Jade has a school outing on Sunday and I thought I would make a bento box for her lunch. She loves fried chicken, so I made some cute, little chicken nuggets with a sweet/sour lemon glaze.
Inspiration for the fried nuggets at http://www.smokywok.com. I marinated the chicken thigh pieces in a melange of garlic, spring onions and ginger before dusting in flour and deep frying. I then tossed the warm nuggets in an easy to prepare lemon glaze.
Pictures of the bento box will be available on Sunday.
Lemon Chicken Nuggets
6 chicken thighs, boned and cut into nuggets
3 garlic cloves, chopped
4 spring onions, chopped
1 inch of ginger, chopped
2 tbsp sesame seed oil
4 tbsp rice vinegar
1 tbsp sake
1 tbsp mirin
2 tbsp soy sauce
Flour
Peanut oil
Juice of one lemon
1/4 cup rice vinegar
1/4 cup sugar
1/2 tsp lemon peel, grated
1 tbsp cornstarch
2 tbsp water
Make the marinade by mixing the onions, garlic, ginger, sesame oil, vinegar, sake, mirin and soy sauce. Put in a zip lock with the chicken, squish around and refrigerate for 2 hours. Remove from refrigerator, drain and dust with flour. Deep fry in peanut oil until golden brown. Drain on paper towels.
To make the glaze, in a sauce pan, mix together the rice vinegar, sugar, lemon peel, cornstarch and water. Bring to a boil and cook until thickened. Pour over the warm chicken nuggets.
Now that looks seriously tasty. Really glad I happened upon your blog, lots of lovely food and great photos.
I want to try this recipe.
Cheers
Marcus
Thank you Marcus. I’m glad you stopped by!
Rosemary
Appealing to all senses. We definitely eat with our eyes first! Your pictures are beautiful.
Thank you Murphy.
This looks like a lovely simple and quite delicious recipe, i love to combine lemon with chicken and a great secret of mine is that i LOVE crunchy food.. This is a good doable recipe.. thank you c
Thanks Ceciliag. I love crunchy also. Bon appetit!
I love this sauce and I think the peanut oil would really add to the flavor.
I like the peanut oil because it fries evenly. Since I’ve been using it for deep frying, I don’t want to use any other.
I just love fried food with lemon!! It is such a delicious combination. I think adding lemon to fried food is such a clever idea since it gives the perfect balance…the lemon glaze is truly amazing touch!!
Thank you Ambrosiana. The sweet and sour glaze was perfect with the chicken.
Jade is very lucky, this looks delicious and I am sure to try it myself….RaeDi
Thanks RaeDi, Jade feels pretty lucky 🙂
Chicken nuggets are a sublime finger food (of course I eat mine with a fork anyway) but my goodness, the food styling is just so spot on, and I love the contrast in colors esp the red.
Thank you Marie. Your site is fantastic and my food styling cannot compete. Thanks again.
Wow!! My family loves chicken. Can’t wait to make it for them. Great pics!!
Thank you Mike
A themed potluck at work had me browsing recipes on Tastespotting. It is no wonder I came across one of yours as your photos stand out from the crowd. Simply amazing photography; no doubt the chicken is as well!