Chilli Chicken Recipe

This Chilli Chicken is an epic holiday, game day & a party appetizer you need in your Indian-Chinese recipe repertoire! These crispy & tender chicken bites are tossed in an addictively delicious hot, sweet and tangy chili sauce. This restaurant style chili fried chicken is a crowd-pleasing appetizer you can make for weekend meals, parties, game day or potlucks.

Ask any meat eating Indian about their favorite food, you are likely to hear “Indo-Chinese Chilli Chicken dry”. This crisp fried saucy chilli chicken recipe is hands down the best you can make at home. Here I am sharing how to make the dry version and you can easily tweak it to make the gravy from the notes section.

What is Chilli Chicken?

Chilli Chicken is a popular Indo-Chinese appetizer, consisting of tender fried chicken bites tossed in a super aromatic sweet, spicy and slightly tangy chili sauce. It is usually accompanied with Hakka noodles, Fried rice, Schezwan fried rice or even plain steamed basmati rice. Manchow soup or Corn soup are other popular sides that go well in this meal.

Boneless chicken pieces are marinated in soya sauce, chili sauce and black pepper. Later coated with cornstarch, flour and egg white, before frying to yield crispy chicken bites. Onions, bell peppers, garlic, chilli sauce, soya sauce and vinegar come together to form a delicious finger-licking good sauce. To finish, crispy chicken is then tossed in this chili sauce & garnished with green onions.

Is Chilli Chicken very hot & spicy?

Most people assume it to be too hot & spicy. Chilli Chicken served in Indo-Chinese restaurants is never hot/spicy. It is highly aromatic, slightly sweet, moderately hot and tangy, making it a kids’ friendly dish.

Green chilies in vinegar, green chili sauce and various other kinds of sauces are served as complimentary for you to increase the heat while eating.

Ingredients you need

Chilli sauce: Chili sauce is the main ingredient in this recipe. In restaurants, red chili sauce is always used and sometimes even green chili sauce is used. In India, Chings and Maggie are the popular brands used. But you can use any Asian chili sauce that is sweet, hot and tangy. You can use any other favorite sauce like Schezwan sauce, but it will take on the different flavors.

Corn starch and all-purpose flour are used to give the required crispness to the chicken.

Egg white is another important ingredient that keeps your chicken tender, juicy and flavorsome. It prevents the meat from drying out and won’t make it chewy. However if you can’t eat egg, you may omit it and brine the chicken following my pro tips section below.

Soya Sauce adds flavor and it can be substituted with tamari. I use organic soya sauce. Chilli chicken is not heavy with soya sauce like Chicken Manchurian so you actually don’t need dark soya sauce.

Tomato ketchup is another ingredient that adds tang and flavor to your dish. Do use it as per your preference because every brand is different.

More Chicken recipes
Easy Chicken Jalfrezi
Chicken manchurian
Chicken lollipop
KFC style fried chicken
Chicken 65

Photo Guide

How to Make Chilli Chicken (Stepwise Photos)

Preparation

1. To a mixing bowl, add the following ingredients:

• 250 grams (9 ounces or ½ lb) sliced boneless chicken cut to 1 by ½ inch
• 1 ½ teaspoon soya sauce
• 1 ½ teaspoon chili sauce (sweet and spicy)
• ¼ tsp ground black pepper (powder)
• ⅛ teaspoon salt (or as needed)

2. To the same mixing bowl, add

• 2 to 3 tablespoons cornstarch (organic white corn flour)
• 1½ to 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour (preferably organic)
• 1 egg white (use only as needed) or 2 tbsps water (refer pro tips section below to use water)

Mix all the ingredients to coat the chicken well. If it is too dry, add a splash of water or egg white.

3. Optional – If you want add ¼ teaspoon Kashmiri red chili powder or paprika for color & mix.

4. This is how the chicken looks. Avoid adding too much egg or water. Cover and keep this aside until you prepare the ingredients for the sauce. You can also refrigerate overnight.

