Garlic chicken recipe in 20 minutes – This Indian style garlic chicken has been one of the favorites at home. Hot, spicy, flavorful & absolutely delicious – all without deep frying the chicken. This goes well with plain rice – rasam, Fried rice and Hakka noodles.
However you can also have this with chilli garlic noodles or chilli garlic fried rice and you may also save sometime since the noodles & fried rice I mentioned also use the same spice base.
My new found trick to tenderize the chicken which I learnt from my chicken majestic, works well for this recipe too. I soaked the chicken strips overnight in buttermilk along with salt and pepper.
I was surprised at this soft, tasty and tender chicken, all without deep frying and it is egg free too. I am yet to try baking this. This is not any restaurant style chicken starter but it tastes awesome and is ideal for a home preparation. It is one of our favorites during the monsoon and winters.
To make the spice paste, you can tweak it a bit to suit your taste. For me this turns out perfect.
Note for those who cannot blend and make a paste: mix red chili powder, chopped and crushed garlic, vinegar, sugar, salt and 1 tbsp. water. Use this paste for marinating.
You may like to check these best chicken recipes
Recipe
Garlic chicken
Ingredients (1 cup = 240ml )
Marination
- 300 grams chicken strips or boneless cubes
- 4 tbsp Yogurt / dahi / curd (do not use sour yogurt)
- Salt very little
- 1 pinch pepper
Seasoning
- 2 tbsp Oil
- 1 sprig curry leaves
- ¼ tsp cumin
- 1 onions chopped finely
Ingredients for Chili garlic sauce
- 5 red chilies or 3/4 tsp red chilli powder
- 5 garlic cloves crushed
- ¾ tbsp Vinegar
- ¼ tsp sugar (optional)
- Salt to taste
- 15 to 30 ml Water (lesser, better) to make a paste
Garnish
- Coriander leaves few
- Onion wedges or rings
- Lemon
How to make the recipe
Prepration
- Mix yogurt, salt and pepper with ½ to ¾ cup water. Beat well and set aside.
- Wash chicken and soak it in the above prepared butter milk for 2 hours to overnight in the refrigerator. Soaking for at least 6 hours is recommended to get soft chicken.
- Blend and Make a paste of the ingredients mentioned for chili garlic sauce.
- Drain up the buttermilk and add the prepared sauce. Mix well and leave it for 5 minutes. If you want to prepare it at a later time, you can put it back in the refrigerator.
Making garlic chicken
- Heat a pan with oil, add cumin and curry leaves, sauté till the cumin begins to splutter.
- Transfer the onions and fry till golden.
- Add the chicken and fry on a high heat for 2 to 3 mins. When you see the chicken turning white, cover it with a lid and lower the heat and cook till the chicken turns tender. This barely takes 5 mins if you are using strips
- Remove the lid and fry till the moisture evaporates and the sauce begins to cling to the chicken. The longer it is roasted, the sauce becomes more aromatic and tastier but the chicken tends to lose its tenderness. So take off from the heat when it is of your liking. Take care not to burn, garlic burns faster.
- Serve garlic chicken hot or warm.
NUTRITION (estimation only)
Alternative quantities provided in the recipe card are for 1x only, original recipe.
For best results follow my detailed step-by-step photo instructions and tips.
Dollie says
Hi Swasthi..
I’ve tried many recipes of yours.. most of them turned out to be good..♥️
It would be helpful of u put step by step photos for this garlic chicken recipe too..
swasthi says
Hi Dollie
I don’t have the step by step photos for this recipe. I will try to do it
Tanu says
Quick and yummy…. This is purely a toddler and new mom recipe if you add less chilli (I added 3chillies instead of 5) and my 16 months old son loved it…. And my sister is a mother to 20 days old baby girl and she loved it too…. Thankyou so much dear…. I love your recipes swasthi…
swasthi says
Welcome Tanu
So glad to know both of them loved it.
Thank you!
🙂
Rama says
Though I cook a lot of variety and tasty dishes I still refer ur page for non vegetarian recipes. I really like ur recipes it’s S really too Gud as u share many andhra recipes thank u
swasthi says
Hi Rama,
You are welcome. Glad you like the recipes. Thank you so much!
Jumana Q says
Thanks a lot for the wonderful recipe. Turned out very well.
swasthi says
Welcome Jumana
Rama says
Though i am vegetarian, Looks very tasty. I sd try preparing for my husband, daughter and maid.😊 thanks for the easy recipie
swasthi says
You are welcome Rama
Hope your family likes it!
