Chinese Style Lemon Chicken

This is another one I have to post now or I will forget what I did.  The recipe for this came from the book my sister Karley gave me, but it ended up getting plenty doctored.  (Sorry Karley.)  I didn't have mushroom seasoning (haven't for ages or I would have made this long ago.)  So I just did something else for marinade.  I also didn't know if my sister really meant rice wine because what I have is rice vinegar, so I made that part up too.  I also didn't feel like frying this in 4 cups of oil.  I'm pretty anti-deep fry, so I just fried them in 2 batches with about 2 Tablespoons of oil per batch.  But I wanted them extra breaded, so I chopped my chicken into strips.....
I'd also had trouble with this lemon sauce being super thin.  I ended up tripling the cornstarch and it was still super thin.  Next time I think I'd just cut out 1/2 cup water.  (I didn't have enough lemon juice anyway, so that would make it a stronger lemon flavor.)
So, this is what I ended up doing.

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 chicken breast (I had 4 smallish ones)
• 3 eggs, lightly beaten
• 1 cup flour
• 2 cups panko breadcrumbs
• 1/4 cup vegetable oil
• 1 1/2 teaspoons soy sauce
• 1 1/2 teaspoons sherry
• 1 1/2 teaspoons rice vinegar
• 1/4 teaspoon pepper
• 2-3 large lemons, makes 3/4 cups juice (I used 4 regular lemons and it was only 1/2 cup juice)
• zest of 2 lemons (not in original recipe, but I was super glad I added it when I had less juice that it 
• 1 cup sugar (If lowering the water, I may lower this to 3/4 cups)
• 1 1/2 cup water (I'd use only 1 cup next time)
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 2 Tablespoon cornstarch mixed with 3 Tablespoons water

Directions

1. Cut each chicken breast into 3-5 strips (about 1 inch wide)  Mix soy sauce, rice vinegar, sherry and pepper.  Marinate chicken in soy sauce mixture for 15 minutes or overnight.  
2. Mix lemon juice, zest, sugar, water and salt in a saucepan and bring to boil.  Add the cornstarch mixture and stir until thickened.  Turn off heat.
3. Place the flour, eggs, and bread crumbs in different bowls.  Heat 2 Tablespoons of oil until hot in a large skillet.  Dip marinated chicken in flour, then egg, then breadcrumbs.  Cook each side until golden brown.  (Using this method I wanted to make sure they got all the way done in the middle so I checked them with my thermometer.  I liked cooking them with the lid on.   Seemed to help them come to temperature better without burning.)  
4. I served mine over rice with the lemon sauce poured on top.

I served this with some stir fried broccoli.  Doesn't get it's own post because I was making it up and didn't measure anything, but it was good so I'm going to write it down.  Measurements are just guesses.

Ingredients

• 1/2 teaspoon sesame oil
• 1/2 teaspoon minced garlic
• 1/2 tablespoon butter
• a couple of dashes of soy sauce - 1/2-1 teaspoon??
• 3-4 cups of broccoli  (whatever was left the opened bag in my freezer.)

Directions

1. Heat sesame oil, garlic, butter and soy sauce in a saucepan or wok until butter is melted and sauce is bubbly.  Add broccoli.  Stir fry until broccoli is desired tenderness.