37 GMT