Chilli chicken dry recipe
How to make chilli chicken dry
Learn how to make chilli chicken recipe at home with step by step photo and video instructions.
Chilli chicken is a fusion recipe of Indo Chinese Cuisines which is little bit of spicy and sour. It is not that much hot or spicy as the name suggest.
Chilli chicken are everyone's favorite. It is especially for all the foodies and cooking enthusiasts.
Chilli chicken is versatile, yummy and extremely easy to make. And the best part is you can easily make it like restaurant style. If you have been looking for such a chilli chicken recipe, you have come to the right place. Here I bring you the step by step guide on how to make chilli chicken recipe at home like restaurant style.
What is Chilli Chicken?
Chilli chicken is Desi Chinese cuisines most popular stir fried chicken recipe where batter coated chicken pieces are first deep fried and then stir fried with soya chilli based sauces and vegetables. Most chef's favourite dish in restaurant.
Who invented chilli chicken?
Popular theories suggest that during the year of 1975, Nelson Wang invented this famous chilli chicken recipe.
Chilli chicken recipe Indian style is served in most of the restaurants and hotels. You can easily make this delicious dish at your home without any great efforts.
Ingredients required for chilli chicken
- Boneless chicken leg or breast pieces cut into small bite size cubes.
- Herbs like ginger, garlic, green chili, green spring onions and red onion.
- Cube size vegetables like capsicum, red yellow bell peppers and onion.
- Sauce like red chilli sauce, dark soya sauce and green chili sauce (optional)
- Pepper powder, sat and cooking oil.
- Corn flour, all purpose flour and beaten egg.
Variations
This popular chicken recipe can be made as a dry or gravy preparation. The dry version is the most popular and a favourite to party goers. Whereas the gravy version is served as a side dish with noodles and fried rice.
Serving suggestions
Chilli chicken dry is generally served as an appetizer or snacks. It is served with schezwan sauce or sweet chilly sauce. And other popular side dishes that work nice with it are hakka noodles and fried rice.
Whereas chilli chicken gravy is served as main course side dish along with chicken fried rice and noodles.
Time taken
The total time taken to make the recipe is under thirty minutes which includes fifteen minutes of preparation time and ten minutes of cooking time. You can even keep the chicken to marinate for about another 15 minutes as well. But that is excluded.
Steps to make dry chilli chicken
1. Marinating and coating
Get all the stuffs ready and keep on the site of cooking. This will not only safe your time but also help to make a dish perfect. Mise en place like a professional kitchen.
First cut chicken into small bite size pieces and apply red chilli sauce, pepper powder and salt.
Then add corn flour, all purpose flour and a beaten egg white. Mix everything nicely so that the chicken pieces are nicely coated. Keep them aside for 15 minutes to absorb the flavours. Otherwise you can fried them. To make it little bit more spicy you can add some green chili paste or sauce in the marination.
 |
2. Get vegetables and sauces ready
Cut onion, capsicum and bell peppers into cube size. Similarly chopped garlic, ginger, onion and spring onions ( green scallions). Keep dark soya sauce, vinegar, pepper powder and chilly sauce by your side. Onion cutting for chilli chicken are either in cube or dice shape. See the below picture.
 |
Make a slurry by mixing corn flour with water in a small bowl. Mix one tablespoon corn flour with 1/3 cup water and keep aside to use later.
 |
3. Frying the Chicken
Heat oil in a kadai or deep vessel pan on medium flame heat. When the oil become hot, lower the flame to low and carefully add the batter coated chicken pieces one by one into the oil. Fry them on medium heat flame till crisp golden and well cooked. Don't fry them for longer otherwise the resulting chilli chicken become dry.
 |
Remove them in a absorbent paper or kitchen towel to absorb any excess oil.
4. Stir frying
Heat oil in a wok or a non stick pan in high heat flame. Add chopped ginger and garlic. Fry them till light brown. Then add the chopped onions and fry till translucent. Don't fry the onions to become brown.
Next add the cubes of capsicum, onion and slits green chili, red and yellow bell peppers if using. Fry them for one minute under high heat.
Thereafter lower the flame to low and add red chilli sauce, soya sauce and vinegar. If available then add some red chilly paste as well to make the sauce become more glossy.
Mix everything nicely and then pour around 1/3 cup of water. Simmer them for a while.
Next add pepper powder and salt as per taste. You can add some seasoning powder like Maggi or knor to enhance the flavor little bit more. Now add the fried chicken pieces and mix nicely with everything.
Stir the corn flour slurry and pour over the chicken slowly. Don't pour all the slurry at once. Use around 2 tablespoon slurry.
Start to stir everything again over medium heat flame. The sauce now start to become thick. Stir fry them nicely so that the chicken pieces are get well coated with the sauces.
