One of the quickest, easiest, and most delicious ways to elevate your weeknight chicken game is to build balanced Asian flavors that are better than any take out or delivery meal you could order.

And it doesn’t have to take forever to do it!

Usually, you can make the dish in less time than it takes to pick up take out or for a delivery order to arrive.

So, what’s stopping you from creating your own take out at home?

Well, if you’re stuck in a recipe rut, jump out of that rut with Creme de la Crumb’s Sticky Chinese Lemon Chicken recipe!

I made this recipe on a night when I was seriously contemplating ordering Chinese food. I’m really glad I stepped up and into my kitchen to try this.

After marinating the chicken, this dish comes together in less than 30 minutes and will knock the socks off your family.

An added bonus is that this was a pantry pull for me. We had all the ingredients on hand and, really, I had no excuse not to make it.

Simple to Make−Sticky Chinese Lemon Chicken

Get the recipe from: Creme de la Crumb

I’m a huge fan of sticky, sweet, and spicy when it’s well balanced with an acidic counterpoint. And the Sticky Chinese Lemon Chicken didn’t disappoint.

The gooeyness of the chicken starts out sweet, but then you get an underlying burst of lemon that doesn’t overpower, but balances out the sweetness of the honey and sugar.

Even my husband, who always tells me when things are too sweet, noted that the lemon pulled this dish together for him.

Sticky Chinese Lemon Chicken

Seven things to know about the Sticky Chinese Lemon Chicken Recipe:

  • This recipe time listed doesn’t include the marinating time. The recipe calls for at least a 30-minute marinade for best results, but that time isn’t built in to the listed prep and cooking time. The good news is you can prep the marinade and drop the chicken into it up to 24 hours before you cook. Don’t go any longer than 24 hours, though, or you run the risk of the chicken starting to break down.
  • The marinade comes together quickly and it took me less than 5 minutes to prep the marinade, cut the chicken and get it soaking.
Sticky Chinese Lemon Chicken
  • You can easily make this recipe gluten free by swapping the soy sauce for tamari (which is usually GF) or coconut aminos and making sure you use gluten-free chicken broth. Tamari is the gluten free soy sauce option (always double check the label to ensure it’s GF) that provides a thicker, richer depth of flavor than soy which is thinner and saltier. If you are going to substitute tamari, use the amount indicated for the soy sauce, then taste your marinade and the sauce mixture and adjust the amount of tamari based on your flavor preference. Coconut aminos, made from the fermented sap of coconut palm and sea salt, is a salty, savory GF soy sauce substitute. It’s soy, wheat, and gluten free and no, it doesn’t taste like coconuts.
  • This is a pantry pull dinner for me. We typically always have these ingredients on hand which pushes this recipe to the top of my “we’ll be making this again” list. It’s a great go-to for a busy weeknight when you can’t get to the store but still want to put something filling and delicious on the table.
  • My chicken took a bit longer than than the 6-8 minutes indicated in the recipe. It probably took about 12 minutes total, which is still a quick-prep in my kitchen. No complaints here.
Sticky Chinese Lemon Chicken
  • This is a sticky sweet chicken but the sweet is offset nicely by the lemon. Given the amount of lemon indicated, I thought the lemon would take over the dish. Instead, it provides an underlying lemon flavor that isn’t overpowering and plays nicely off the sweetness of the sugar and the honey.
  • For an added crunch, sprinkle on crispy wontons or roughly chopped peanuts on top just prior to serving.
Sticky Chinese Lemon Chicken