Most of the recipes call for deep frying the chicken first, and then stir fry the vegetables and combine the two. As much as I love deep fried food, when it comes to frying at home, I try to avoid it as much as possible. This is mainly because I don’t enjoy the frying process and also because of the amount of oil that gets wasted. Of course, the deep fried chicken will have much better texture with a crunch, so experiment and play with it to see which one you prefer. This recipe is a stir fry version, which is much healthier and I believe is a good compromise.
Chili Chicken
Serves: 4
Preparation Time: 20 to 25 minutes
Cooking Time: 15 minutes
Ingredients:
For marinate:
1 lb skinless boneless chicken breast or thigh – cut into bite size pieces
2 tablespoons corn flour
1 egg
1 teaspoon light soy/soya sauce
Salt and black pepper to taste
Other Ingredients:
3 tablespoons oil (divided)
1/4 cup cashew nuts
10 dry red chilies – cut in half and seeds removed (adjust to taste)
1 inch ginger – grated or finely chopped
5 to 6 cloves of garlic – crushed or finely chopped
1 medium onion – cut in 1 inch cubes
2 cups mixture of green, red and orange bell peppers or 1 green bell pepper – cut into 1 inch squares
1 celery stalk – roughly chopped
1 green onion – thinly sliced
Black pepper to taste
1 teaspoon red chili powder (optional)
3 tablespoons light soy/soya sauce
2 teaspoon Asian chili garlic sauce (adjust to taste)
1 teaspoon sugar
1 to 1 1/2 cup water or chicken stock
1 tablespoon white vinegar
Salt to taste
1 tablespoon of corn flour mixed with 3 tablespoons of water
1/2 teaspoon sesame oil
Few sprigs of cilantro – roughly chopped for garnishing
Directions:
- In a bowl, combine chicken with all marinate ingredients, mix well and keep aside while preparing other ingredients.
- In a large skillet, heat 1 tbsp of oil over medium heat and fry cashew nuts for few minutes until lightly golden brown. Remove from oil and keep aside.
- In the same skillet, add 1 more tbsp of oil and heat it over high heat. Once hot, add chicken, spread it around and let stand for a minute or so. After a minute, stir chicken and cook for few more minutes until lightly golden in color and almost cooked through. Transfer chicken to a plate and set aside.
- Have all ingredients ready as stir frying goes pretty quick. Heat the same skillet with remaining 1 tbsp of oil over high heat. Add the dry red chili and stir. Add ginger, garlic and stir for few seconds.
- Add onion stir few times and cook for a minute.
- Add bell peppers, celery and green onion and stir.
- Season with pepper and add chili powder, soy/soya sauce, chili garlic sauce, sugar and stir well.
- Add water, vinegar and chicken and mix well. Season it with salt if necessary.
- Add prepared corn flour liquid 1 tbsp at a time adjusting to the desire thickness of the gravy.
- Add sesame oil, fried cashew nuts, stir once and garnish with cilantro.
- Serve hot with steam rice.
