Indian Chili Chicken is one of the most beloved appetizers served in Indo-Chinese restaurants across India. Crispy chicken tossed in a flavorful sauce with garlic, ginger, onions, and peppers creates a dish that's spicy, savory, and packed with bold flavors. Whether served as an appetizer or alongside fried rice or noodles, Chili Chicken is always a crowd-pleaser.
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Why will you love this dish?
- Bold, irresistible flavor: Crispy fried chicken is tossed in a savory, spicy, and slightly tangy sauce that makes every bite incredibly delicious, just like the fried chicken in the chicken 65 recipe.
- Restaurant-quality at home: The unique blend of sauces, aromatics, and seasonings gives this dish the same flavor you would expect from your favorite Indo-Chinese restaurant.
- Customize it your way: Prefer a saucy version? Add extra sauce for a rich, gravy-like consistency. Love dry chili chicken? Coat the chicken well with the seasonings and serve it dry as an appetizer.
- Versatile and satisfying: Enjoy it as a crowd-pleasing appetizer or serve it as a main dish with fried rice, ghee rice, or vegetable hakka noodles desi style
- Perfect for entertaining: This recipe is always a hit at parties, family gatherings, and special occasions. It's one of those dishes that disappears quickly once it hits the table!
- Guaranteed crowd favorite: The combination of crispy chicken and bold Indo-Chinese flavors keeps everyone coming back for seconds.
Ingredients for Indian Chili Chicken
- Boneless chicken cut into cubes
- For the Batter
- All-purpose flour, Corn flour
- Kashmiri Red Chili powder, Black pepper powder, Ching's Chili chicken powder, optional
- Ginger Garlic paste, Vinegar, Water as needed
- For the Sauce
- Spring onions or scallions (Set aside the ends for garnish), Green chilies, Garlic finely chopped, Ginger, Bell pepper, Red onion
- Sauces - Chilli garlic sauce, Soy sauce, Ching's dark
- Cornflour mixed with water, about 2 tbsp, Ching's Chili chicken powder optional
- Vegetable oil, Salt
How to make the Indian Chili Chicken?
To begin, clean and cut the boneless chicken into small bites. Chop all the veggies. Prepare a batter using all-purpose flour, cornstarch, spices, and vinegar. Coat the chicken pieces thoroughly in the marinade.
- Step 1: Marinate the chicken with spices, sauces, and flour for at least two hours.
- Step 2: Deep-fry or shallow-fry the marinated chicken.
Fry them in batches until golden brown and crispy. Set the fried chicken aside while you prepare the sauce.
- Step 3: Sautee green onions, green chillies, ginger, and garlic.
- Step 4: Add bell peppers and onions.
In a wok or large skillet, sauté the white parts of the spring onions, garlic, ginger, and green chilies until fragrant. Add the onions and bell peppers and cook until they are slightly tender but still retain some crunch.
- Step 5: Add all the sauces.
- Step 6: Make a slurry with cornflour and water, and add it to the sauteed veggies to thicken the sauce. Add a little water if necessary.
Stir in the soy sauce, green chili, and red chili sauce, allowing the flavors to blend.
Next, add a cornstarch slurry (cornstarch mixed with water) and cook until the sauce thickens. Finally, toss the fried chicken in the sauce until every piece is well coated and serve hot, garnished with the green parts of the spring onions.
- Step 7: Add the fried chicken to the reduced sauce.
- Step 8: Garnish with sesame, ginger, and spring onions.
Useful Tips
- Vegetarians could substitute paneer (cottage cheese), tofu, or cauliflower for chicken in this dish and enjoy it as well!
- Marinate the chicken for about two hours or at least for half an hour.
- For a gravy-style Chili Chicken, leave the sauce slightly thinner. For a dry version, continue cooking until the sauce reduces and clings to the chicken.
- For a healthier version of baked chicken, try tandoori chicken baked in oven, homemade chicken fajitas, or a shallow-fried ground chicken patty.
- Serve along with fried rice, ghee rice, and some air fryer sweet corn.
Recipe FAQs
Boneless chicken thighs are best for making this dish, as they remain tender when deep-fried or shallow-fried when compared to chicken breasts.
Sautee the veggies on high heat without overcooking them. This will prevent them from getting soggy.
Use all-purpose flour and cornstarch or cornflour in the marinade and sautee or deep-fry on high heat. This helps retain the crispiness.
