Indian Chilli Chicken: Indo-Chinese, the Way It Was Meant to Be

⏱ Marinate: 30 min 🔥Cook: 25 min 👤Serves: 4 🌏Origin: Indo-Chinese, Kolkata

Indian chilli chicken is not Chinese food and it is not exactly Indian food, it is Indo-Chinese, a cuisine that exists entirely on its own terms, born in the Hakka Chinese community of Kolkata in the 1970s and now so embedded in Indian food culture that it appears on the menu of every restaurant from Kashmir to Kanyakumari.

What it is: boneless chicken pieces marinated in ginger-garlic paste, soy sauce and egg white, coated in cornstarch and flour and fried until deeply golden and genuinely crispy, then tossed in a wok over screaming heat with cubed onion and capsicum, fresh green chilies and a glossy sauce of dark soy, red chilli sauce, vinegar and ketchup that clings to every piece and caramelises slightly at the edges. Sweet, spicy, tangy, savory, all four things at once, which is why it is arguably the most popular starter in India.

This is the dry version, the appetizer, eaten with toothpicks at parties and as a starter before hakka noodles or egg fried rice. Notes on making the gravy version are at the bottom.

Ingredients

Marinade and coating

• 500g boneless chicken thighs, cut into 2cm cubes, thighs stay juicier than breast through the fry; the extra fat is what keeps the inside tender while the outside goes crispy. Breast works but marinate longer, minimum 1 hour.
• 1 tablespoon ginger-garlic paste, equal parts fresh ginger and garlic blended together. This is the aromatic foundation of Indo-Chinese cooking, not just garlic alone.
• 1 tablespoon light soy sauce
• 1 tablespoon red chilli sauce, sweet-hot Asian chilli sauce; Sriracha works if unavailable
• ½ teaspoon black pepper
• ½ teaspoon Kashmiri red chilli powder, for color and mild heat; substitute with sweet paprika
• 1 egg white, keeps the chicken tender inside the fried coating. Use a whole egg if you prefer, the egg white is more traditional but both work.
• 3 tablespoons cornstarch (cornflour)
• 2 tablespoons plain flour (all-purpose flour), the combination of cornstarch and flour is what gives Indo-Chinese chilli chicken its particular crust, thinner and crispier than a flour-only batter, sturdier than cornstarch alone
• Salt to taste
• Oil for deep frying

The sauce, mix this before anything goes near the wok

• 1½ tablespoons dark soy sauce, color and depth
• 1 tablespoon light soy sauce, saltiness and umami
• 1½ tablespoons red chilli sauce
• 1 tablespoon tomato ketchup, adds body and a faint sweetness; don’t overdo it or the dish turns cloying
• 1 tablespoon rice vinegar or white vinegar, the tang that cuts through the richness; essential
• 1 teaspoon sugar
• ¼ teaspoon sesame oil, added to the sauce but stirred through off the heat; gives the restaurant aroma
• 3 tablespoons water

Stir-fry

• 2 tablespoons neutral oil
• 1 tablespoon ginger, finely chopped
• 6 cloves garlic, finely chopped
• 5–8 green chilies, slit lengthwise, adjust to heat tolerance; these add freshness and heat distinct from the chilli sauce
• 1 large onion, cut into 2cm cubes, the layers separated so each piece stir-fries individually
• 1 green capsicum (bell pepper), cut into 2cm cubes
• 4 spring onions, white and green parts separated, whites go in with the stir-fry; greens go on top at the end

