Chilly Chicken (or Chicken Chilly) is one of the most popular Indo-Chinese dishes. From a fancy high-end restaurant to a highway Dhaba, it proudly features across all menus. Given its popularity, multiple versions exist – some way too simple and some unnecessarily complicated.
While I do not want to judge which version is the better, I really love the one that my mom cakes. In fact, a long distant relative who once tasted her version of Chilli Chicken about 20 years back still craves for that taste (we have not met that relative in a long time).
I remember right from the moment my mom would fry the chicken,
Right from the sizzle when my mom would fry the chicken, the emanating fragrance as she would sauté the ginger-garlic paste, to the explosion of spices that you could almost see when she would toss in the veggies in the sauces. And then the divine bliss I would feel in my mouth as I would bite into a piece. It is a vivid memory that I very fondly cherish. It’s been over a year since I met her, so I always stick to her recipe whenever I miss her chilli chicken. Sharing that recipe with you here so you could enjoy it and relish it as much as I do.
This is a 2-part recipe, where in the first part you fry the chicken and in the second part, you cook it with the sauce.
Part: 1️⃣ Fried Chicken
- Chicken: 500 gm, [preferably boneless, washed, cut into 2-inched cubes and cleaned]
- Ginger-garlic paste: 1
- All-purpose flour (Maida) – 2 spoons, Cornflour – 1 spoon [Maida: cornflour = 2:1, golden rule] 💡
- 1 egg
- Salt – to taste
- Mix all the above, marinade, and leave to rest for about 20-30 minutes.
- Pour oil in a pan deep enough to fry the chicken. Let the oil heat. Add the chicken and fry for 2-3 minutes on each side. Fry until golden brown. Do it in batches if you want. Keep aside.
Part: 2️⃣ Cooking with the sauce:
- Remove excess oil from the pan. Leave only 2 tbsp oil in the pan.
- Add 1 tbsp of ginger garlic paste.
- Saute for about a minute or until it gets fragrant.
- Add 2 medium-sized onions, sliced. Saute for 2 minutes
- Add 1 medium-sized capsicum, cubed. Saute for 2 minutes.
- Add a cup of sliced cabbage and sauté for a minute
- Add 2-3 green finely chopped green chillies. Give the whole mixture a mix.
- Add 1 tbsp Soya Sauce, 2 tbsp green chilli sauce, and 1 tbsp of tomato ketchup. Mix it well, and add the fried chicken to this preparation.
- Add salt (to taste – if needed), and some black pepper if you want to spice it up further.
- Add a pinch of Ajinomoto (optional) and tbsp of Schezwan Sauce (optional) for extra zing. Toss it well so the chicken gets evenly coated in the sauce.
- Garnish with finely chopped spring onions. Serve hot.🔥
I thoroughly enjoy making this and gorging on it. Do try this and I am sure you’ll love it. For more recipes and food stories, follow Bhukkad Balak.
Bhukkad Balak 