Chilli Chicken Recipe
Chilli Chicken Recipe is an Indo-Chinese dish, it is battered chicken fried and smothered in a soy and chilli sauce. You would normally deep fry your chicken for this dish. However, the idea of deep-frying too often doesn’t appeal to me much. I therefore shallow fried the chicken in a little bit of peanut oil and it was still perfect. Be careful not to over cook your chicken though, chicken breasts can become rubbery when over-cooked. If you won’t compromise on the crispness of your chicken then I suggest you deep-fry them. Deep-frying definitely makes the chicken more crispy.
There are saucy versions and dry versions of Chilli Chicken. I cooked the dry version but you can double the recipe for the sauce, if you want a more saucy dish. This Chilli Chicken has the perfect balance of sweet and sour with the crunchiness of the peppers and onion, you definitely won’t have leftovers. My kids love this Chilli Chicken Recipe as they are not fans of chicken on the bone and they love the fact that this dish has chicken breasts. They also love Chinese food and although this is not exactly the Chinese food they normally eat but it still ticked all the boxes.
Chilli Chicken is great with some rice and a side of vegetables. We often have it with broccoli, it’s one of the vegetables that goes down well with my fussy boys. Another favourite Chicken dish is Spicy Thai Chicken Noodles so if you love spice and chicken then please do try it.
You can make this dish in a jiffy and you won’t need that much cooking skill. It also makes a perfect weeknight dinner, especially if you don’t have loads of time. You can increase or reduce the amount of chilli according to your preference. Although I didn’t add salt to my dish, as I felt the soy sauce had enough, you can add more if you wish.
Unlike the curry dishes I usually prepare in advance, Chilli Chicken is best served immediately with some freshly steamed rice.
Chilli Chicken
Ingredients
- 500 gram chicken breasts cut into cubes
- 4 tbsp cornflour
- 1 large egg
- 2 tspn ginger/garlic paste
- 1 small green pepper cut into cubes
- 3 green chilli slit in halves
- 1 spring onion chopped
- 3 tbsp low sodium soya sauce
- 3 tspn white vinegar
- 3 tbsp chilli sauce
- peanut oil for frying + 2 tbsp for the sauce
- 1 tbsp tomato paste optional
Instructions
- Marinate the chicken with the egg, cornflour and ginger and garlic paste. I did not add salt as the soy sauce adds enough salt to the dish, however you can taste once its cooked and add more salt if required. Refrigerate the chicken for half an hour or you can fry it immediately if you don't have time
- Heat oil and fry the chicken in small batches. Set aside
- Heat 2 tablespoon oil and sauté the onion, white part of spring onion, chilli and pepper for about a minute. Reserve the green part of the spring onion for later
- In a bowl mix soy sauce, chilli sauce, vinegar and tomato paste (if using) together. Add this to the onion mix together with the fried chicken. Heat through
- Add more salt if required. Garnish with the spring onion. Serve immediately as desired
