Two things!
1 – I’m sorry this is late, I’m in Dalaran dealing with some stuff. Honestly, I’m not even supposed to be posting this, but I managed to sneak away to write this. If my healer found out, I’d get my butt kicked.
2 – I’m trying out something new! Themed months! They might not be every single month, but if people like this, then it could be a lot of fun. Have an idea for a style, theme or culture you want to see for a month? Drop a comment!
For those of you who doesn’t know, I learned basic cooking in Pandaria. By basic, I mean basic. Boiling water, making rice, sun-drying fruit. But it was there that my life started turning around. I learned how to read Pandaren before I could read Orcish or Common, and memories of sitting on a cushion at a low table at lessons with a steaming bowl of rice beside me are near and dear to my heart. So at my one year anniversary of coming to Stormwind, I wanted to honor the generous Pandaren that took me in.
One of my favorite dishes from Pandaria are the ones that are savory and sweet. Sweet and sour plainshawk, marshrunner sauce, and today’s recipe, lemon plainshawk!
Before we begin, I have an admission to make. In the Valley of the Winds, recipes are made BIG. Everything is BIG actually. The people, the vegetation, the animals, the appetites. One Plainshawk breast is a bit…
…well it’s overkill…
So instead, I decided to use more local poultry. Humans love to eat chicken meat, so this instead uses chicken.
So with that knowledge in mind, here’s the updated cast of characters. Four chicken breasts (these were a bit small due to the season), an egg (I had a second egg on retainer just in case it wasn’t enough for our purposes, so think a little ahead). We also need corn starch (about .5 cup plus another tablespoon for the sauce), .25 cup flour, ½ cup (120 ml) of fresh lemon juice – which was about two big lemon’s worth — .25 cup sugar and 2/3 cup water. Of course, you also want salt and pepper to taste. To add an extra Pandaren flair, I threw some spices in the flour as well.
For spices, I used ground garlic, ginger and onion, as well as the salt and pepper. If pressed, I’d say it was about a 1 to 1.5 tsp each.
So first you want to cut up your chicken into bite sized chunks. I made mine roughly an inch cubes, but I wasn’t exactly a Magister about it. Once cut, you want to take the egg in a medium bowl and beat it like you would if you were scrambling eggs. I used too small of a bowl because… I forgot to do dishes before this… So I did mine in batches.
Beat the egg all good.
Add the poultry and coat it well! Then in a much larger bowl, combine the flour, the bigger portion of the corn starch, and the spices.
Making a huge mess because you got a bit enthusiastic with the flump sound powders make is entirely optional. If someone else cleans for you, I recommend making a huge mess.
Working in batches, add the eggy chicken to the flour….
And roll it around to coat! When you’re done, it should look like…
This!
Once all your nuggets are coated, get some oil heating up. You can kinda just watch it and make sure it’s not cooking too fast, but I think it was around 350F/175C in the oil.
I didn’t use enough oil. Use more oil than this. I don’t know why I was being stingy but I was.
I eventually got annoyed at myself and added about twice as much oil. You want to fry them until they are golden on all sides.
While that’s going, use a small saucepan and combine the sugar, water and lemon juice. Once it’s combined, and starting to heat up, spoon a little bit into a small glass and whisk in your remaining corn starch. The reason we do this separate is to control the clumpiness. Corn starch is used in sauces to make it thick, but it can be really stupid sometimes. So we contain that stupidity in a glass.
Once the main liquid is boiling, pour the corn starch in and let it simmer while you finish with the nuggets.
Make sure you TASTE the sauce!!! Mine came out a bit tart, so I added about another tablespoon of sugar to cut it down a bit. I also figured out a super secret ingredient that kinda brought it to another level.
Just a dash of soy sauce. Don’t tell anyone. It’s our secret.
Once the nuggets are done, let the sauce cool a bit. Then you’re ready to plate!! You can either make this a fancy meal with white rice and some steamed or stir fried veg, or you can make it into a rice bowl, or even by itself just dunked in the sauce.
I did that a few times… it was delicious… no regrets.
Ingredients (chicken):
- 3-4 chicken breasts
- 1 egg
- 1/2 cup corn starch
- 1/4 cup flour
- 1.5 tsp salt
- 1.5 tsp pepper
- 1.5 tsp onion powder
- 1.5 tsp garlic powder
- Oil for frying
Ingredients (sauce):
- .5 cup (120 ml) fresh lemon juice (about 2 big lemons)
- 2/3 cup (160 ml)
- 1/4 cup sugar (more if needed)
- 1 Tbsp corn starch
Instructions:
- Cut the chicken into bite sized pieces
- Crack the egg into a medium sized bowl and beat it
- Mix the cornstarch, flour and spices together
- In batches, dunk the chicken in the egg, then the flour
- Heat the oil to around 350F/175C and (also in batches) fry the chicken until golden on all sides
- Mix lemon juice, water and sugar in a saucepan and start to heat up
- Spoon off some of the liquid into a cup and mix the tablespoon of cornstarch into a slurry
- Bring the bulk liquid to a simmer, then add the corn starch
- Taste test and see if you need to sweeten or add soy sauce. Make sure you like the flavor, now is the time to modify
- Let the sauce cool a bit to thicken
- Serve over white rice or by itself
Feed the Horde 