Related Recipes
If you tried this Indian Chili Chicken Recipe or any other recipe on my blog, please leave a 🌟 star rating and a 📝 comment below. I love hearing from you.
Indian Chili Chicken
Ingredients
Chicken
- 1 pound chicken organic boneless cut into small bite sized
- 4 tbsp oil
For batter
- 1 tbsp all-purpose flour
- 2 tbsp Corn flour
- ½ tsp Red Chilli powder Kashmiri
- ½ tsp pepper powder Black
- 1 tsp Ginger Garlic paste
- ½ tsp Ching's Chili chicken powder optional
- 1 tbsp vinegar
- 1 tbsp water or just enough to make a batter that coats
For sauce
- 4 scallions spring onions or (Set aside the ends for garnish)
- 3-4 green chillies adjust as needed
- 10 garlic finely chopped
- 1 inch ginger finely chopped
- 1 green bell pepper diced into cubes
- ½ onion diced into cubes
- 1 tbsp Chilli garlic sauce
- 3 tbsp Soy sauce Ching's dark
- 1 tbsp Cornflour mixed with water about 2 tbsp
- 2 tbsp vegetable oil
- 1 tsp salt
- 1 tsp Ching's Chili chicken powder optional
For garnish
- 1 tsp white sesame seeds
- 2 tsp ginger julienne cut
- ½ cup spring onions ends
Instructions
- Cut the chicken into bite sized pieces
- Make a batter of the ingredients in the batter section
- Mix the chicken well into the batter and marinate in the refrigerator for 2 to 3 hours
- Next, heat a pan with oil and either deep fry or shallow fry in batches and make sure it is cooked well.
- Drain on to a paper towel
- .For the sauce, heat oil in a shallow pan and add the white part of the spring onions
- Next add the garlic,ginger, green chilies, bell peppers and onions
- Add the sauces soy sauce, chili garlic sauce and sautee well
- Add a little water and boil and let it simmer
- Add the corn flour water mix and wait till it thickens
- Add the Ching's chili chicken powder if using (optional)
- Once the gravy is thick , mix the fried chicken and makesure it is coated well
- Garnish with ginger, green onions and white sesame seeds
- Serve with rice or noodles, enjoy!
that's a delicious recipe
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This flavor combination is soooo good! What a great appetizer.
The flavors were fabulous!! We ate this chicken as a main dish over rice and it got rave reviews from my family.
Thank you for sharing this recipe
This turned out perfectly! So flavorful! Thank you!
This Indian Chili Chicken was one of the best chicken dishes I have tasted in a long time.
This looks really, really delicious!!!!
I love Indian dishes. I heard a lot about this dish and it looks also so yummy and tasty. but I never have it. i wanna try it. thanks for sharing this recipe.
So glad to hear you love it and hope you will try it out sometime. Thank you so much for stopping by and the lovely comment!
Yummy!! 🙂 you have an amazing blog! Loved it 🙂
Thanks a lot Millie , hope you were able to find the follow button that you were looking for!
Haha you know i finally did 🙂 notification aagaya hoga.
Good to hear that, my email is a bit backlogged I think , abhi tak nahi aaya but it will eventually do I think:) Have a good day!
doesn't wordpress give u push notifications on your device?
have a great day too 🙂
hey actually nahi hua tha.. abhi fir dekha to unfollowed tha..
Thanks dear!
you're welcome! and your content is really amazing!
It's great to hear such appreciation from my readers and that makes my day! Thanks again 🙂
You're Welcome <3
Btw whats your name 🙂 ?
I'm Nisha and I did get the notification finally!
Great! 🙂 See you around <3
Thanks Millie nice meeting you as well and will see you around!
🙂 🙂
My weakness and a torture right now as I am dieting!! This is one thing which i just cant resist!! looks yummmmm! <3
Thank you so much Mallika for the comments! oh my! dieting is not easy at all and requires so much will power , I have never managed to try dieting 🙂 I know what you mean just can't resist this particular dish and very tempting indeed!
Great work
Please follow me and give your suggestions on my poetry:)
Thank you so much for the comments and stoping by! I will definitely visit your blog .
This looks fabulous!
Thank you so much Diane!
Perfect treats for the weekend... ENJOYYY ✌✌
Yes dear, they were gone in no time!Thank you so much!
Hmmm yummy. Tempting
Thank you so much!