I love to just make up random recipes. Sometimes I have no idea what type of dish I am going to end up with and sometimes I know exactly what I want but no clue how I am going to get there.
Two of my friends asked me if we could make dinner at my house and if I would teach them how to make Chinese. So we decided to make Lemon Chicken and WonTons
Somehow, this simple meal turned into a crazy complicated one. We ended up with lemon chicken over sticky rice with egg rolls, won tons, pot stickers and a vegetable stir fry. We obviously had a ton of leftovers because that in a ridiculous amount of food.
I hate recipes for Chinese food because they never taste like you hope they will or they have crazy ingredients in them that I am pretty sure petrify your insides as soon as you swallow your food. So I improvised one for my lemon chicken. I made a Sprite batter for the chicken and fried it in a small wok.
I don't actually measure when I cook so these are approximates but I know that they are really close.
Lemon Chicken:
8 oz Sprite
2 eggs
2 1/2 cups flour
garlic salt
Vegetable oil
Two boneless, skinless chicken breasts
Combine the Sprite, eggs, and 1/2 cup of the flour in a bowl and mix well.
Combine the rest of the flour, the garlic salt (as much as you like) and any other seasonings that make you feel whole in a separate bowl.
Cut the chicken into bite sized pieces and then dump them in the Sprite mixture, then the flour mixture, then the Sprite mixture again and then set on a plate.
Heat oil in a Wok (I prefer to use about 3/4 cup oil in a very small wok because the chicken seems to come out more juicy and there always seems to be more oil left over in the pan- maybe that's just my imagination, but its how it works out for me)
Place the chicken in the wok and cook over medium low heat until cooked thoroughly.
For the sauce, we used an online recipe for a jumping off point and just altered it as we went.
Sauce:
1/3 cup sugar
2 T corn starch
1 cup Chicken Broth
2 T lemon juice
3/4 t salt
3 lemon slices
Combine all ingredients in a small pot and heat; stirring constantly.
The recipe said to heat 2 T of oil and then add the sauce to it and heat... I thought that was unnecessary.
I introduced my friend Megan to won tons- she is now in love.
Three ingredients... wonton wrappers, cream cheese, oil. Put the cream cheese in the wrapper and fry in the oil. Best thing ever... don't make a lot though because you will eat them... as the three of us (especially Megan :) ) found out. Because of this, we did not make the stir fry... maybe next time.
Follow up a good meal with a FRIENDS marathon and the night can't get any better:)
