Chilli Chicken

Boneless Chicken ( you can even make this with chicken on bone) – 400 grams

For the marination
Ginger and garlic paste- one tablespoon
Soy sauce- 4 teaspoon
Oyster sauce – 2 teaspoons  (if you don’t have this add a wee bit of sugar )
Tobasco sauce ten drops or some chilli sauce about a teaspoon spoon
Salt

For the rest of the dish
Green chillies sliced horizontally – 4 to 5
Capsicum – 3 large
Garlic – ten cloves chopped
Ginger – one inch piece chopped

Black Pepper powder crushed coarsely – 1 teaspoon 
Spring onion – the greens to be chopped fine and the white to be coarsely chopped. I did not have them so I used regular onion
Soy sauce and oyster sauce as required 

Marinate the thinly sliced chicken with the ingredients and set it aside for an hour. In a hot pan add oil (be a bit generous) and add the garlic and ginger. This needs to be fried in order to take off the raw taste. In the same pan which should be hot, add the marinated chicken. Stir fry this on high heat for about four minutes. Don’t overcook the chicken as it has been thinly sliced and it will cook quickly. Now add the remaining marinade if any. The white onions and capsicum can now be added along with the pepper powder. You can adjust the dish with some more soy sauce and oyster sauce as desired. Finally add the capsicum and give it a quick stir. Turn off the gas and serve hot. 

Few tips 

Do not make this dish in advance and let it standing – bad idea

This dish should ideally be made in a wok as a wok transmits heat quickly. If you are using a pan  and this pan and the oil is not heated well you will end up stewing and not frying the chicken as chicken begins to sweat. If it sweats, turn it into a chilli chicken gravy. Alternatively you may want to cook this in two batches. Remember restaurants don’t make ten portions at one time.

You could also turn this into a thick gravy if you don’t want to eat this as a dry dish. For this you need to add one cup of chicken stock to the fried chicken and thicken this with corn flour. Always dissolve corn flour in cold water while mixing it well. Then drop the heat and add the dissolved cornflour to the dish. If you don’t do this you will end up with lumps of corn flour in your gravy.

I sliced the capsicum and onions thinly, you could also dice them. Remember that capsicums go limp very quickly when brought into contact with heat. Add you capsicums last and don’t cook them for more than a minute. The idea is to infuse flavour but yet be left with a crunch with a bite into the dish.

Salt is a tricky part of the dish. Remember that your soy sauce is salty so add salt only as and when required.

If you read through this then you ought to leave a comment. Comments encourage and enlighten

Fr Warner D’Souza