Step by step

1. Marinate the chicken. In a large bowl combine the chicken with ginger-garlic paste, light soy sauce, red chilli sauce, black pepper, Kashmiri chilli powder, egg white and salt. Mix well so every piece is coated. Add the cornstarch and plain flour and mix again until the chicken is evenly coated in a sticky batter. Rest for at least 30 minutes, 1 hour is better, overnight in the fridge is best. Don’t add water to thin the marinade, the egg white and soy sauce provide enough moisture. The batter should be thick and cling to the chicken without dripping off. If it seems dry after mixing, add a teaspoon of water at a time, no more.
2. Mix the sauce. In a small bowl whisk together the dark soy sauce, light soy sauce, red chilli sauce, ketchup, vinegar, sugar, sesame oil and water until smooth. Taste and adjust, it should be bold, slightly sweet, tangy and hot. Set it right beside the wok. Once the stir-fry starts, there is no time to measure.
3. Fry the chicken. Heat oil to 350°F / 175°C in a deep pan or wok, enough oil to submerge the pieces. Fry in batches, do not crowd. Lower the chicken in carefully and fry for 5–6 minutes until golden brown and cooked through. Remove to a wire rack or paper towels. Bring the oil back to temperature between batches.Do not crowd the oil. Crowded chicken drops the oil temperature immediately, the coating absorbs oil rather than crisping, and you get pale, soft, greasy pieces. Fry in two or three batches and the difference is dramatic.
4. Double fry for maximum crispness. Once all pieces have had their first fry, return the oil to 375°F / 190°C and fry all the chicken again for 90 seconds until deeply golden and shatteringly crisp. Drain immediately. This step is what gives Indo-Chinese chilli chicken its crust that holds up against the sauce, skip it and the chicken softens the moment it hits the wok.
5. Stir-fry the aromatics and vegetables. Heat 2 tablespoons of fresh oil in a wok over the highest heat it will produce. Add the chopped ginger and garlic, stir constantly for 20 seconds until fragrant. Add the slit green chilies and spring onion whites, stir 15 seconds. Add the cubed onion and capsicum. Stir-fry on high heat for exactly 2 minutes, no longer. The vegetables should be tender at the edges but still have crunch. Overcooked capsicum goes limp and loses everything that makes it worth including.Two minutes on screaming hot heat is the target for the vegetables. If the wok is genuinely hot, two minutes is enough to cook the onion slightly while keeping the capsicum crunchy. A wok that isn’t hot enough needs longer, by which point the vegetables are soggy.
6. Add the sauce and chicken. Pour the pre-mixed sauce into the wok and stir to coat the vegetables. Let it bubble for 30 seconds. Add the double-fried chicken pieces and toss vigorously for 1–2 minutes until every piece is glossy and the sauce has reduced slightly and caramelised at the edges. Do not cook longer, the chicken loses its crispness with every extra minute in the sauce.
7. Finish and serve. Remove from heat. Scatter the spring onion greens generously over the top. Serve immediately, chilli chicken waits for no one and no table setting. It goes directly from the wok to the plate.

Indo-Chinese, what it is and where it came from

Indo-Chinese cuisine was created by the Hakka Chinese community who settled in Kolkata in the late 18th and 19th centuries, adapting their cooking to Indian ingredients, Indian tastes and Indian spice tolerances. The dishes that emerged, chilli chicken, gobi Manchurian, hakka noodles, chicken fried rice with Indian seasoning are neither authentically Chinese nor straightforwardly Indian. They are a third thing entirely, and that third thing is now one of the most beloved food traditions on the subcontinent.

The five-sauce system, dark soy for color and depth, light soy for saltiness, red chilli sauce for heat, ketchup for body and sweetness, vinegar for tang is the flavour architecture that runs through almost all Indo-Chinese cooking. Understanding it means you can cook virtually any dish in this tradition without a recipe. Adjust the ratios and you move between sweet, hot, tangy and savory as needed.

Make it your own

Claire’s note, gravy version

To turn this into the gravy version for serving over rice or noodles: after adding the sauce in step 6, add 150ml of water or chicken stock and bring to a simmer. Mix 1 tablespoon cornstarch with 2 tablespoons of cold water and pour the slurry in while stirring, the sauce will thicken to a glossy gravy in about 1 minute. Then add the chicken and toss to coat.

The gravy version is saucier, softer in texture on the chicken, and better suited to eating with steamed rice as a main course rather than as a starter. Both versions are excellent, the dry version is what you make when you want people to eat it off toothpicks before dinner and run out before you can get back to the table. That happens every time.

