Indian Chili Chicken is a very delicious and famous dish usually served as an appetizer in Indo-Chinese restaurants back home. I was never a big fan of chicken growing up, but this particular dish has a very strong, unique flavor and subdues the "non-vegetarian" taste. No wonder I took an instant liking to it!
Why you will love this dish?
- The chicken is fried and coated with delicious sauces that taste awesome.
- You can make this gravy-like or dry by coating the spices on the chicken well.
- Goes well with fried rice or can be had as an appetizer.
- Great for get-togethers and when you have guests over.
Ingredients for Indian Chili Chicken
It is battered fried chicken in a reduced gravy made with soy sauce, chili garlic sauce, green chilies, bell pepper, ginger, garlic, scallions (green onions), and other sauces. The chilies and bell pepper along with the chicken are the main ingredients so it got its name "Chili Chicken" from that.
- Boneless chicken cut into cubes
- For the Batter
- All-purpose flour
- Corn flour
- Kashmiri Red Chili powder, Black pepper powder
- Ginger Garlic paste
- Ching's Chili chicken powder optional
- Vinegar
- Water as needed
- For the Sauce
- Spring onions or scallions (Set aside the ends for garnish)
- Green chilies adjust as needed
- Garlic finely chopped
- Ginger finely chopped
- Bell pepper diced into cubes
- Red onion diced into cubes
- Sauces - Chilli garlic sauce, Soy sauce Ching's dark
- Cornflour mixed with water about 2 tbsp
- Vegetable oil
- Salt or to taste
- Ching's Chili chicken powder optional
How to make the Indian Chili Chicken?
This is one of the dishes I missed when I moved away from home, and nothing matched the taste of the Desi-style Indo-Chinese Chili chicken that we got back home. From a couple of recipes online and input from friends, I added a couple of tweaks to my liking.
It is very simple to make and tastes simply awesome. Some prefer the dry version of this dish, and others like a little more sauce. You can easily adjust this according to your liking while preparing the sauce.
Make a batter using all-purpose flour, cornflour, spices, and vinegar, and coat the chicken pieces well. Deep-fry in oil in small batches and keep aside. To make the sauce, add the white part of the spring onions, garlic, ginger, green chilies, bell peppers, and onions.
Add the sauces soy sauce, chili garlic sauce, and sautee well, to this add the corn flour water mix and wait till it thickens. Reduce the gravy and coat the chicken well with the sauces if you like it dry.
Please read on for the full recipe. I would highly recommend you try this and would love to hear how you like it. Vegetarians could substitute chicken with paneer (cottage cheese), tofu, or cauliflower and enjoy it as well! If you like a healthier version of baked chicken, do try tandoori chicken baked in oven.
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!
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!