Chilli chicken
Chilli chicken is a hot and spicy Indo-Chinese chicken starter recipe. It is made by deep-frying the spicy batter-coated chicken followed by stir-frying in a sweet and spicy sauce along with onions and peppers.
The batter is prepared differently in different places based on people’s preferences. Though this chilli chicken is usually made with boneless by many, some use chicken with bones too.
How to make soft chilli chicken?
Cooking chicken is an art I would say. Not simply cooking I mean to make it with perfection. What is a perfectly cooked chicken? Chicken cooked with its natural juices and keeping its tenderness intact even after cooked is a perfectly cooked one.
Most of the time we use broiler chicken which has lots of water and fat naturally and can be cooked very fast within eight to ten minutes. If the chicken has bones in it an extra three to five minutes. Never cook the chicken pieces for more than 12 minutes.
Overcooking chicken yields rubbery rough meat and will lose all its tenderness. It is a different case with a country hen which is naturally grown without artificial feed. That country chicken may need extra cooking time and pressure cooking may be the fast preferred method.
What is the difference between Chilli chicken and Chicken Manchurian?
Chilli chicken is the one where boneless chicken pieces are dipped in spicy flour batter, deep-fried in oil and sautéed in a thick chili-soy sauce base along with onions and peppers. Chilli chicken is also called Chicken chilli dry in some places.
Whereas a traditional Chinese Chicken Manchurian is basically a cooked meatball(minced & spiced chicken ball) dunked in chilli soy sauce gravy.
If you are a Chinese food lover check out these delicious Indo Chinese recipes:
For similar easy chicken starter recipes:
Watch the video here and please subscribe to my YouTube channel if you like to see more recipe videos ????
Chilli chicken recipe | How to make Indo- Chinese Chilli chicken
Equipment
- Frying pan
- slotted ladle
- mixing bowls
Ingredients
- 750 g Chicken boneless
To marinate:
- 1 whole Egg
- 2 tbsp All-purpose flour
- 2 tbsp Corn starch
- ½ tsp Pepper powder
- ¾ tsp Salt
- 1 tbsp Red chilli sauce
To make sauce:
- 1 tbsp Soya sauce
- 1 tbsp Tomato ketchup
- ½ lemon juice or 1tbsp vinegar
- ½ tsp Salt
- 1 tsp Sugar
- 3/4 tsp Pepper powder
- 1 cup Water
Other Ingredients:
- Oil to fry (4tbsp to make Chilli chicken)
- 1 tsp Garlic chopped
- 1 cup Onions chopped
- 1 cup Green onions
- 1 Green chilli slit
- ¾ cup mixed color Capsicum/ Bell peppers julienne cut
Instructions
Preparation:
- Clean 750g of boneless chicken pieces thoroughly with running water and drain the water.
- Pat the chicken pieces with kitchen towels or tissues to remove the excess water.
How to do Chicken marination:
- In a large bowl take the chicken and add one egg.
- Add 2 tbsp of all-purpose flour and 2 tbsp of corn starch with 1/2 tsp of black pepper powder and 3/4 tsp of salt.
- Next, add approx. 1 tbsp of red chilli sauce and combine all the ingredients well.
- Keep this marination aside for some 20 minutes.
Recipe:
- Heat oil in a frying pan to deep fry the marinated chicken pieces.
- Fry the chicken in batches giving enough space between each other.
- Deep fry the bottom sides of the pieces for 3 minutes approximately in medium-high heat.
- When the bottom sides are golden brown, flip the sides and fry the other sides for 3 more minutes.
- Remove the fried chicken from the oil and repeat the same for remaining batches. Switch off the stove.
How to make chilli chicken sauce base:
- To mix the sauce base take 1tbsp soy sauce in a bowl and add 1tbsp of tomato ketchup.
- Add the juice of a half lemon or 1tbsp vinegar.
- Next add 1/2tsp of salt, 1tsp of sugar, 3/4tsp of pepper powder and 1cup plain water.
- Mix everything well and this is our base chilli chicken sauce.
- Remove excess oil from the frying pan leaving 4tbsp for making the sauce.
- Heat the pan again and fry 1 tsp chopped garlic and saute in high heat for 30seconds.
- Add 1 cup chopped onion and saute well for 3mins until it becomes deep brown color.
- Next, add 1 cup of green onions and stir quickly with one slit green chilli.
- Now add one cup of mixed color capsicum strings (Julienne cut) and saute for a few seconds.
- Now add the prepared sauce and stir for a minute.
- When sauce thickens, add the fried chicken pieces and saute in high heat.
- Let the sauce coat well on the chicken pieces for two minutes on high temperature.
- Garnish with green onions and switch off.
- Serve the Chilli chicken hot.
Video
Notes
1) Try to use thigh pieces of chicken for soft and tender chilli chicken. If you are using boneless chicken pieces, reduce the cooking time based on the size of the pieces. Breast chicken pieces tend to become hard and rough when overcooked.
2) This Indo Chinese Chilli chicken is meant to be hot and spicy because of the bell peppers and chillies and sauce we add. Do not skip capsicum as it highlights the recipe.
Nutrition
Preparation:
- Clean 750g of boneless chicken pieces thoroughly with running water and drain the water.
- Pat the chicken pieces with kitchen towels or tissues to remove the excess water.
How to do Chicken marination:
- In a large bowl take the chicken and add one whole egg.
- Add 2 tbsp of all-purpose flour and 2 tbsp of corn starch with 1/2 tsp of black pepper powder and 3/4 tsp of salt.
- Next, add approx. 1 tbsp of red chilli sauce and combine all the ingredients well.
- Keep this marination aside for some 20 minutes.
Recipe:
- Heat oil in a frying pan to deep fry the chicken pieces.
- Fry the chicken in batches giving enough space between each other.
- Deep fry the bottom sides of the pieces for 3 minutes approximately in medium-high heat.
- When the bottom sides are golden brown, flip the sides and fry the other sides for 3 more minutes.
- Remove the chicken from the oil and repeat the same for the remaining batches. Switch off the stove.
How to make chilli chicken sauce base:
- To mix the sauce base take 1tbsp soy sauce in a bowl and add 1tbsp of tomato ketchup.
- Add the juice of a half lemon or 1tbsp vinegar and 1tbsp of red chilli sauce.
- Next add 1/2tsp of salt, 1tsp of sugar, 3/4tsp of pepper powder and 1 cup plain water.
- Mix everything well and this is our base chilli chicken sauce.
- Remove excess oil from the frying pan leaving 4tbsp for making the sauce.
- Heat the pan again and fry 1 tsp chopped garlic and saute in high heat for 30seconds.
- Add 1 cup onion and saute well for 3mins until it becomes deep brown color.
- Next, add 1 cup of green onions and stir quickly with one slit green chilli.
- Now add one cup of mixed color capsicum strings (Julienne cut) and saute for a few seconds.
- Now add the sauce and stir for a minute.
- When sauce thickens, add the fried chicken pieces and saute in high heat.
- Let the sauce coat well on the chicken pieces for two minutes at a high temperature.
- Garnish with green onions and switch off.
- Serve the Chilli chicken hot.
Tips:
1) Try to use thigh pieces of chicken for soft and tender chilli chicken. If you are using boneless chicken pieces, reduce the cooking time according to the size of the pieces. Breast chicken pieces tend to become hard and rough when you cook beyond 5 minutes.
2) This Indo-Chinese Chilli chicken is to be hot and spicy because of the bell peppers and chillies and sauce we add. Do not skip capsicum as it highlights the recipe.
Awww very nice & tasty