Fried chicken, crispy chicken, chicken schnitzel: Is there another dish so ubiquitous and yet, so particular? Everyone has one, yes, but everyone has their own. Fried chicken is beloved globally. In the world of things that can be marinated, coated and fried, chicken is hard to beat.

Once crispy and tender, chicken is the dish holding so many events together. Whether it’s a plate passed around a small family supper or a platter slid across the pass of a restaurant chain, chances are, there’s chicken on it.

The name of a chicken dish can change and, in so doing, says much about the time it came from. That was the case with gong bao ji ding, the Chinese chicken dish with peanuts, named after the late-19th century governor of Sichuan, Ding Baozhen, whose official title was Gongbao. His association with the dish led Cultural Revolution radicals to change the name of the dish to hong bao ji ding — fast-fried chicken cubes. It stayed that way until the 1980s. Or the story can be one of movement, the journey a dish goes on within just one family, where the same secret recipe is guarded and passed down from one generation to the next. History and politics, time and place: These are all big stories in which fried chicken plays a small but real role.

And then there are the stories and memories of fried chicken eaten with friends and strangers on my travels through Asia and back home in London — including the westernized Chinese lemon chicken I often loosely base my own version on.

Along with those memories, I have the ingredients that take up permanent residence on my shelves, which I reach for whenever I cook: fresh and preserved lemon, cumin seeds and cilantro, butter and broth, soy sauce and eggs.

The result is a fast-food supper with a long, rich history: delicious enough to keep my kids at the table for long enough that I might actually get around to telling them some of the stories.

This Middle Eastern version uses a cheater’s preserved lemon paste and plenty of fresh lemon to brighten it up. You’ll make a little more preserved lemon paste than you need; use it for salad dressing, toss it with roasted vegetables, or swirl it into soups. Serve this dish with some lightly cooked greens and plain white rice.

Double Lemon Chicken

Ingredients for the chicken:

• 2 medium egg whites (save the yolks for another use)

• 2 tablespoons soy sauce

• 2 tablespoons cornstarch (cornflour)

• Salt and black pepper

• 4 large boneless, skinless chicken breasts

• 1/3 cup neutral oil, such as sunflower oil

• 1 spring onion, trimmed and finely sliced at an angle

• 1 tablespoon cilantro (coriander) leaves, roughly chopped

• 2 tablespoons lemon juice (from 1-2 lemons)

Ingredients for the preserved lemon paste:

• 1 large unwaxed lemon, ends trimmed and discarded, then cut into 1/4-inch-thick rounds, seeds removed

• 1/4 cup lemon juice (from 2 lemons)

• 2 teaspoons flaky sea salt

Ingredients for the lemon sauce:

• 3 cups chicken stock

• 1 1/2 tablespoons unsalted butter

• 2 garlic cloves, peeled and minced

• 1 tablespoon superfine sugar (caster sugar), or granulated sugar

• 1/8 teaspoon ground turmeric • 1 1/2 teaspoons cumin seeds, toasted and roughly crushed in a mortar and pestle • 1 1/2 tablespoons cornstarch (cornflour)

• 2 tablespoons lemon juice (from 1-2 lemons)

• Salt and black pepper

Directions:

Prepare the chicken: In a large bowl, whisk together the egg whites, soy sauce, cornstarch, 1/2 teaspoon salt and a good grind of pepper just until there aren’t any lumps, about 30 seconds. Working one breast at a time, place the chicken between 2 pieces of parchment paper and use a meat mallet to pound the chicken evenly so it’s a scant 1/2-inch thick. Transfer to the egg white bowl and continue with the remaining. Stir everything together gently to coat, and refrigerate to marinate for at least an hour.

Add all the ingredients to a small, lidded saucepan set over medium-high heat. Bring to a simmer, then lower the heat to medium-low, cover and cook for 12 to 14 minutes, or until the rinds start to look translucent and the juice has reduced by about half. Set aside to cool slightly, then transfer everything to a small food processor and blitz until you have a smooth, spreadable paste. Set aside 3 tablespoons for the sauce, then store the rest in a sealed container in the fridge for up to four weeks.

Make the sauce: Add the 3 tablespoons preserved lemon paste, the stock, butter, garlic, sugar, turmeric and half the cumin to a medium saucepan, then place it over medium-high heat. Bring to a boil, then cook, stirring occasionally, for 15 minutes, until reduced by about a third. Measure out roughly 3 tablespoons of the sauce into a small bowl, then add the cornstarch and whisk until there are no lumps. Whisk this back into the sauce pot and cook for 1 minute, whisking continuously, until smooth and thickened slightly. Remove from the heat.

Heat the oil in a large high-sided frying pan over a medium-high heat. Once hot, fry two of the chicken breasts for 3 minutes per side, or until nicely browned and just cooked through. It should release easily from the skillet with a little help from a metal spatula. Transfer to a paper towel-lined plate and continue with the remaining 2 breasts. Wipe out the frying pan, add the sauce and bring to a simmer over medium-high heat. Add back all the chicken breasts and cook for just 3 minutes, gently turning them halfway. Remove from the heat and stir in the 2 tablespoons of lemon juice.

Transfer the chicken breasts to a large serving platter with a lip and pour the sauce all over. Sprinkle with the remaining cumin. In a small bowl, toss together the spring onion, cilantro and remaining 2 tablespoons of lemon juice, and spoon this all over.

Total time: 1 hour 15 minutes, serves 4.

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