Roxy says
Hi swasthi when cumin is required in curry recipes etc , is this cumin seeds or ground cumin? Clarity would be appreciated. Thank you!
swasthi says
Hi Roxy,
For curry recipes, I usually do not use cumin powder. It is only the seeds.
Just a note – I mention them differently
For cumin – I write cumin or jeera
For cumin powder – I write clearly cumin powder or jeera powder.
Hope this helps. Thanks for reading
Roxy says
Thanks for that Swasthi that helps alot….
Jitendri says
Cooking non veg for very first time. With the help of ur recipe it was too tasty. Exact measurements. My frnds loved it.
swasthi says
Thank you! Glad you all liked it.
Anil Kondath says
Hi Swasthi
Thanks for posting the Garlic chicken recipe.
Where have you mentioned when to add the chilli garlic paste. I can’t find it.
Thanks.
swasthi says
Hi Anil,
You are welcome.
Chicken is marinated with the chilli garlic sauce or paste. I have mentioned this in step 4. Hope this helps
Anil Kondath says
Hi Swasthi,
Thanks for the reply.
So as I understand, take the marinated chicken from the fridge and then “Drain up the buttermilk” means from the marinated chicken and then add the sauce to the chicken and again keep for few hours. Right?
Regards
Anil
swasthi says
Yes you are right.
Shanta says
I tried chicken65 and chicken korma. My family loved it every time I make it. They turned out just delicious.Thank you for sharing such easy to make restaurant style recipes.
swasthi says
Welcome Shanta
Thanks for trying. Glad to know the recipes came out good.
Charu says
I tried this and it worked very well. I put more garlic paste and also added some red capsicum because the amount was too less for my mixer. Subbed honey for sugar. I added the remaining curd as well as I felt guilty for throwing it. Really good recipe, deceptively delicious for something so simple.
swasthi says
Thanks for trying Charu. Addition of capsicum sounds good. Will try it soon
kisolo Rogers says
l normally make my chicken curry with borne is there any problem?
swasthi says
Yes you can use bone-in-chicken, no problem. Make sure you cook it completely.
sudha seth says
i am a vegetarian but cook non veg for my family so not very much aware about the meat parts s, can u kindly explain me which part of chicken is called “chicken strips?
swasthi says
Hi Sudha
I appreciate you. Chicken strips are boneless chicken meat just sliced to thin strips. They can be from any part, but they are boneless tender meat which gets cooked very very fast. Sometimes I buy these as they are available in small packs say about 200 grams and they are easy to use. Just wash and use, no cleaning. Strips are good for preparing appetizers only
Ranjita says
I love ur recipes..I have tried many of them n they r simply wowww!!! Thank u so much for sharing ur recipes.
Ved says
Hi, loved this recipe. One request ? Could you please send me Lemon Chicken Recipe as well.
swasthi says
Thanks Ved
You can find the recipe of lemon chicken here.
payal shetty says
I have tried most of the recipes and love them
Can you please make phirni and post the recipe I have tried it but failed
swasthi says
Thanks for trying Payal
Yes I will share phirni recipe
nabanita biswas says
its awesome. can u ppl mail me the daily recepies of chicken?
swasthi says
Hi Nabanita
Thank you. We don’t post chicken recipes daily. Most of them are not notified by mail You can check the non-veg section every week for new recipes.
Sonu says
good
swasthi says
Thanks sonu
Majid Ali says
Chicken changaji
Meenu nandy says
I am waiting for your different types of Chetton chicken with salad,
mynk says
please mention the amount of oil, i must fry these chicken strips..
swasthi says
Hi Mynk
It is mentioned in the recipe card. 2 tbsp
mynk says
hehe..sry for dumb mistake.. nd is that really written 5 clove with 5 garlic..?
swasthi says
Hi Mynk,
Those are garlic cloves meaning one part/ section of a whole garlic. We need 5 such garlic cloves.
🙂
mynk says
ty chef.. . :*
zahoor says
Delicious dishes like like most.
swasthi says
Thanks Zahoor
Vivek reddy says
You said to soak it in the buttermilk for 6 hours to over night. Once you drain the buttermilk do you have to wash the chicken before adding the garlic mixture?
swasthi says
No, we don’t need to wash. But drain completely