Chilli Chicken

Chilli Chicken is one of the amazing and popular Indo-Chinese appetiser served in most of the Indo- Chinese restaurant. Made with fried chicken/baked chicken, peppers, green chillies, onions and few sauces this chilli chicken is sweet, spicy as well as sour and serves as a best accompaniment for fried rice/noodles.

I have tried and made chilli chicken the same way every single time and have succeeded in getting the same taste with this recipe. I have tried both frying and baking the marinated chicken and both tasted equally good. The whole recipe can be made vegan by substituting the chicken with paneer, tofu, cauliflower, potato or even broccoli.

So let’s jump on to the recipe shall we?

INGREDIENTS

Serves – 6-8

Oil (Sesame/any other neutral flavoured oil) – 2 tbsp
Onion – 1 medium, cut into cubes and the layers separated
Coloured Pepper – 1.5 cups, cut into cubes
Ginger – 2 tsp finely chopped
Garlic – 1 tbsp finely chopped
Green chillies – 2 finely chopped
Red Chillies (any spicy variety) – 5-6
Light Soy Sauce – 3 Tbsp
Dark Soy Sauce – 1 Tbsp
Ketchup – 2 tbsp
Corn flour – 1 tbsp
Water – ¼ – ½ cup
Rice vinegar – 1.5 tsp (optional)
Scallions/ Spring onions – to garnish
Salt – To taste

For Marination

Chicken breast – 3 large, cut into bite size cubes
Light soy sauce – 1tbsp
Dark soy Sauce – 2 tsp
Ginger Garlic paste – 1.5 tsp
Red Chilli powder /Paprika – 2 tsp
Pepper powder – 1 tsp (optional)
Lime juice – 2 tbsp
Salt – to taste

To Deep fry/ Bake

Oil – as required for deep frying
Corn flour – 2-3 tbsp
Red food colour – A small pinch (optional)
All purpose flour – 2 tbsp (if deep frying)

METHOD

1. Marinate the diced/cubed chicken with the light and dark soy sauce, pepper powder, red chilli powder, ginger garlic sauce, salt and lemon juice. Set aside for about 3-4 hrs or overnight.

2. After the marination coat the chicken with food colouring and cornflour uniformly.

3. Bake the marinated chicken in an 180° preheated oven for about 15-20 minutes.

4. While the chicken gets ready, soak the red chillies in hot water for about 15 minutes. Grind to a coarse paste with little water and keep ready.

5. Also dissolve the corn flour in enough water to make a slurry.

6. Once the chicken is ready, heat some oil in a pan. Add in the chopped ginger, garlic and green chillies and fry till the garlic starts to turn brown.

7. Add in the cubed onion and fry for about 30-40 seconds.

8. Add the coloured peppers and fry for few more seconds.

9. At this stage add in the red chilli paste, tomato ketchup, rice vinegar and the soy sauce. Mix well and check for salt. Add in the water and let it come to a boil.

10. When it starts boiling and add in the prepared cornflour slurry and mix well.

11. When the whole sauce thickens add the baked/ fried chicken into it and mix well. Let cook for 30 seconds more and take off the flame.

12. Garnish with scallions and serve hot with fried rice/noodles.

NOTES

You can use any store bought red chilli paste instead of making one at home.
The chicken can also be soaked in butter milk prior to marination for a more juicier texture.
If deep frying the chicken, add in some all purpose flour along with the corn flour before frying the marinated chicken.
Adding the food colour is completely optional.