Taste the seasoning and if required add some more salt and pepper. And to adjust the appearance and color of the dish, you can add some more soya sauce.
Sprinkle some chopped green spring onions over the chicken and remove to serve hot çhilli chicken dry.
Tips to make juicy and tender chilli chicken
- Marinate the chicken pieces for 1 - 2 hours.
- Make a good batter for frying the chicken. Use beaten egg in batter to help to keep the chicken moist from inside.
- Don't over cook them while frying in oil otherwise they will become dry.
- You can brine the chicken pieces for few hours to make it more tender and juicy.
Chilli chicken recipe without coating
You can make chilli chicken without coating with corn flour and maida. After marinating the chicken with red chilly sauce, red chilly paste and salt, shallow fry in a non stick pan with 1/2 tablespoon oil till crisp golden and tender from all sides. Remove and follow the remaining instructions as described above to make chilli chicken recipe without frying and coating.
Chilli Chicken Dry (Restaurant-Style Indo-Chinese)
Crispy fried chicken tossed with capsicum, onions and a bold soy-chilli glaze — a party-favorite Indo-Chinese starter you can finish at home in 30 minutes.
Ingredients
Instructions
- Marinate & Coat: Mix chicken with red chilli paste, 1/2 tbsp red chilli sauce, pepper and salt. Add 2 tbsp cornflour, maida and the egg white; mix to coat well. Rest 10–15 mins.
- Fry Chicken: Heat oil in a kadai on medium heat. Drop coated chicken pieces and fry until crisp golden and cooked through. Drain on paper towel.
- Prep Slurry: Mix 1 tbsp cornflour with 1/3 cup water. Keep aside.
- Stir-Fry Aromatics: Heat 1 tbsp oil in a hot wok. Sauté chopped ginger & garlic until light golden. Add chopped onions; sauté until translucent. Add diced onion, capsicum & slit chillies; stir-fry 1 minute on high heat.
- Make Sauce: Lower heat; add remaining red chilli sauce, soy sauce and vinegar. Mix well, pour in ~1/3 cup water; simmer briefly. Season with pepper and salt to taste.
- Toss Chicken: Add fried chicken; toss to coat. Stir the slurry and add ~2 tbsp first (don’t add all at once). Stir-fry on medium heat until sauce thickens and clings to the chicken.
- Finish: Taste & adjust seasoning; toss on high flame just before serving for a smoky wok flavour. Garnish with spring onion greens and serve hot.
Chef’s Notes
- Use boneless thigh for juicier bites; avoid over-frying to keep them tender.
- Egg in the batter helps keep chicken moist; fry in small batches for crispiness.
- A pinch of sugar balances the heat and gives the classic Indo-Chinese touch.
- For extra sheen and gloss, a tiny splash of oil while tossing on high heat works wonders.
FAQs
Is Chilli Chicken Dry very spicy?
It’s medium by default. Reduce green chillies or use Kashmiri chilli powder for colour without much heat.
Can I make it without deep frying?
Yes — shallow-fry, air-fry, or bake the marinated chicken. Texture will be slightly different but still delicious.
What cut of chicken is best?
Boneless thigh (leg meat) stays juicier after frying than breast.
If you love Chilli chicken recipe then I am sure you will love the
Video
Nutritional value
(Serving size 1 serving)
chicken chill recipe video
Nutritional value
(Serving size 1 serving)
- Calories : 284
- Fats : 15 g
- Protein : 27.6 g
- Carbohydrate : 7.8 g
Serving tips
- Chilli chicken dry is served as an appetizer or snacks. And whereas chilli chicken gravy is served as main dish
- Fried rice like egg fried rice, chicken fried rice are good options to serve along with chilli chicken
- Noodles is another good side dish for chili chicken.
- You can add schezwan sauce in the recipe to make it schezwan chilli chicken.
- Use of green chili paste is optional. It is used to increase the hotness of the dish.
- You can mix all the sauces in a cup and pour into the mixture at a time and stir fry with the chicken pieces.
- Take a cup and mix red chilli sauce , red chilly paste, vinegar , tomato sauce and dark soya sauce and mix well . Add little water into it.After sauteeing the chicken pieces , add this sauces mixture with chicken pieces and coat well stir frying.
- Red Chilly Paste is used to give it the desired colour . You can use paprika or Kashmiri chilly powder as well in place of chilly paste.
- You can make chilli chicken using with bone chicken also. Trust me it really taste well with with bone chicken.
Popular recipes that you can make
If you love chicken chili gravy recipe then you would love the recipes like
Chicken lollipop recipe. Crisp honey chicken recipe and Crusty fried chicken wings recipe, Chicken lollipop gravy recipe,.,cauliflower Manchurian fried rice recipe.
I have tried this amazing chilli chickenn recipe and i found this recipe really an amazing recipe. Thanks for sharing this recipe with all of us.