or lemon chicken, you will need:

8 chicken thighs, with bone and skin
juice of two lemons
1 onion, thinly sliced
6 tbsp dark soya sauce
4 slices of fresh ginger
1 tsp salt
2 heaped tbsp sugar
1 chicken stock cube
4 tbsp oil
1/2 tsp sesame oil
water

(serves 4)

In a large wok, boil 700ml water. Lower the chicken thighs into the boiling water and turn off the heat. Remove the thighs after 2 minutes. The reason for doing this is to remove some of the fat and to part-cook the outside of the chicken in order for the seasoning to be absorbed more easily. Discard the water. Put the chicken in a large bowl. Toss in the soya sauce and mix well. Let the chicken sit in the soya sauce for an hour.

After an hour, heat the oil in a lidded wok with the onion and ginger slices. When warm, add the chicken pieces and fry until the outside is slightly brown. Add the juice, 250ml water, the stock cube, sugar, the rest of the soya sauce (if any) and salt. Bring back to boil, cover and simmer for 40 minutes, checking from time to time that nothing is sticking to the bottom. Since some lemons are sharper than others, taste to see if more sugar is needed to balance the taste. Stir in the sesame oil. Serve with steamed rice.