Lemon Chicken and fresh Lemon Curd

Just a quick post - I made this for dinner this week. Everyone LOVED it...except for my younger son. He said it was "too lemony." Whatever.

I'm eating the remaining lemon curd for a snack as I post this. Yummy!!

Lemon Curd

3 oz. (6 Tbs.) unsalted butter, softened at room temperature
1 cup sugar
2 large eggs
2 large egg yolks
2/3 cup fresh lemon juice
1 tsp. grated lemon zest

In a large bowl, beat the butter and sugar with an electric mixer, about 2 min. Slowly add the eggs and yolks. Beat for 1 min. Mix in the lemon juice. The mixture might look curdled, but it will smooth out as it cooks.

In a medium, heavy-based saucepan, cook the mixture over low heat until it looks smooth. (The curdled appearance disappears as the butter in the mixture melts.) Increase the heat to medium and cook, stirring constantly, until the mixture thickens, about 15 min. It should leave a path on the back of a spoon and will read 170°F on a thermometer. Don't let the mixture boil.

Remove the curd from the heat; stir in the lemon zest. Transfer the curd to a bowl. Press plastic wrap on the surface of the lemon curd to keep a skin from forming and chill the curd in the refrigerator. The curd will thicken further as it cools. Covered tightly, it will keep in the refrigerator for a week and in the freezer for 2 months.


Lemon Chicken

1 1/2 pounds chicken breast or chicken tenders, cut into chunks
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
Coarse salt
2 tablespoons wok or vegetable oil
1 tablespoon white or rice wine vinegar (a splash)
1/2 cup chicken broth or stock
8 ounces prepared lemon curd (1 cup)
1/4 cup hot water
1 lemon, zested
2 scallions, thinly sliced or 20 blades fresh chives, finely chopped

Coat the chunks of chicken lightly in flour, seasoned with a little salt.

Heat a large skillet or a wok-shaped nonstick pan over high heat with oil, about two turns of the pan. Stir fry chicken until golden, 3-4 minutes. Remove chicken from the pan and return pan to heat. Reduce heat to medium.

Add a splash of vinegar to the pan and let it evaporate. Add stock or broth to the pan and scrape up any drippings with a whisk. Thin curd by stirring in the hot water. Add curd to broth and whisk to combine. Add chicken back to the pan and simmer for 1-2 minutes to thicken sauce and finish cooking chicken pieces through. Remove the pan from heat, add the scallions or chives and zest and toss chicken pieces well to combine zest and scallions or chives evenly throughout the sauce.

note: I didn’t think this had enough “sauce” for my taste (and the rest of the family agreed). Next time I will double the amount – thus using the entire batch of lemon curd.

You can also BUY lemon curd, of course, and the lemon curd recipe can be used for a LOT of things besides this!