Serve with

Dry chilli chicken is served as an appetizer or starter, eaten as is with toothpicks or chopsticks. As a main course, it sits alongside hakka noodles or egg fried rice, the standard Indo-Chinese pairing found in every Indian restaurant that serves this cuisine. For more from the Indian collection the complete Asian recipes guide has it all.

Add Indian chilli chicken to your weekly meal planner, marinate the chicken overnight and the whole dish comes together in 25 minutes the next evening. And for more recipes, follow us on Pinterest.

Indian Chilli Chicken

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• Author: Claire Bennett
• Total Time: 55 minutes
• Yield: 4 servings 1x
• Diet: Non-Vegetarian

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Description

A popular Indo-Chinese appetizer featuring crispy fried chicken pieces tossed in a spicy, tangy sauce.

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Ingredients

Scale 1x2x3x

• 500g boneless chicken thighs, cut into 2cm cubes
• 1 tablespoon ginger-garlic paste
• 1 tablespoon light soy sauce
• 1 tablespoon red chilli sauce
• ½ teaspoon black pepper
• ½ teaspoon Kashmiri red chilli powder
• 1 egg white
• 3 tablespoons cornstarch
• 2 tablespoons plain flour
• Salt to taste
• Oil for deep frying
• 1½ tablespoons dark soy sauce
• 1 tablespoon tomato ketchup
• 1 tablespoon rice vinegar
• 1 teaspoon sugar
• ¼ teaspoon sesame oil
• 3 tablespoons water
• 2 tablespoons neutral oil
• 1 tablespoon ginger, finely chopped
• 6 cloves garlic, finely chopped
• 5–8 green chilies, slit lengthwise
• 1 large onion, cut into 2cm cubes
• 1 green capsicum (bell pepper), cut into 2cm cubes
• 4 spring onions, white and green parts separated

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Instructions

1. Marinate the chicken. In a large bowl combine the chicken with ginger-garlic paste, light soy sauce, red chilli sauce, black pepper, Kashmiri chilli powder, egg white and salt. Mix well so every piece is coated. Add the cornstarch and plain flour and mix again until the chicken is evenly coated. Rest for at least 30 minutes.
2. Mix the sauce. In a small bowl whisk together the dark soy sauce, light soy sauce, red chilli sauce, ketchup, vinegar, sugar, sesame oil and water until smooth. Set it right beside the wok.
3. Fry the chicken. Heat oil to 350°F (175°C) in a deep pan or wok, enough oil to submerge the pieces. Fry in batches for 5–6 minutes until golden brown and cooked through. Remove to a wire rack or paper towels.
4. Double fry for maximum crispness. Return the oil to 375°F (190°C) and fry all the chicken again for 90 seconds until deeply golden and shatteringly crisp. Drain immediately.
5. Stir-fry the aromatics and vegetables. Heat 2 tablespoons of fresh oil in a wok over high heat. Add chopped ginger and garlic, stir constantly for 20 seconds. Add slit green chilies and spring onion whites, stir for 15 seconds. Add cubed onion and capsicum. Stir-fry on high heat for 2 minutes.
6. Add the sauce and chicken. Pour the pre-mixed sauce into the wok and stir to coat the vegetables. Let it bubble for 30 seconds. Add the double-fried chicken pieces and toss vigorously for 1–2 minutes until every piece is glossy.
7. Finish and serve. Remove from heat and scatter the spring onion greens generously over the top. Serve immediately.

Notes

Serve as an appetizer or starter with toothpicks. Pairs well with hakka noodles or egg fried rice.

• Prep Time: 30 minutes
• Cook Time: 25 minutes
• Category: Appetizer
• Method: Deep Frying
• Cuisine: Indo-Chinese

Nutrition

• Serving Size: 1 serving
• Calories: 400
• Sugar: 6g
• Sodium: 600mg
• Fat: 22g
• Saturated Fat: 4g
• Unsaturated Fat: 16g
• Trans Fat: 0g
• Carbohydrates: 30g
• Fiber: 2g
• Protein: 20g
• Cholesterol: 80mg