During CNY big dinner for me, hubby and my best friend Hasilla Hassan and her hubby we have enormous dinner menu on the table-the best part is I’m cooking! It very hard rare for me to start cooking when it comes to holiday but hubby have request for some dishes to be cooked during this holiday and so be it.
We had steam sea bass with Thai cooking style, black pepper beef, dragon mushroom with oyster sauce, lemon chicken and baby kailan with oyster sauce and fried garlic. Delicious indeed, and while cooking we have extra guest coming with my brother. So we invite them to have dinner with us-MALAYSIA are well known about eating greeting 
Our CNY Dinner Big Menu
Black Pepper Beef with Lemon Chicken
Confection from one of my brother friend, she never taste lemon chicken before. Quite surprising for Malaysia who never taste lemon chicken but yet not all lemon chicken are available in the restaurant menu. The recipe derived from Chinese cooking style which hard to find halal restaurant served. We also ordered our lemon chicken dishes from Xing Zhu Restaurant, Cyberview Lodge and Putrajaya Seafood Restaurant by Tai Tong group. So our serving that night is a plus for her.
To prepare a chicken lemon wont take your time at all. We managed to serve all dishes 30 to 45 minutes. As chef always say, do the preparation in advance so that you will not be caught in the middle. The recipe is suitable for children because it has the sweetness, balance sourness and lots of protein.
Chinese Lemon Chicken
To cook the lemon chicken you will need following ingredients :
Ingredients A-to marinated the chicken
500gm boneless chicken -preferable without skin
1 full tablespoon of oyster sauce
1 small teaspoon of black pepper – to remove the chicken smell
1 full tablespoon of light soya sauce
1 beaten egg
3 full table spoon of Kentucky powder
Ingredients B – the lemon sauce
1 cup lemon concentrate – can be cordial or fresh squeeze lemon
** I’m using brickford lemon cordial. Very nice and refreshing
1 full table spoon of fish sauce
4 full table spoon of sugar – adjustable to you sweetness level
half cube chicken stock
2 full table spoon corn powder – to be melt in the water for thickening the sauce
To prepare it :
Ingredients A : Wash the chicken and cut into pieces. Preferable the size of your middle finger- but not that small or big. Nicely cut into bit size. Then put the black pepper, oyster sauce and light soya sauce onto the chicken and rub it so that every meat is cover and marinated. Leave about 10 to 20 minutes.
After the meat has absorb all the marinate sauce, deep the chicken into the beaten egg for coating and quickly tossed in the Kentucky powder. Make sure that the powder is well coat the chicken before you deep fried.
Heat the oils – any type of oils will do for deep frying the chicken. After that, turn the gas to medium and start deep in the chicken one by one into the frying pan. Make sure there is enough space for the chicken to move around. The fire need to slow down while putting the chicken into to avoid any unnecessary scene happen. This is also to prevent the coating burn while the chicken inside still raw.
After frying the chicken tossed on the plate that covered with tissue paper to eliminate the access oil. If you don;t do this, you will be leaving with soggy chicken instead of crispy chicken.
Ingredients B : Preparing the sauce will take around 6 to 10 minutes. First heat the pan with medium fire. Then pour the lemon juice/concentrate or cordial. While waiting for the juice to be heat up, pour the sugar, fish sauce and chicken stock into the pan. Then stir all together until boil. Then take a quick taste of it; the taste should reflect sweetness and sourness (not to sour) balance with the essence of fish and chicken stock. The essence should not overpowering the lemon taste. When you have taste it right, pour the corn powder that has be dilute with water to thicken the sauce. Quickly stir the mixture to avoid any crumple of the corn starch in the sauce. The sauce will be thicken and become clear. If you want to add some lemon cut into the sauce, this will be the correct time. The lemon cut will enhance the smell and taste. Taste your sauce for final inspection and once its perfect, served it by pour on top of the chicken or put side in a bowl for dipping.