Indian style Chinese cooking takes popular Chinese dishes and adds simple Indian ingredients to it. The recipe given is below is one of the most popular Indo-Chinese recipes and is a most loved dish by many. After referring to various recipes, I made this dish with my own additions and variations and the end-product turned out to be really delicious. Usually, Monosodium glutamate(MSG) is normally used in Chinese recipes as a flavor enhancer in many restaurants . Though not proven, there is a ton of controversy surrounding this ingredient and I usually avoid this in homemade recipes. Also Indo-Chinese recipes are prepared under considerably high pressure heat in restaurants and road side shops, which is not easy to re-create possible in a household stove burner. Sauteeing under high pressure for a short time factor is a very important factor to retain the crunchiness of the ingredients, which is a basic technique in Chinese cooking.
Despite all these constraints, believe me, this dish turned out to be quite delicious! You can try it too!
Ingredients
Boneless Chicken – 1 kg
Ginger (julienne and finely chop) – 1 tbsp
Garlic (finely chopped) – 1 tbsp
Green chillies (finely chopped) – 1 tsp
Spring onion – 1 tbsp (cut it into roundels)
Onion – 1 (cubed)
Capsicum – 1 (cubed)
Green chilli sauce – 1 tsp
Red chilli sauce – 1 tbsp
Tomato ketchup – 2 tbsp
Soy sauce – 2 tsp
white pepper powder – 1/4 tsp
cornflour – 1 tbsp
Sugar – a pinch
Salt to taste
Marinade:
Ginger garlic paste – 2 tsp
Pepper powder – 1 tsp
Turmeric powder – 1/4 tsp
Chilli powder – 1 tsp
Cornflour – 2 tbsp
All purpose/Maida flour – 2 tbsp
Egg – 1
Salt
Method:
Wash the chicken and cut it into medium sized pieces,
Marinate the chicken with ginger-garlic paste, pepper powder, turmeric powder, chilli powder and salt for 20 minutes.
Mix cornflour an all purpose flour in a bowl and add in 1/4 cup of water to make a tight batter. Ensure that this doesn’t become too watery. Apply this batter on the marinated chicken pieces until they get evenly coated.
Break the egg and add it to the chicken marinade. Set this aside for 10 minutes.
Heat oil in a pan and deep fry the chicken pieces, but take care not to overcook. Drain excess oil by spreading the crispy fried chicken pieces on a paper towel.
Heat 2 tablespoon oil in wok/pan and add finely chopped ginger and garlic.
When the raw smell fades away and it turns golden brown add, Onion cubes, spring onion and Capsicum. Toss all the ingredients on high flame for 2-3 minutes.
Add tomato ketchup, red chilli sauce, green chilli sauce and soy sauce.
Make Corn starch by adding 1 tbsp cornflour in 100 ml of water and add it in the wok/pan.
Add pepper powder and continue heating for few minutes until the sauce thickens.
Now add in the fried chicken pieces and stir-fry the ingredients.
If you want the recipe to be dry let i thicken further, or else add little more water to make it into a gravy. Finally, add freshly chopped spring onion green part and serve hot with Fried rice/Naan/ Rotis.
