Chilli chicken is a popular Indo-Chinese recipe with batter-fried chicken smothered in a sauce with sweet and spicy elements.

A plate of crispy chilli chicken is always a hit with the family.

You can cook and serve it as an appetizer or as a side dish.

It’s so easy to make and with a little prep work, you can have a platter of chilli chicken ready in no time.

Chinese Chilli chicken recipe

Just imagine biting into these small bites of batter-fried chicken, crispy on the outside and still tender and juicy on the inside.

The boneless batter-fried chicken tastes wonderful when they are mixed in this spicy thick sauce.

The spicy sauce includes ginger garlic, soy sauce, and chilli sauce among other ingredients giving the Chinese-style chicken appetizer its addictive flavours.

The Indo-Chinese cooking style used to make the chilli chicken stir fry helps to bring out the best of the ingredients you use.

Marinating and batter-frying the chicken cubes and then mixing them with a sauce just adds flavour upon flavour to this dish.

What to serve with chilli chicken

• Here are a few rice recipes to serve the chilli chicken with.
  • Easy lemon rice recipe.
  • Serve with a bowl of plain, steaming white rice, here’s how to cook rice on the stove.
  • Sri Lankan Yellow Rice(turmeric rice)
  • vegetable fried rice(spicy).
  • mixed fried rice.

• You can also serve the dry chilli chicken with garlic naan, or paratha.
• You can even stuff spoons of this chilli chicken into buns or wraps.

Tips on making chilli chicken.

• Having all your ingredients and utensils ready eases your cooking flow.

• You’ll notice that there are a lot of ingredients that increase the spiciness of the dish, adjust them as you see fit.
• If you are serving kids then replace the hot sauces with mild or sweeter sauces.
• The green chillies can be replaced with bell peppers.
• Cut the chicken cubes into smaller pieces because when they are coated in batter, they do increase in size.
• You can double the amount of the wet ingredients and make extra chilli chicken gravy or sauce.

Utensils and appliances needed

• Chopping board Knife
• Deep frying pan
• Platter with paper kitchen towels to soak in the oil
• Tongs
• Large pan to assemble the chilli chicken dish

recipes like chilli chicken to try

Gobi Manchurian(cauliflower Manchurian)

Chicken 65

Sri Lankan deviled chicken

Hot butter cuttlefish

Deep-fried hot butter mushroom

Sri Lankan devilled prawns

Sri Lankan devilled fish

Storing

Can be stored in air-tight containers.

Freezing

Avoid freezing, refrigerate and consume within 2 days.

Stop food waste by

Add it to a bowl of leftover rice and make quick fried rice.

RECIPE DIFFICULTY
LITTLE CARE NEEDED

The ingredients mentioned below use standard measuring cups and spoons.

The ingredients to make chilli chicken

To marinate the chicken

500g of boneless chicken cubes cut into small cubes

1/2 teaspoon of Kashmiri chilli powder(substitute with red chilli powder or paprika)

1 tablespoon of ginger-garlic paste(make your own by simply mincing 3 cloves of garlic and 2″ ginger pieces together)

2 tablespoons of white vinegar(any type of vinegar except apple cider vinegar)

Salt to season

1/2 teaspoon black pepper powder

3 tablespoons of regular flour

3 tablespoons of cornflour

1/4 cup water

1 cup of oil to deep fry the chicken cubes

To make the chilli chicken sauce

3 tablespoons of oil

3 green chillies split in the middle

5 cloves of garlic sliced fine

1″ ginger sliced thin

1 large onion sliced fine

2 green chillies split

2 tablespoons of hot sauce(any type of hot sauce would do)

2 tablespoons of tomato ketchup

2 tablespoons of soy sauce

1 tablespoon of sugar

1/2 teaspoon of red chilli powder(if you are worried about the spiciness of this dish you can omit it)

1 red bell pepper diced(optional)

1 green pepper diced(optional)

How to make dry chilli chicken

Marinating the chicken cubes for chilli chicken.

If you purchased 700g of boneless chicken breast, cut them into 1″ cubes or purchase pre-cut chicken cubes. set aside

Into a large bowl, add the chicken cubes, and Kashmiri chilli powder(1/2 a tsp, substitute with regular red chilli powder or paprika).

Salt to season, ginger garlic paste(1 tbsp, make your own by simply mincing 3 cloves of garlic and 2″ ginger pieces together), vinegar(2 tbsp, any type of vinegar except apple cider), pepper powder(1/2 tsp).

Combine well and leave to marinate for 15 minutes.

Mix the cornflour(3 tbsp), and flour(3 tbsp)with water(1/4 cup)until smooth.

Pour into the marinating chicken and set aside for a further 10 minutes.

How to deep fry the chicken cubes.

Add oil(1 cup)to a deep pan, and heat oil for 1-2 minutes over low-medium heat.

Gently drop a little marinating batter into the oil, if it sizzles and rises, the oil is ready to deep fry the chicken cubes.

Deep fry the chicken cubes in small batches, if you fry them in a small pan and drop too many pieces of the battered chicken they will stick together. small batches, dropped at a little distance from each piece will avoid this.

Fry them for 7-9 minutes, gently turning them so they turn golden and fry evenly.

Place them on the plate with paper kitchen towels.

Once you’ve fried the chicken cubes set them aside and move on to making the chilli chicken sauce(gravy)

How to prepare the chilli chicken sauce(gravy)

Place a large flat frying pan over low medium heat and pour in the oil.

Once the oil(3 tbsp) heats, add the sliced garlic(5 cloves sliced) and ginger(1″ sliced).

Cook until the edges turn golden.

And then add the onions(1 large sliced fine) and green chillies(2).

You can also add bell peppers but I’ve not added them here.

Add the hot sauce(2 tbsp), tomato ketchup(2 tbsp), soy sauce(2 tbsp), sugar(1 tbsp).

Cook for 1-2 minutes over low medium heat.

Taste and season with salt and pepper if you need to increase the heat of the sauce.

Add the batter-fried chicken into the chilli chicken sauce.

Combine well and serve warm to retain the crispiness of the batter-fried chicken.

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