Home Cooking: Steamed Lemon Chicken (22 Oct 2008)

Neil Perry recipe

SMH Good Living, 21 October 2008

Sometimes I get inspired to cook at home and when a recipe is labeled 'very very easy' then even a novice like myself hopefully can't go too wrong. I wanted to make this yesterday but couldn't for the life of me find any peanut oil in my local Coles. So thankfully tonight Woolworths had some and the local Asian grocery had the shaoxing wine. Although, I couldn't find any packaged chicken thighs with the skin still on so I guess you'd have to get from a chicken shop. The only drama was pouring 2 tbsp of sesame oil instead of 2 tsp but it luckily didn't seem to ruin the marinade and final taste.

I'll definitely add this one to my recipe scrapbook because it's pretty simple and yummy, and maybe add a few slivers of fresh chilli too.

Steamed lemon chicken on rice, Chef Leong :-)

Serves 2 with rice

350 g free-range or organic chicken thigh fillets, skin on, each cut into 3 pieces

1 1/2 lemons, quartered lengthways

A pinch of freshly ground white pepper

2 spring onions, cut into julienne

For the marinade:

1 tbsp shaoxing wine

1 1/2 tbsp light soy sauce

1 1/2 tbsp oyster sauce

2 tsp sesame oil (2 teapsoons!)

1 tbsp peanut oil

2 tsp sea salt

1 tbsp sugar

Place the chicken in a shallow heatproof bowl and squeeze the juice from the lemons over the top, then add the lemon skins to the bowl as well.

Add all the marinade ingredients to the bowl, mix thoroughly and leave for 30 minutes.

Cover the bowl tightly with foil and place in a large bamboo steamer over a pot of a wok of rapidly boiling water. Put the lid on and steam the chicken for 25 minutes, removing the lid and foil to turn the chicken once during this time (Simon note: I might not turn next time as it's a little messy to do and not sure if it's really necessary).

Turn off the heat and carefully remove the bowl from the steamer. Remove the foil and sprinkle with the pepper and spring onions and serve.