5. Mix together the following ingredients in a small mixing bowl :

• 1 tablespoon soya sauce (naturally brewed)
• 2 tablespoons red chili sauce (adjust to taste) (sweet & spicy)
• 2 tablespoons tomato ketchup (adjust to taste, can vary depending on brand)
• ½ teaspoon Kashmiri red chilli powder (optional for color) or paprika or red chili paste
• ¾ to 1 teaspoon vinegar (rice or apple cider)
• ½ to 1 teaspoon sugar
• 2 to 3 tablespoons water

Taste test and adjust the sauces.

6. You will also require the following to make the sauce:

• 1 medium onion thinly sliced or cubed
• 1 tablespoon garlic fine chopped
• 1 to 2 green chilies slit and deseeded (Thai or Indian chili peppers, optional)
• ¼ to ½ cup bell pepper (capsicum) – cubed
• 1 sprig spring onion or scallions chopped (optional)
• 1 to 3 tablespoon Spring onion greens to garnish

Fry Chicken

Instead of frying, you can also air fry or bake the chicken in oven but the results won’t be the same. I have the instructions below to air fry and bake.

7. On a medium flame, heat oil about 1 inch in a deep pan. The oil is hot and ready to fry, when a small portion of batter dropped, sizzles and rises to the surface steadily without browning or burning. Add the chicken pieces one by one without crowding the pan.

8. Fry on a medium high heat stirring often (only after 2 mins) until crisp, golden and evenly cooked from inside. Do not overcook as it can dry out the chicken. When the chicken is cooked completely, bubbles in the oil will begin to reduce. Remove to a kitchen tissue or a wired rack. For extra crisp chicken, once done frying the entire chicken refry them in hot oil.

Bake in the oven, preheat the oven to 200 C or 390 F for at least 15 mins. Place the chicken pieces on a tray lined with parchment paper. Bake for 25 to 30 mins until crisp and cooked through. Turn them to the other side after 12 to 13 mins. Adjust the baking time as every oven is different.

To air fry, place the chicken on a perforated parchment paper. Air fry at 375 F or 180 C for 7 minutes, shake the basket and air fry for another 1 to 2 mins depending on the size of your pieces. Adjust the timings a bit as every air fryer is different.

Make the Chilli Chicken Sauce

9. Heat 1½ tablepsoon oil in the wok or a pan on a high flame. Add garlic and fry for a minute.

10. Add onions, green chilies, spring onions whites and bell pepper. Fry until they turn slightly tender. They must still keep the crunch.

11. Pour the sauces we prepared. Let it bubble and turn thick. Taste test the sauce & the chicken as well at this stage and adjust salt or spice to taste.

12. Add the chicken and toss. Fry on high for 1 minute and sprinkle ¼ teaspoon ground black pepper.

Garnish Chilli Chicken with green onions and serve hot as an appetizer. Hakka noodles or this Vegetable Fried rice & Corn soup are the perfect choices for an Indo-Chinese meal.

Pro Tips

Egg White is an essential ingredient and helps to keep the chicken juicy and tender from inside, without drying out. However if you don’t prefer to use it, you may brine the chicken in buttermilk (3 tbsps yogurt + 2 cups water + ¼ tsp salt) for a minimum of 1 to 4 hours in the refrigerator.

Later drain and pat dry the chicken before mixing in other ingredients.

MSG: Also known as ajjinomotto or monosodium glutamate (MSG) is used in the restaurants for a unique flavor. Trust me! you can still make the best without it. If you are sensitive to msg, make sure your store bought sauces do not have that.

Food color is also used to bring a deep red color. To avoid that I prefer to use Kashmiri chilli powder for a vibrant color. You can also use paprika.

No fry option: The restaurant versions often makes us grease sick and tend to dehydrate a lot due to plenty of oil and msg used in the sauce. A lot of times the oil used to fry the chicken is reused while making the sauce.

For a fresher flavor, use fresh oil that has a high smoke point. Also using a carbon steel wok imparts those restaurant smoky flavors to a little extent. For a healthier option you can shallow fry, air fry or bake the chicken, details mentioned in the instructions below.

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