Marion’s Best Lemon Chicken recipe | Marion's Kitchen (2024)

FAQs

What does Ina Garten serve with her lemon chicken? ›

The sauce has garlic, thyme and lemon, and has so much flavor," Garten says. "And the whole thing takes like 5 minutes to put together... The best thing about this is that it makes the chicken and the sauce at the same time." Serve it over rice or quinoa, and the grains can absorb all of the sauce, Garten recommends.

Here's why: Lemon juice helps to tenderize meat, but when left for too long, it will break down the proteins too much, making the meat tough and rubbery… sometimes even mushy. So, if you want tender, juicy, and flavorful chicken, make sure to only marinate the chicken for 2-3 hours.

Cut the Chicken

Mix well with your hands and let marinate for at least 20 minutes. Next, mix the sauce by combining chicken stock, lemon juice, lemon zest, sugar, honey, distilled white vinegar, and cornstarch. I always like to premix my sauce to have it ready to go during the fast cooking process.

Lemon Chicken

This is entry level Chinese food at it's finest, mostly because it's not really Chinese food. You can find variations of this dish across Chinese restaurants in North America, Australia and the UK, but just about the only place you'll find it in China is in Hong Kong, because—as I said above—white people.

The one meal Ina simply couldn't live without is roast chicken. She even cites it as one of the reasons her husband, Jeffrey, proposed marriage in 1968.

[5] found that chicken breast meat marinated in lemon juice had higher juiciness and lower hardness, but was inferior in overall appearance compared to meat marinated in grapefruit juice and citric acid.

Most recipes for marinating meat and poultry recommend six hours up to 24 hours. It is safe to keep the food in the marinade longer, but after two days it is possible that the marinade can start to break down the fibers of the meat, causing it to become mushy.

From a food safety perspective, washing raw poultry, beef, pork, lamb or veal before cooking it is not recommended as the safest method. If you wash meat or poultry, some bacteria can be splashed on the surfaces of your kitchen, which can make you sick if not properly cleaned and sanitized.

Like pickling, smoking, and curing, the practice of rinsing chicken with lemon juice probably started out as a way to neutralize any off-aromas in the meat and cut down on bacteria.

What is lemon glaze made of? ›

Lemon Glaze Recipe FAQs

This recipe has 4 ingredients, powdered sugar, lemon juice, whole milk, and vanilla extract.

The lemon also denatures proteins on the surface of the chicken, similar to how citrus "cooks" fish in ceviche. This will impart a tenderizing effect, making the chicken softer and juicier as a bonus. Vinegar also works as a cleaning agent due to its similar acidity.

In Chinese cooking, proteins like beef, pork or chicken are velveted first before stir-frying them. There are several ways to velvet, but at its most basic level, it involves marinating meat with at least one ingredient that will make it alkaline. This is what tenderizes the meat, especially cheaper, tougher cuts.

Velvet chicken is a Chinese cooking technique where boneless, skinless chicken pieces are coated in a mixture of baking soda, cornstarch, wine, and seasoning, then briefly cooked resulting in tender, velvety chicken that easily absorbs sauces. In some methods, egg white is also included.

Lemon Chicken

Tender chicken breast marinated in a white wine, fresh citrus juices and seasonings lightly breaded and fried. Topped with a zesty lemon sauce.

Lemon: Pairs especially well with almond, apricot, basil, berries, black pepper, cardamom, cherry, citrus, coconut, hazelnut, ginger, mint, nectarine, peach, plum, prickly pear, rosemary, thyme, tropical fruit, and vanilla.

Ina cooks her roast chicken uncovered in the oven, then tents it with foil for 20 minutes once the bird is done cooking. This keeps the meat moist until it's ready to carve and serve.

Ina loves her All-Clad stainless steel cookware and has had some of her All-Clad pans for over 40 years. She loves that it cooks food evenly, keeps the heat and is easy to clean.