Lemon Chicken

This is one of my favourite recipes and always goes down well with guests, yet is simple to make.

 It is a low fat variation of a dish which is common in many different cuisines in various parts of the world and avoids any fatty or sugary ingredients usually found in this type of dish. It is a bit of an acquired taste but read on and you'll discover how to sweeten it a little without adding calories

For 2-3 people, depending how hungry you are, you'll need the following:

Ingredients for Lemon Chicken

• 4 chicken breasts (preferably organic)
• 2 unwaxed lemons
• Small piece of fresh ginger root
• Tamari soy sauce
• Olive oil
• Balsamic vinegar

Cooking Instructions for Lemon Chicken

•  Chop the chicken into small pieces and fry in a little olive oil
•  Squeeze the lemons and remove the pips from the juice
•  Grate the lemons and add the zest to the juice
•  Grate a little of the ginger and add to the juice
•  Add a dash of tamari (wheat free, if you can't tolerate wheat, otherwise any soy sauce is fine) soy sauce and a dash of balsamic vinegar to the juice

• Once the chicken is cooked - I like it slightly brown, but that's up to you - tip it onto some kitchen towel on a plate and pat with the towel to absorb the excess oil
• Remove any remaining oil from the pan and add the juice
• Return the chicken to the pan and heat for a further 5-10 minutes, making sure the chicken doesn't stick
• Serve with rice and stir fry vegetables, and pour any remaining juice over the chicken. If you want to cut out the rice, steam some extra vegetables, such as spinach and broccoli.

Variations

You can add garlic if you like. I don't, as I usually serve several (fake!) Chinese dishes at once and include plenty of garlic in the others. Garlic is an excellent alternative to salt, which is not good for you, especially if you are overweight and can lead to high blood pressure. Although salt is necessary in the diet, there is usually enough already added to food we eat on a daily basis and so adding salt to food is not necessary.

But if you do like extra flavour, garlic will give you plenty of additional taste and has many well documented health benefits.

Not Sweet Enough?

If you find that this recipe is too bitter, you can add the juice of an orange, or some unsweetened pineapple, orange or apricot juice, either from a carton of juice or from a tin of fruit which is in unsweetened juice. This will make your lemon chicken sweeter - only add sugar or sweetener if you absolutely must.

Vegetarian Version

For vegetarians, or just for a change, you can make the same dish using dofu (tofu, bean curd). This makes it a very cheap dish for those of you on a budget. I find this tastes better if you marinate the dofu in the sauce for a few hours or overnight. For some reason, lemon chicken tastes just as good cooked straight away!

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