Chilli Chicken

 

 

Chilli chicken Is a popular Indo-Chinese dish. Quite simple and easy to prepare.it involve few simple steps and took very less time to prepare. Mainly boneless chicken pieces is used in this dish but boned chicken pieces also can be used.

 

 I wanted to prepare this dish from a long time. This is one of favorite dish of my husband. We always order Chilli chicken from local restaurants and enjoy it with Laccha Paratha. My hubby always say that ,why don’t you  make it at home, but I never dare to try this.

This week we have Indo-Chinese theme of our foodie Monday bloghop  and finally I am going to prepare the delicious dish at home.

 

Whenever we order chilli chicken from restaurant, I notice the chicken pieces are red in colour and taste spicy. They usually add a bit of red food colour  and use a lot of green chilli, red chilli paste and sauce. They also add MSG (ajinamoto) to make the dish more tasty.

 

 

But here I am avoiding adding ajinamoto, chilli paste and food colour as we are not very spicy food takers.  But you can make this dish spicy by adjusting the quantity of the sauces as per preference. I used kashmiri chilli powder to bring the red colour in the dish you can do the same or you can add kashmiri chilli paste.

 

Whenever I made chicken dishes  I never skip Bharat wadhla’s step , which makes the chicken pieces sausy, shiny and tasty. He usually dilute salt, sugar and vinegar with water , soak the chicken pieces in that water for over night.at morning you can use those pieces as required. This step is completely optional, but if you have time then don’t  skip this step.

 

 

So if you want your each piece of chilli chicken would be saucy, shiny then take tsp of salt, 2 tsp of sugar and tbsp of vinegar in 1 ½ cup of water, dilute well.soak the chicken pieces in that diluted water for over night or at least for 3 hour. In morning you can repeat rest of the steps. Here I took boneless chicken, but boned chicken tastes yummy too. But but but !!!!! Do ensure that the chicken is tender.

 

INGREDIENTS ::

Boneless chicken pieces – 400  gram

Oil – for deep frying

 

FOR MARINATING ::

Egg – 1 no

All purpose flour- 2 tbsp

Corn flour – 4 tbsp

Kashmiri chilli powder – 3 tsp

Soya sauce – 1 tbsp

Black pepper powder – 1 1 /2 tsp

Ginger garlic paste – 3 tsp

Salt – to taste

 

FOR SEASONING ::

Capsicum – 1 ½ no (cut into cubes)

Onion – 1 large ( cut into cubes)

Chopped garlic – 3 tbsp

Chopped ginger – 2 tbsp

Slit green chillies – 3 to  4 no

Soya sauce – 1 tbsp

Chilli garlic sauce – 1 tbsp

Red chilli sauce – ½ tbsp (optional)

Vinegar – ½ tsp

Salt – to taste

Sugar – 2 tsp

Pepper powder – 2 tsp

Chicken stock/water – ½ cup

Cornflour – 1 tsp

Spring onion – for garnishing

 

 

METHOD OF PREPARATION ::

Clean , wash the chicken pieces. Keep the pieces in a bowl. Add all the ingredients  written under marination. Mix well, cover the bowl and refrigerate it at least for half an hour.

Heat up  oil in a pan, deep fry the chicken pieces in batches.

keep the flame low and  Fry them till they seems golden brown in colour & crunchy from both the sides. But don’t over fry them. Drain out the pieces to a absorbent paper for few seconds, keep it aside.

Heat  3  tbsp of oil in another pan add slit green chillies , chopped garlic and ginger. Saute it for a minute.add cubed capsicum & onion, fry them in high flame for 2- 3 minutes. Onion will turns slightly tender  while its crunchiness should be remain.

Dilute the cornflour with chicken stock and set aside.

Add all the  sauces and combine well. add diluted cornflour and stir , so that everything mixes well.

Now add fried chicken pieces and rest of the seasoning ingredients.give it a good mix.cook it for another 4-5 minutes on high flame.

Turn off  the heat and sprinkle some spring onion and serve immediately.

 

 

TIPS ::

Instead of chicken stock water can be used.

I didn’t use red chilli sauce. Add if you want more spicy dish,  you may skip it.

Egg is very necessary .it helps to keep chicken pieces moist during marination.

You can add half tsp of oil during marination.