Chilli Chicken

Chilli Chicken packs quite a bit of a flavour punch. It’s sweet, sour, savoury and most of all spicy.

Serves: 6

Ingredients:

• 500 grams boneless skinless chicken breasts
• ½ tsp. salt
• ½ tsp. black pepper powder
• 3 tbsp. corn flour
• 2 tbsp. flour
• 2 tsp. dark soy sauce (for marinating the chicken)
• 1 tsp. grated ginger (for marinating the chicken)
• 1 tsp. grated garlic (for marinating the chicken)
• 1 egg
• 2 medium onions
• 2 red bell peppers
• 2 inch chunk of ginger (2 tbsp. when crushed)
• 8 garlic cloves (2 tbsp. when crushed)
• 6 green chillies (or to taste)
• 6 dried red chillies (or to taste)
• 8 tbsp. chilli sauce
• 8 tbsp. tomato sauce
• 4 tbsp. dark soy sauce
• 2 tbsp. lime juice
• 2 cups oil (for frying the chicken)
• 2 tbsp. oil (for cooking the chilli chicken)
• 4 tbsp. corn flour
• 8 tbsp. water

Instructions:

1. Cut the chicken into 1 inch cubes.
2. Add the chicken, salt, pepper, corn flour, flour, soy sauce, grated ginger, grated garlic and egg to a large bowl. Mix everything well and leave to marinate for half an hour.
3. While the chicken is marinating, slice the onions and the bell peppers into 1 ½ inch cubes. Use the back of a spoon to crush the ginger and the garlic. Slit the green chillies open. Snip off the ends of the dried red chillies and empty them of the seeds and then cut the dried chillies into 1 inch pieces. Set these aside.
4. Prepare the sauce by mixing chilli sauce, tomato sauce, soy sauce and lime juice in a small bowl and set aside.
5. When you are done with marinating the chicken, heat the oil in a pot. You can adjust the amount of oil according to the size of the pot you are using for frying. Check whether the oil is hot enough by adding a little piece of chicken. If you see bubbles forming around it at a moderate speed, you are good to go. Fry the chicken in batches because if you overcrowd the pot you won’t be able to get them crispy. Fry the chicken pieces until they are reddish and crispy. You’ll have to flip them halfway through to get them cooked on both sides. Once fried, remove to a steel strainer to drain off excess oil and then spread them on tissue paper to get rid of the grease a bit more.
6. When the chicken is fried, heat the oil in a large pot. Add the garlic, ginger, green chillies, and dried red chillies (there might be some coughing so it’s alright if you add the dried ones in the next step too) and stir fry until you see just a hint of gold on the garlic.
7. Add the onions and the bell peppers and stir fry until the onions become translucent.
8. Add the chicken and stir fry for around a minute, just to get the flavours to come together.
9. Then add the sauce you prepared earlier and mix everything well. Lower the heat and let it cook for like a minute. And while this happens, quickly combine the corn flour and the water in a small bowl.
10. Pour the corn flour mixture into the pot and mix well. Cook for around half a minute or so until the sauce thickens. (You can adjust the corn flour according to how thick you want your chilli chicken to be too.)