Air fryer lemon chicken
- Prepare
- less than 30 mins
- Cook
- 10 to 30 mins
- Serve
- Serves 3
Using an air fryer makes this Chinese takeaway-style lemon chicken super crispy – it’s deliciously tangy, too. When it's this easy, who needs a takeaway?
By Becky Excell
Ingredients
For the lemon chicken
- chicken breast: 400g/14oz chicken breast mini-fillets
- cornflour: 70²µ/2½´Ç³ú cornflour
- vegetable oil: vegetable oil spray, for cooking
- salt: 1 tsp salt
For the sauce
- lemons: 2 small lemons, juice only (about 6 tbsp)
- caster sugar: 6 tbsp caster sugar
- ginger: ½ tsp ginger paste
- chilli: ¼ tsp dried red chilli flakes, plus extra to serve
- cornflour: 2 tbsp cornflour
To serve (optional)
- 1 spring onion, thinly sliced
- rice: rice
Method
To make the lemon chicken, add the chicken, cornflour and salt to a large mixing bowl and toss until well coated, squeezing the chicken and compacting it with the cornflour as much as you can.
Heat the air fryer to 200C. Lightly spray oil into the air fryer, place your coated chicken in, spray again with oil and cook for 8–10 minutes, turning halfway through.
To make the sauce, mix the lemon juice, sugar, ginger and chilli together with 215ml/7¼fl oz water. Place a wok over a medium heat, add the sauce and bring to the boil, then simmer for 3–4 minutes.
Mix together the cornflour with 4 tablespoons of water. After your sauce has simmered, drizzle the cornflour and water mixture into the wok and stir in immediately. Simmer for around 3 minutes, continuing to stir, until the sauce thickens.
Finally, add your crispy chicken to the wok, briefly stir and serve immediately topped with the spring onion, a few chilli flakes and some rice alongside, if you like.
Recipe tips
Tofu would work well here for a vegan version.
