Dry Indian Chili Chicken

Whenever I think of Indo Chinese food, my mind wanders to the mouthwatering Indo Chinese dishes. We relished various Maharashtrain, Punjabi, South Indian, Indo Chinese dishes in our last India vacation. Its a quite long time, still taste of authentic dishes lingers in my taste buds.  

Chili Chicken originally a Chinese dish, which delicately fused with Indian flavors, simply scrumptious! Today, the Indo - Chinese food has become an integral part of the Indian culinary. It is enjoyed by Indians as well as people around the world.

Chili chicken is made by deep frying marinated chicken and sauteing it in soy chili sauce. Deliberately I used less oil and shallow fry chicken(instead of deep frying). I was bit nervous about the taste, but it turned out very good. Here is a super simple more of healthy version(I tried my level best:). Try the recipe and amble the zesty chili chicken with Hakka noodles or Chinese fried rice. Enjoy..

Time: 15 minutes + marination time

Serves 4

Cuisine: Indo - chinese

Ingredients:

2 medium chicken breast pieces(cubes/strips)- 500gm/1lb or more

Sauce:

1 onion( cut into cubes)
2-3 tbsp peanuts

1/2 of a red bell pepper(cut into cubes)
1 tbsp spring onions(chopped)

2 long green chillies(cut into strips/slit)

1/4 tsp white vinegar

1 tbsp garlic(minced) - half for marination 

1 tbsp soya sauce  - half for marination 
1 tbsp green chilli sauce - half for marination

3 tbsp Olive Oil 

Marination:

1 tsp black pepper(freshly ground)

1 tbsp cornflour

1 tbsp all purpose flour
1 egg
Salt to taste

Method:

1. Marinate the chicken adding ingredients listed above; soya sauce, green chilli sauce, minced garlic, pepper, egg, all purpose flour, cornflour, and salt  for 30 mins to 2 hour.

2. Heat oil in a flat non stick fry pan, shallow fry chicken pieces until golden brown stirring continuously. Set aside.

3. In the remaining oil(it would be very little), add chopped garlic, chilies and saute for 2 minutes. 

4. Then, add onions and cook until soft stirring continuously. Add peanuts, soya sauce, green chilli sauce and vinegar. Mix well. 

5. Add fried chicken and red bell pepper and toss for another 3-4 mins. If required add salt.(see notes 1 and 2)

6. Garnish with some chopped spring onions and serve hot with noodles or variety of rice. 

Note:

1. Soy sauce contain large amount of sodium and also we used salt in marination. Be careful while adding extra salt.

2. Do add bell pepper/ capsicum at the time of adding chicken as it will retain its crunch. If added before hand then will become mushy and disturbs its own taste.