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Makes
approximately 20 chicken drumettes or 50 cubes of chicken.
Author Notes
Lemon is one of my desert island must-haves.With very few ingredients,lemon juice, tamari, ginger,and a crispy coating, this chicken is moist and tender and packs quite a flavor punch. It is my riff on a recipe in the Intercontinental Gourmet Cookbook(from about 30 years ago, in the days when I was still handcopying recipes out of library books and onto 3x5 cards!)
—LeBec Fin
Ingredients
- Chicken Marinade
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2 pounds
chicken drumettes or boneless skinless chicken breast, cut into 1- 1 1/2 inch cubes
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1/4 cup
fresh lemon juice
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1/8 cup
Japanese soy sauce or tamari
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1/2 teaspoon
kosher salt
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1/4 cup
gingerroot, skin-on; sliced into thin coins and smashed with side of cleaver
- Coating and Frying the Chicken
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1 1/2 cups
whole wheat or kamut(or white) flour
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1 1/2 teaspoons
sweet paprika
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1 teaspoon
each kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste
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2 quarts
canola oil
Directions
- Chicken Marinade
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In a non aluminum bowl, mix lemon juice , soy and salt til salt is dissolved. Add ginger. Add chicken and stir to coat all pieces.If you use drumettes, poke them all over with a sharp skewer Let marinade 5 hours at room temperature, stirring up the chicken cubes every hour or the drumettes every 1/2 hour. After this period, cook them or refrigerate them (but not longer than 24 hours orthe marinade acids will break down the protein too much and the chicken will get mushy.) If chilled, remove chicken from refrigerator two hours before frying- to come down to room temperature.
- Coating and Frying the Chicken
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Mix flour through paprika in plastic container with tight fitting lid. In a pot big enough so that the oil is at least 3 inches deep, heat oil to 365 degrees F. Place some chicken in flour container so that it is not crowded, snap lid tightly and shake well to coat chicken. When placing chicken in the hot oil, do not crowd the pieces. Fry drumettes 5 minutes or cubes approximately 3 minutes until cooked through but moist. Remove with slotted spatula to drain on paper towels on top of folded newspaper. As oil returns to temperature, continue frying batches of chicken, re-tossing in flour just before frying- to assure a dry coating.. As an hors d'oeuvre, one chicken cube could be placed on the end of a short skewer, or the drumettes could be served as is. As an entree either type could be served as is.
My eating passions are Japanese, Indian, Mexican; with Italian and French following close behind. Turkish/Arabic/Mediterranean cuisines are my latest culinary fascination. My desert island ABCs are actually 4 Cs: citrus, cumin, cilantro, cardamom, and GARLIC! I am so excited by the level of sophistication that I see on Food52 and hope to contribute recipes that will inspire you like yours do me. I would like to ask a favor of all who do try a recipe of mine > Would you plse review it and tell me truthfully how it worked for you and/or how you think it would be better? I know many times we feel that we don't want to hurt someone's feelings, but. i really do want your honest feedback because it can only help me improve the recipe.Thanks so much.
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