Yum
Now you can have take out at home! My kids, as I did until I was a teenager, turned their noses up at Chinese food. It wasn’t until my girlfriend and I dragged them to The River Mandarin, my favorite place in the city for Chinese food. They served many flavorful dishes, Beef “the River”, Lychee Chicken, Tamarind Eggplant, Veggie Mooshi and our personal favorite, Lemon Ginger Chicken. We went there pretty religiously for our birthdays and most often placed a double order of the Lemon Ginger Chicken because we all loved it so much there just never seemed to be enough of it to satiate us.
It was a good stroke of luck that I dragged my mother to our favorite place because as it turned out she tasted our favorite dish and was easily able to replicate it. It’s just a given that I asked her to figure it out and let me know what to do. Good thing I did that because years later the River Mandarin closed and we were no longer able to get our favorite dish, we haven’t been able to find a great version of it anywhere… that is if course until we started making it at home.
Here’s our favorite River Mandarin meal…. Hope you enjoy it as much as we do! Thanks River Mandarin and even more than that, thanks mom!
Lemon Ginger Chicken
Chicken:
- Chicken breasts sliced thin – easier to do if par-frozen or with a slicer
- Mix the egg whites and cornstarch to make a runny paste
- Coat the chicken in the egg white/corn starch mixture and fry in a pan of canola oil until golden brown, take out and place on paper towel to drain off the oil. Reserve.
Sauce:
- 1 Cup (preferably freshly squeezed) Lemon juice
- 3 Cups Water
- 1 Cup Sugar
- ¼ Cup (or more depending on your tolerance for heat) of hot pickled peppers cut into smaller pieces
- 1 inch of fresh ginger sliced thin
- 2 Cups of your favorite veggies; carrots, cauliflower, snap peas, onions all sliced on the diagonal
- Slices of lemons and green onions for garnish
Mix lemon juice, sugar and water and cornstarch in a saucepan. Add the rest of the ingredients and let boil until it thickens to a gravy-like consistency, add the reserved chicken and mix, then serve hot on a bed of rice.